Tokonoma
44 Bridge Street, Sydney
+61 2 9251 8185

At the rate that Yazbek family are going (Matt owns Toko and Tokonoma, older brother Alan is behind Nomad and little sister Amanda is founder of Crown Street Fish Shop) are going we’re all going to have our work and wallets set up to try and keep up with their spread.

Shōbu o ukete tachimasu 
(challenge accepted).

Round one takes place at Tokonoma’s subterranean sanctum beneath at 44 Bridge Street.

Interior designer Matt Darwon (also the man behind the legendary curved timber at Neutral Bay’s Pony) has reinterpreted his previous work at Tokonoma’s sister site, Toko.

He’s toned down the London bar energy of the former in favour of a more streamlined and traditional aesthetic, with rich polished timbers meeting murals from Ando Hiroshige that never detract from the main meal. This might be the place to be seen for your power-lunch but keen in mind, here it’s all about the food.

Multiculturally inspired but wholly traditional in execution, it might appear like your traditional sushi is all that’s on the menu but a few plates in you’ll realise you’re getting a lot of Le Cordon Bleu with your kojichan.

This marrying of delicate Japanese flavours with rich Euro staples such as zucchini flowers takes some serious kin tama — we’ll let you google that one — but it’s a gamble that has set chef Han San up as one of Australia’s greats.

For instance, San could’ve easily taken the carnivore staple of steak tartare and switched it to tuna (an experiment already proved successful and made famous in 1984 by the French trained chef Shigefumi Tachibe). Instead San has kept the Francophile favourite on the menu and rather added his own Japanese elements (stir it all together with his onsen quail egg and savour the mix).

Pair it with a grapefruit and rhubarb blanco tequila cocktail and you might have the most zen example of international relations you’ve ever seen/tasted.

Highly recommend:

Order more than 1 serving of the Honey Bug Nigiri and you can thank us later. Standard nigiri is always technically a crowd pleaser (it’s seafood on rice, what’s not to like), Tokonoma ups the stakes with foie gras, truffle and soy jelly. The result is so more-ish, you’d even consider an entire meal of them.

Tokonoma knows size matters is as important as presentation and the fresh cubes of tuna, kingfish and salmon on the Sashimi Omakase makes for just enough raw fish to for a happy stomach.