IF YOU want to know where fine dining goes next, some clues can be found in the broody dining space that is Automata. Youngish chef Clayton Wells is classically trained (he last worked at Momofuku Seiobo) but does not take a stuffy, backwardlooking approach to cuisine. Rather step inside Wells’s sleek and masculine restaurant to mine a somewhat austere menu that at once manages to challenge while retaining enough elements of the familiar to offer comfort.

If the name conjures images of something chilly, the reality is anything but robotic. Sure, the decorative detailing, involving valves and steel flanges, has a touch of the Fritz Lang about it. but the warmth and buzz of the place (projected in no small part by the impressive floor team) makes it more of an engine room than assembly line.

The eye of a restless creative teamed with the hand of a gifted technician.

There’s no romanticised “cooking with nonna” backstory for down-to-earth Sydney chef Clayton Wells. The 34-year-old head chef of Automata, in inner Sydney’s Chippendale, announced today as The Weekend Australian Magazine Hottest Chef of 2016, simply knew he’d found his passion during work experience.

The new Kensington Street precinct in Chippendale launched with plenty of hype surrounding at least two of its three marquee restaurants. Ironically, for us it’s the least pumped that has stood tall among the trio. Automata finds a sweet spot somewhere between creativity, youthful energy, genuine hospitality and simply delicious food you can’t forget.

Automata is crowned no. 9 of this year's AFR Top 100 Restaurants.
Former Momofuku sous-chef Clayton Wells gets his own gig at Loh Lik Peng's innovative repurposing of the Old Clare Hotel project in Chippendale. The steampunk two-level space mixes heavy-metal and street-glam, and the five-course fixed-price menu is at once intriguing, minimalist and delicious. Tim Watkin's fresh, mostly natural wine list is a good match for storm clams with rosemary dashi and fried fish skin or hapuku fillet cloaked in laver.

The Year of the Monkey looks like it might also be the year of the collaboration. Kicking off next week, Sydney's Automata opens its doors to its friends in food and wine for a monthly lunch series called co.lab kitchen.

"We did a Pinbone takeover last December, which was really popular and that got me thinking about a lunch series concept," says chef Clayton Wells.

Clayton Wells worked closely with designer Matt Darwon a.k.a. Matt Machine on the raw, industrial look of the restaurant design that plays on the theme of machinery and non-electronic automation.