Sunset Sabi

With a mix-it-up menu that includes slammin' salmon, super chicken, tumbleweed salad, and caramel-chilli-seaweed popcorn, Sunset Sabi is not your regulation Japanese izakaya​. Nor your regulation anything, really.

Manly's new hotspot is the handiwork, literally, of Californian Sean Miller and local lad Luke Miller (non-related). They're the team behind hole-in-the wall laneway Mexican cantina Chica Bonita, which often feels as if it has all of Manly either in it or at the door.

Along with Papi Chulo, The Boathouse, and tiny new salumi-and-cheese Cured, it signals that food, not just booze, is the new beachside priority.

While chef Ian King has brought a little Mexicana with him from Chica Bonita, the aesthetic is more Ginza-by-the-sea. Behind the dog-leg bar, a neon-bright array of funky electric Japanese advertising signs light up the place like a Tokyo food alley, while bandanna-wearing sushi chefs tamp, slice and roll the night away.

The new-Manly crowd – all silk shorts, bare legs and white linen – perch on heavy stools in the front cantilevered windows, share a high communal bench, or settle in chatty groups at a long line of tables that runs down towards the kitchen.

The menu speaks fluent Manly, a lingo that mashes Mexican, Japanese and dudey street food. All three are to be found in la taco ($12), two soft tortillas topped with a chip-chop of marinated barbecue beef, pickled shiitake mushrooms, a little ponzu​ kimchi​, a squirt of creamy Kewpie mayo and a thatch of shredded daikon​. Just fold it up, and bite. Crunch, squish, drip, and repeat.

Soba noodles ($14) come Manly-style, tossed with flaked smoked trout, edamame, pickled cucumber, mint and tamari. It's light, easy, breezy, and slightly scrappy; the sort of thing every surfie chick has for lunch.

Raw fish gets a twist in a variety of ways, including an orange crush salmon tartare ($15); a bright, fragrant little mix of freshly diced salmon served with sweet potato crisps for scooping duty. Six different maki rolls are generously proportioned and expertly realised.

Most-ordered are the kingfish in Mexico roll ($15); eight avocado-wrapped, kingfish and cucumber-filled sushi rolls lined up on a long plate like multiple emojis, each topped with little halos of fresh green jalapeno chilli. The by-now-expected twist – in this case, a pineapple gel on top of each one – feels gratuitous and gooey.

There's a drinks list that runs from rich, earthy Ippin junmai daiginjo sake ($26 for 180ml) to creamy sake and habanero cocktails ($16). A dozen serviceable wines include a lean, poised Bervini pinot grigio ($10/$50) from the Veneto, but really, we're deep in cocktails-for-dinner territory here.

The only downer was that izakaya staple, okonomiyaki ($10). The shredded vegetable pancake came with the usual swishes of fruity Bulldog tonkatsu sauce, Kewpie mayo and a topknot of house-made kimchi, but left an unappealingly burnt aftertaste.

Desserts aren't really the point, but a "sweet burger" ($11) gets a lot of likes; the  sweet potato bun is filled with whisky cream, matcha​ white chocolate and strawberries. 

It's not exactly rocket science, but it works. Service is can-do, with almost every question answered with a breezy "of course you can", and it feels as if serious thought has gone into creating something this light, local, casual, high-energy and fun. Good luck to them.

You may not go home raving about the heights of gastronomy, but you may well go home raving about the special silk-shorted, white-linened, wasabi-kicked, whisky-creamed charm of dining in Manly.

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit Every night is party night.
Worst bit The long wait for walk-ins.
Go-to dish Kingfish in Mexico roll, $15.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.