Come hungry, they said. So I do, but even an empty stomach is no match for the vast array of food options available as I eat my way along the eagerly awaited final stage of Sydney’s metro line.

When the metro opened in 2024, then-transport minister Jo Haylen and I did a bar hop from North Sydney to the CBD to experience just how transformational it would be for the city. This time, it’s a food safari along the metro’s final stage linking Bankstown and Sydenham.

Ahmad Aouf, with Transport Minster John Graham and Communities Minister Jihad Dib at Sydney Spices. Louise Kennerley

Haylen’s successor, Transport and Arts Minister John Graham, joins me. Not to play favourites, but this metro food crawl may well trump my wine tour.

The first stop on my pilgrimage from the south-west to the inner west is Punchbowl, home to what must be Sydney’s best Lebanese food. I peak too early.

We meet Bankstown MP Jihad Dib at the spruced-up metro station.…