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The former restaurant on this site, Automata, had one of the strongest design attitudes in Sydney. Steely, monochromatic and industrial, it said, quite brutally, “If you don’t like it, lump it”. I loved it.

Former Hartsyarders Jarrod Walsh and Dot Lee have de-brutalised the space for their new venture Longshore. Sydney-based interior designers Guru Projects have softened and warmed the bones with linen, coiled ropes, cushioned banquettes, golden-hued lamps and pearl tiles. The open-plan kitchen range, now terrazzo, is still front and centre like a performer’s stage, but feels more inviting.

Just as much thought seems to have gone into the dining experience, with three different menus: an a la carte, a five-course tasting menu ($150 a head), and a 10-course snack flight ($80 a head) presented in two stages, hot and cold.

I find all this a bit confusing (Is the snack flight only taken upstairs? Can I just have the hot snacks?) so decide to go free-range (a la carte) instead.

This means a starter of Skull Island prawn “taco” ($15), the whole prawn reclining on a bed of verdant green leaves – shiso, sesame, wasabi and briny toasted laver, with a dollop of well-rounded habanero chilli sambal. Wrap and roll and bite and burn.

There’s a party pie of glazed greenlip abalone ($18), hot from the oven, with a little bowl of smooth, rich, pine mushroom ketchup. The puff pastry collapses at the touch of a knife, revealing a mincy veloute that tells me garlicky snails would also make a great party pie, if anyone wants to take me up on that.

Abrolhos Island scallops ($23) are sliced and composed with mandarin koshu, makrut lime leaves and mandarin. Pretty as a picture, although the scallop likes to cling to the plate.

It’s hard to know whether one large course is sufficient to share, so I hedge bets with two. A fat little John dory is fried and served whole with XO butter ($68), gently cooked so the pearl-white flesh just leaves the bone. It’s a privilege to eat such premium fish whole, and requires deft filleting skills – surely a class that should be taught in schools.

The micro-marbled meat of Western Australia’s Margra lamb is making inroads onto top menus in NSW, although too often it comes to the table with a challenging chew. Not so here, where the rump ($56) is dry-aged, roasted and rested – the velvety, well-seasoned meat fringed with fat and glazed with native tamarind. It’s quite luxurious, further refined by spoonfuls of pumpkin miso and black garlic and a line-up of crisp-grilled lamb belly. The museum release 2015 Yangarra Grenache from McLaren Vale ($100) is just as complex and elegant.

A green salad ($15) isn’t a token order, but something that gets completely devoured; the mix of strong leaves and herbs from Newcastle Greens sharply, deliciously dressed. A shimmering rockmelon panna cotta ($17) is loosely set and tastes of, well, cream; even with its strands of preserved melon, shiso and sobacha, or buckwheat tea.

Longshore conforms to pretty much every theme common to the current textbook modern Australian restaurant. There are coastal influences, premium produce, a focus on seafood and serious snacks. Asian ingredients (miso, makrut lime, pomelo) share the billing with native Australian ingredients (muntries, finger lime, kangaroo). Cocktails utilise leftover ingredients from the kitchen. What’s more, the title of head sommelier is shared by Isobel McFadden and Elly Webb, and the young owners are attentive enough to social change to aim for an equal mix of male and female winemakers on the list.

Lee and Walsh clearly take hospitality seriously and are in it for the long term. They may be trying to cram too many ideas and formats into one restaurant, rather than allowing some room in which to evolve, but the experience is genuine and refreshing.