Chris Lucas opens Tombo Den on Chapel Street - Restaurants

by Krysia Bonkowski

Editorial Director, delicious.

Sep 06, 2024

Warm-up the vocal chords: The Lucas empire has expanded south of the river with Tokyo-inspired restaurant and sake bar Tombo Den, complete with late-night karaoke bar.

On this Saturday 7 September, Lucas Restaurants reveals the third Japanese venue in its packed portfolio. Inspired by the years founder Chris Lucas spent in Japan during a former corporate life in IT, sake bar and restaurant Tombo Den is a little slice of ’90s Tokyo on the edgier end of Chapel Street in Windsor. The sushi bar that dominates the long, narrow ground floor – where intently focused chefs hand-shape nigiri and finesse sashimi – is reminiscent of fine dining older sibling Kisume; while futuristic pops and a casual cocktail service channels the high-tempo energy of Yakimono, underneath Society.

But, as Lucas explains, Tombo Den falls somewhere in the middle, with guests able to swing past for a sake martini and piece or two of the daily nigiri, draped with the catch of the day, or settle in for a full menu including heftier plates like a half cauliflower, tender-roasted in red miso, or pull apart soy-sauced beef short ribs (keep some of the beer bread for sopping, if you can resist, made with Sapporo Black beer). The Lucas group is able to piggyback on the premium seafood sources cultivated for Kisume to offer carefully sourced fish from Tasmania, South Australia, NSW and New Zealand, such as Sapphire Coast tuna and kingfish from the Spencer Gulf.

Chef Dan Chan at Windsor restaurant Tombo Den

The duck hambagu is a favourite of chef Dan Chan, who admits to loving everything about a regular burger except the bun. His version, inspired by the classic Japanese comfort food, is tender minced duck thigh shaped into something happily adjacent to a rissole, an orb of egg yolk painted with tare dipping sauce on top, relenting to a spoon and stirred through the rich meat. A drinks list curated by Tokyo-born Society sommelier Yuki Hirose gives an elevated edge to a izakaya-style collection of sake, beer, wine and cocktails, a highlight being a vodka martini with a slug of premium junmai daiginjo sake, garnished with a grape.

A full plate of Japanese dishes at Windsor restaurant Tombo Den

Candy-bright AI photographic art by Melbourne artist Tom Blachford adds a fever-dream edge to the moody space, with pops of colour and texture in the hanging indigo noren curtains suspended from the roof downstairs, and furry blue stools upstairs that feel like you’re cuddling up to the Cookie Monster. The front half of the second-storey does double duty as the in-house karaoke room; screens featuring Blachford’s creations during the dinner service become teleprompters for the late-night crowd that is sure to find its way here.