A gut feeling is an excellent indicator of a good restaurant. I’m not talking about being happily full (although that is quite nice); I’m talking about an overall positive impression when the energy of the room, the sincerity of the service, the enthusiasm of the eating and the allure of the atmosphere combine to form a perfect circle. And although it doesn’t guarantee success, some restaurants just possess that seductive swagger from the get-go.

Blanca may not be a perfect restaurant (what restaurant truly is?), but it feels right.

Part of the new development on Bondi’s Hall Street that includes A Tavola and Da Orazio Pizza & Porchetta, it’s the first foray into the Australian market for globetrotting Finnish chef Tomi Björck and his Aussie cheffing chum Samuel Cole.

We arrive on a typical thunderstormy Sydney eve to a room that’s humming like an old servo sign. There’s not a spare seat in the house and waitstaff seem to be having as much fun as the guests as they colour the white-on-white space with enthusiasm.

There’s an organised chaos at play, from the frenetic nature of the kitchen to the Sunday-afternoon-drinks-attitude of diners and the speed of dishes flying like food Frisbees and landing beneath our noses.

In the kitchen, as with the eclectic wine and sake list, there’s a real collision of cultures – imagine Japanese ingredients and technique in an arm wrestle with the Italian end of the Mediterranean.

Pickled daikon, wasabi mayo and yuzu bring beef tartare to life, but not everything works or makes sense. Like melting burrata over roasted artichokes. Why? You miss out on the experience of bursting the skin to discover that creamy centre. If you’re melting it, you may as well use mozzarella.

Perhaps it’s simply because burrata is the ‘it’ ingredient at the moment.

Nevertheless, pork ribs lathered in a miso caramel – decorated with salty-fatty crumbs of crackling – are so good we ask for more. Then the ‘lamb sausage’ tastes like a swoosh of suburban Australia – a hint of Sichuan, a dash of yuzu cream, a sesame smack and a crisp onion oomph arrive with a skewered snake of lamb mince.

It’s a menu that leaps all over the place, but the food is satisfying and cooked beautifully, even though it does sway a little bit on the sweet side at times.

The desserts are oddly lacking, and the whipped panna cotta ice cream with chocolate ganache, almonds and salted caramel is the clear pick of the bunch.

All in all, you get the sense that this eclectic enterprise has landed at the right time in our food culture. If attempted a few years back, it would have been cast into the feared fusion bucket of never-again food outlets. But Blanca is different and could well ride the crest at Bondi for many years to come.