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My word, there’s a bit going on here. Fishing rods. Hand reels. Antique lures. Vintage navy plaques adorned with a penguin, platypus and waterhen. Coconut bowls and a display of whole bonito on ice; Loire Valley muscadet and Rozelle’s Red Mill Rum. Mister Grotto, you already had me at barbecued abalone with tarragon liver sauce.

The seafood bar opened in Newtown’s Australia Street last month, and it’s the ambitious, smart-casual fish shop that’s long been missing from Sydney. Neil Perry does magical things with whiting at Margaret in Double Bay, and Josh Niland’s fin-to-eyeball tasting menu was awarded three hats at Saint Peter, but neither is the kind of place where you can just mosey in, crack a beer and get stuck into a dozen oysters. I’m not saying you should wear board shorts to Mister Grotto, but you could.

The crew from the neighbouring Continental Delicatessen is behind the operation, plus its adjacent, all-day vegetarian eatery, Flora, which opened at the same time. The team is also set to launch “old-school Italian” Osteria Mucca on the strip, not to mention three boutique suites if you want to stay the night. Co-owners Elvis Abrahanowicz, Sarah Doyle and Joe Valore have some experience in the start-up, food-precinct trade from running Bastardo, Porteño and Humble Bakery on the same block in Surry Hills.

There are no hot chips because Sydney has enough hot chips.

Swedish-born Mans Engberg is on board as head chef, and Lauren Eldridge has departed Berowra Waters Inn to be appointed head of pastry. It’s a formidable team. General manager Michael Nicolian can facilitate just about any classic cocktail you throw at him or the practised floor team, although the house drinks shouldn’t be skipped (especially a lime-forward caipirinha riff strengthened with Chartreuse).

Engberg spent four years working closely with Niland at Saint Peter, and knows a thing about sourcing Australian seafood from top-drawer fishers and suppliers. Rich and raw wild kingfish (the stuff we’re used to is often farmed) is tiled across sliced cucumbers and lovage; thick-diced yellowfin tuna stands up to parsley-intense green sauce and the trill of finger lime; a meaty fillet of barbecued nannygai proves fish and cheese can be mates, at least when there’s a hefty blitz of manchego, corn and macadamia salsa macha involved.

There are no hot chips because Sydney has enough hot chips, and Mister Grotto is doing its own thing blending South (and Central) American cuisines with Australian creativity and North Carolina fish camp vibes.

Fat threads of cuttlefish are tangled with young coconut, grilled calamari is teamed with ink sauce and chestnut mushrooms (it works), and pipis are served in a froth of vermouth and samphire with steaming, pull-apart cornbread fragrant with lavender honey. Shallow-fried shishito peppers are stuffed with sausage made from the bloodline of tuna, and few snacks would pair better with cold sake (or beer).

Meanwhile, Eldridge remixes the After Eight into a beautiful lobster-shaped mould, starring white chocolate, salted caramel and a Fisherman’s Friend-based tincture, or dark chocolate with peppermint cream and minty amaro.

A swirling tower of buttermilk soft serve is dolled up with fig compote and gold-standard honeycomb; coconut baba is sweet and boozy with pineapple and spiced rum.

Caveats: indoors can be loud on a Saturday night. Some tables might be too cosy if you have long legs. Ideally, sit at the bar, chat to the chefs as they slice squid or shuck oysters, and enjoy some of the best seafood Australia has to offer. Board shorts optional.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine