Sobani is in a bland, brand-new limestone strip mall next to a mini Sears, and the décor inside does little to insulate against this generic feeling: battleship gray-green partitions, unemotional paintings of wine bottles, and satellite radio playing a brand of Latin Jazz that may age you by the minute. The bar’s equally generic, but we’d sit here just to drink from this playful, solid wine list. Although still somewhat small at press time, both New- and Old-World bottles (including beers, none on tap) are expertly curated and hardly marked up.

The name aside, there’s little about the menu that’s especially Japanese—a soy vinaigrette does dress a side of wonderfully crunchy cold green beans; and cauliflower undergoes just about the best tempura treatment we’ve ever experienced. With its crispy fried capers and lovely white anchovy fillets, it’s in the top tier of Austin’s small plates. Tail-on shrimp come on a slightly chili-hot and tangy Northern Thai-like salad of bitter greens and mango (whose melon-balling could be swapped for a more delicate cut). Mains are constructed judiciously, restraining sweetness and mostly avoiding heavy-handedness. Even difficult meats are handled capably: duck breast comes cooked to an ideal rare-to-medium-rare, although three-finger-thick pork T-bone has come quite tough. Still, we expect great things from this friendly, surprising little place; it’s not much to look at, but then, some of our best meals have been in suites like these.