Review: Jah Bar in Manly on Sydney’s northern beaches
Intimate Jah Bar is ready for summer with tapas, a jug of sangria and a shady courtyard at the rear.
Manly
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IT’S the backstreets of Manly that throw up some of the suburb’s best food. Jah Bar has to be one of them. Colin Bond’s original restaurant-bar (number two is in Dee Why) blends beachy Manly with just a hint of Barcelona.
Jah Bar doesn’t have the little skewered snacks or pinxtos that are found in the laneways of Spain’s second largest city. Instead the menu channels Aussie-Spanish seasonal bar food.
Spanish cuisine means tapas, paella and jugs of sangria. Jah Bar has all three. And much more as we found out on a girls’ night.
Happy Hour is in full swing. From five to seven each night house wines and tap beer are $6.50.
Those prices apply to cocktails too when $16 drinks are $12.50 and $18 cocktails are $14.50.
New is Smokin’ Jo, a mix of mescal, El Jimando tequila, tamarind and agave syrup, which is pepped up with seasonal blueberries.
If cocktails aren’t your thing, and we’re not cocktail drinkers, then the wine list has Australian, Spanish and Argentinian bottles priced around the $50 mark.
Jugs of Sangria also come with a Happy Hour price tag of $20, rather than $30. Jah Bar makes their classic Spanish punch with red wine, Licor 43 (a Spanish liqueur) and brandy.
It’s quite cinnamon-y too, which surprisingly doesn’t overpower the tapas.
The trio of fish tacos are delicious. The hero is the hiramasa kingfish cured in tequila, lime and rock salt to set the protein.
They’re served in a crisp taco shell with onion jam, avocado and just a squeeze of fresh lime.
Tacos are a great introduction to a selection of tapas that just gets better. The flatbread with fat, soft garlic cloves and Yamba prawns, slices of green chilli, fior di latte, and oregano is really pizza in disguise.
It’s gluten-free too and comes with other toppings like jamon serano, rocket and truffled manchego. One flatbread, the spinach with goat’s cheese, is a permanent fixture in both Manly and Dee Why.
Two dishes are a must. One is fried cauliflower salad with spinach and ajo blanco; the other is the lamb shoulder. It’s slow-cooked overnight, pulled off the bone and plated up with cauliflower puree, pea shoots and mojo verde.
Both dishes work so well together, manager Mark Turner says. They’re the dishes we’re still talking about at the end of the night.
The verdict: 4/5
The price: $84
The details: Jah Bar, 7/9-15 Central Ave, Manly.
Bookings: 9977 4449.
Open: Tuesday-Saturday from 5pm; Sunday noon to 5pm.
Web: www.jahbar.com.au.