A great little joint successfully taking a gamble away from the usual restaurant strips in Manly. Actually, as an aside, the best restaurants in Manly are often those hidden away these days (think Jah Bar) so it shouldn't be any surprise to find Sunset Sabi where it is. The decor is very nicely done, casual without being sparse and modern without being stark.
The service itself is typical Manly, almost too cool for school but thankfully staying on the right side of that particular ledger. Drinks are appropriate with a good selection of Japanese beers and both Asahi Super Dry and Black (yum!) on tap. We didn't try the cocktails but they looked inventive and very reasonably priced. The wine list is short but also with a number of reasonably priced options and likely enough to satisfy most diners.
The dishes are Japanese inspired to some degree although many, such as the very tasty "super chicken", only with the addition of an often minute amount of a typical Japanese ingredient. This shouldn't put you off at all, just don't visit expecting anything nearing traditional Japanese.
We shared all the dishes which is clearly what the menu has been designed for although none are massive so if there's one you can't bring yourself to share you will easily give it a home on your own. We lined up a lovely selection of the aforementioned super chicken, dynamite baked sushi roll, seared eye fillet, beef L.A. taco, crap and scallop dank roll and kingfish in mexico roll.
All dishes were fresh with plenty to go around and very tasty. If I was to provide any negative comments it would be that I probably expected at least a few dishes to blow me away with their inventive combinations of flavours. Whilst there was definitely a creative spin on typical Japanese, most ingredients were fairly familiar to each other and as such none of the dishes had me marvelling at the chef's audacious combinations. This probably has more to do with my expectations given feedback from friends than anything else.
This is not to say that this should prevent anyone from visiting, I'd happily go back and intend to do so very soon. Well worth heading down there, a lovely night out. read more