Sum Yung Guys’ new restaurant at Noosaville even better than the Sunshine Beach original
With 4000 bookings in its first 24 hours, the new version of one of southeast Queensland’s most popular restaurants had a lot to live up to. But it’s exceeded even the standards set by its predecessor.
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With its menu of rollicking pan-Asian favourites, an armoury of cocktails heading a bright drinks list and a goodtime feel, Sum Yung Guys quickly made its mark when it opened on the Sunshine Coast in 2017.
Now the venture conceived by MasterChef alumnus Matt Sinclair and three mates has decamped from its digs upstairs in Sunshine Beach’s Duke Street shopping strip, and moved to bigger premises in Weyba Road, Noosaville.
The space is about 25 per cent larger, with tables across a good-sized wooden deck out the front, a more spacious dining room lined with curved booths down one side and the bar on the other, with generously spaced tables in the central area. Battens near the entry enclose
a lounge bar with pressed metal ceilings and exuberant wallpaper.
The vaguely Asian vibe of the original space has been replicated with a similar style of mural, a rickshaw parked near the deck and greenery dangling from the ceiling. What wasn’t included was much in the way of noise mitigation. Concrete floors and exposed rafters combine with a pumping soundtrack and a full house on the midweek night we visit to make conversation a challenge.
The menu is more extensive too, although the greatest hits from the original restaurant remain. And if anything, the intensity of flavours has ramped up. Ocean trout crudo ($19), for example, might seem potentially a gentle entry into dinner but with a fenugreek-accented Indian spice mix in play, it ratchets up the impact, staying just on the right side of overpowering the fish, which sits in a cooling pool of yoghurt with cucumber and dill also on hand to help balance out this fine opening gambit. School prawns ($14) are a cracking starter with a hint of tangy lime in the black pepper and turmeric dusting, a makrut lime cheek on the side for squeezing and a forest of Vietnamese mint lying across the lot. The must-order dish however is a larb, a heady concoction of blackened barra, the chilli-heavy nam jim jaew sauce, roasted cashews and sticky rice ($30), which we’re advised to mix before serving. It’s intense, texturally appealing and just downright delicious.
All the dishes arrive in fairly rapid sequence, with the last, Bangalow pork clad in a vivid dry spice mix, served beneath batons of sour apple, cucumber and a copse of mint and basil leaves. It could perhaps have benefited from a bit more of the moistening, light “sauce” that laps the bottom of the bowl.
The roti ($7.50) is as good as ever, a fat roll of deep-fried, salty, carby joy.
We feel a bit hurried towards the end when we’re asked if we want to order dessert three times in about five minutes, but largely it’s fine with a very inexperienced server balanced with someone who knows the menu back to front.
Dessert has gone up a notch with the move. Dragon fruit granita with white chocolate and cardamom mousse and watermelon is an option as well as our choice of a harmonious combination of lime syrup cake, moistened with pineapple compote, sprinkled with gingerbread crumb and topped with a snow globe of coconut sorbet dusted with kaffir lime ($15).
There’s also a version of an affogato with condensed milk gelato, to which several boozy choices can also be added, and dessert cocktails.
While transplanting and rebooting an operation is fraught, Sum Yung Guys appears to have successfully morphed to bigger and better.
They certainly have wide support. When bookings opened in late April before the May 4 opening, they took 4000 reservations in the first 24 hours.
I can’t see that enthusiasm will dim any time soon. Book well in advance.
SUM YUNG GUYS
Food 4 stars
Ambience 3.5
Value 4
OVERALL 4/5 stars
Must try
Blackened barra larb
1/205 Weyba Rd Noosaville sumyungguys.com.au Open seven days for lunch and dinner from 12-11.30pm
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