You’re setting yourself up to fail when you book into a Japanese restaurant in Sydney a day after you return from a trip to Tokyo. Or you’re setting someone else up to fail when you’re me, a restaurant reviewer. I knew Tokyo would be a tough act to follow.

But chef Chase Kojima had me at the first bite of his tuna on crispy rice. A delicate slab of raw pink tuna sitting on a nigiri morsel of fried Hokkaido ‘Yumepirica’ rice. Kojima-san ages the tuna like they age beef, tasting it every day until it’s perfect, pushing the boundary on complex verses over-the-hill. The crackle of the crispy rice, the soft tuna, a dot of spiced mayo; this chef commands the best sushi counter in Sydney.

Salmon belly, toro, BBQ freshwater eel, scampi, scallop, prawn, sea urchin, each sitting on seasoned rice that has the telltale feel-every-grain-on-your-tongue precision demanded of the best sushi masters in Japan.

There’s more than sushi to the menu, and it’s worth browsing things from the robata grill, which are charred slightly over hot coals, licked with gentle smoke that envelops everything without overpowering. It’s another layer of flavour rather than an obliteration of every other flavour that came before it, as is so often the case. Kurobuta pork belly comes on skewers with daikon and mustard aioli, the corn-fed chicken is (for want of a better word) chicken-y, which it hardly ever is when eating out. Meanwhile, chef Dan Hong announced on Instagram recently that Sokyo’s spicy bouillabaisse with tofu, white miso and mixed seafood is one of the best things on the menu.

It’s arguably the best Japanese food in Australia, certainly the best sushi. And you get to have it without the jetlag.

Tel: (02) 9657 9161

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