Soju Girl

The restaurant-in-a-bar phenomenon has taken a firm hold on the Australia dining scene, and more power to it.

No one misses the days when chicken chips were all you could get (not that that there's anything wrong with the odd packet over a cleansing ale). But decent food served as a partner with exciting drinks, not just as a blotting agent, is a welcome advance. Soju Girl has been about since 2012 and takes the food part seriously with a proper restaurant area and a serious menu stretching across Asia, with a big nod to Japan and Korea.

Sorted into small and large plates sharing is the best way to eat here, with often subtle flavour and texture combinations, as well as the big taste bangs you might expect with a bar attached. At lunch you often find groups of suited blokes, congratulating themselves on their sophisticated and health-conscious choice. At dinner twentysomethings might be treating Mum with a fancy dinner that's just a bit groovy too.

The menu is long and various, so get a cocktail as you peruse. We started with spectacular take on the gin martini. The addition of sake, Cointreau and lemon does not diminish this great drink, just takes it off to a tangy, slightly sweet place that works perfectly with the food. We settle on a few popular small plates – tuna futomaki, seaweed salad, sweet soy, wasabi emulsion ($26), followed by Korean gnocchi with saute mushrooms, truffle snow and cassava crisps ($16) and then katsu chicken with honey and sprout kimchi and pineapple caramel ($18). This trio could easily have made a meal for two, but ask as small plate sizes vary quite a bit.

The slices of ruby-rare tuna sit atop lightly deep-fried California rolls. Lined up along a long platter of seaweed salad they are rapidly picked off. Plenty of flavour and lovely textural contrasts make a good start to the meal. Gnocchi made from rice flour has more bounce that the Italian sort, and sits nicely with a pleasant sauce of sauteed mushrooms. The generous serve of katsu chicken is crumbed and deep-fried with skill (no oiliness) and teamed very well with the tang of the sweet and savoury Korean staple kimchi and pineapple caramel. This is a good, straight-forward dish, with plenty of class as well as blotting power.

Service is cool yet courteous, but a little scattered with different people coming to the table, and some gaps in knowledge of both the food and wine, as well as periods of little attention. A lovely glass of 2013 10X pinot noir from Victoria's Mornington Peninsula ($12) is a good pick from a carefully selected list featuring plenty of smaller Australian vineyards.

Sizzling Asian mushroom and vegetable platter, with crispy tofu and egg ($36), and a special of barbecue ribs and pickles, with lettuce to wrap it all up ($35), takes care of the big plates. The sizzling mushrooms platter was a large, saucy dish with plenty of content and taste, and lovely disks of crispy, juicy tofu dotted about on top. This would be right at home as part of a big buffet feeding hungry hordes.

The ribs were the least successful dish, with slightly tough meat, which you tear off the bone and wrap up in a lettuce boat with a choice of three similar pickles.

Desserts (both $14) are a rich, glossy chocolate tart, with a good sorbet to cut through, and the terrific three "flavours" of custard, coconut, lavender and chai, which arrive in wonderful crumbling pastry cups. If you have left any space the sweets make a nice end to a good meal.

Soju Girl is a good place to eat, and to drink, with small plates the best option. Raw and rare fish dishes are a standout, with wine and beautifully conceived cocktails working in harmony with the eats.

• 02 6257 5328
• http://www.sojugirl.com.au/

• Cuisine - Asian
• Features - Bar
• Chef(s) - Leon Yu and Matthew Lightowler
• Owners - Andrew Hollands
• Cards accepted - Mastercard, AMEX, EFTPOS, Visa
• Opening Hours - Wed-Fri 12pm-3pm; Tue-Sat 5pm-late.
• Seats - 200
• Author - Catriona Jackson