Spanning 18 courses that change based on best-available produce, the set menu takes those who occupy the restaurant’s 12 seats on a communal eating journey, guided by ebullient chef Hiro Kano, and more demure sushi expert Hiro Fujita.

Between drinks poured from a great sake list (good wines, too), diners may see fat, Pacific oysters with an umeboshi (pickled plum) granita; raw scallops, John Dory and tiger prawn layered over cucumber and wakame; a bowl-licking good spiced coconut and cauliflower soup; and a sashimi set (octopus, bass groper and more) with aged soy simmered with kombu. Carefully shaped rice parcels come draped with meltingly good Mount Cook alpine salmon, New Caledonian prawns, bonito, sea eel (anago) and, as an extra luxury hit, N25 caviar – from China via Germany.

The lively conversation in the room deviates from the spectacular but silently reverential sushi experiences in Tokyo and from some of Sydney’s longtime masters. But, hey, it’s fun and the food is fabulous. 

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