Lazy Suzie

What's the upper limit you'd pay for a tin of beer in a restaurant? I was recently tested at this Stanley Street newcomer.

The peeps behind Devon and Devon on Danks are certainly charging some exotically high prices for a tinnie of Coopers. I can understand paying a premium for an interesting small batch IPA or the like. That tickles me. But $11 for a 375-millilitre can of Dr Tim's traditional ale that's $3.69 at the bottle-o and about $5 at the pub? That, my beer-loving friends, is a hefty mark-up.

Still. With respect to the pastafarians at Sagra, the coffee heavies at Bill and Tony's and red-sauce legends Bar Reggio, Lazy Suzie is breathing some new life on to Stanley Street.

The interiors alone are shaking up the established patch of Darlinghurst. A modern Malaysian menu is served against bare brick walls and under hula-hoop shaped lights (which, if you stare at them too long, have a vaguely strobe-y effect – take note and approach with caution.) A bartender is fooling around with fruit. There are "beats".

It's funny. They've seemingly dropped a bit of coin out the front but haven't paid a staggering amount of attention out the back. The bathrooms are still in their original condition from the old Icon Park days and a limp-looking sarong covers the doorway to the prep kitchen.

"It's like getting all dressed up and then not bothering to polish your shoes," says an aesthetically sensitive dining pal.

But hey – it can't all be Tom Dixon and Limoges. There's a good argument for concentrating on what's on the plate rather than the plate itself.

Possibly not when it comes to the lobster Thermidor spring rolls, mind, which are all-at-once acrid, cheesy, sweet and squishy with a side of mayonnaise. Nor the brisket bao – ours is fatty, under-seasoned and overpowered by the flavour of cooked onions.

But there are definitely things to be said about the "supreme" char kwai teow – a rich, sticky and slippery noodle odyssey interlaced with striations of mud crab, fat juicy prawns, tiny intense scallops and thin slices of lap cheong.

We go for medium spice, which packs minimal punch. Even if you're only a moderate chilli fiend, playing the Scoville​ scale will garner far more delicious results.

I quite like the fact, too, that you can order a big bowl of mixed herbs (sawtooth, mint, coriander et al) alongside the ayam percik – south-east Malay-style charcoal chicken in a thick coating of rendang-style sauce, or just go straight up baller with a few buttery, flaky roti.

This is also your opportunity to very thoroughly bond with your table – that chicken, cooked on the bone, really requires fingers to extricate it. Still the smoky, peanutty meat is worth a few scorched fingers. Wrap in a lettuce leaf, rinse and repeat.

Take a spin.

Pro tip It might be worth looking to doing your drinking beforehand, if you're batting for Team Austerity.
Try this It's all about that luxurious char kwai teow.
Like this? Take a spin at Hawker for their barbecued stingray. Shop G02, 345B-353 Sussex Street, Sydney; 02 9264 9315.