Sodewa Saké Bar Brings a New Type of Japanese Dining to Adelaide

While izakayas, robata grills and omakase restaurants have made their mark on the Australian dining scene, koryori-ya are a rare gem. For the uninitiated, koryori-ya are intimate restaurants that are considered more refined than an izakaya, but less formal than a ryotei.

Enter Sodewa Sake Bar, which is possibly Adelaide’s first true koryori-ya. Located on Pirie Street (in the former In Studio & Cafe space), the bar opened quietly around four months ago. Emphasis on quietly: the old cafe’s signs are still attached to the front of the building, and it’s not until you step inside that you realise the space has completely transformed.

Sodewa owners, Hiro Sodeyama and Ri Ogawa, are from Yamanashi and Fukuoka respectively. They met in Australia in 2002 while on working holidays, before going on to run Wawawa Izakaya in Cairns for six years, before moving to Adelaide. This is the first koryori-ya they’ve opened. “When I was in Japan, koryori-ya were very popular,” says Sodeyama. “It’s a small restaurant, where you would have a few drinks… they would be open all night.” Fittingly, Sodewa is filled with comfortable seating and soft lighting. “We’re focusing less on families, and more on adults – such as for date nights,” says Ogawa, who is a trained saké sommelier.

Ogawa will rotate sakés depending on the season. “We’ll regularly change [our drinks list] for the weather. In summertime, there’ll be light and crisp saké; in winter, you can expect more heavy, full-bodied saké,” says Sodeyama. The pair are excited to expand their offerings with visitors’ tastes. They already have a handful of regulars who are becoming increasingly adventurous.

Sodewa’s saké list includes offerings from Shichiken (sourced from Sodeyama’s hometown, Hokuto), and the popular Yuki no Bosha from Saiya Shuzoten. The house pick changes daily. When Broadsheet visits, the couple is serving a junmai (pure rice) saké from Nagano-based Masumi. Saké cocktails are also available, as well as Suntory Premium on tap, Yebisu Shibuya or Orion Okinawa by the can, imported Kirin Lager, and a limited range of Japanese whisky and shochu.

Sodeyama looks after the kitchen. Dishes are designed to be paired with saké but are just as enjoyable on their own. A food special will alternate daily in line with the house saké. You might expect short-aged, grilled tommy ruff with house-made radish fish stock; squid with shichimi and yuzu mayonnaise; Wagyu beef tataki; shiitake agedashi and more.

The permanent menu includes scallops from Hokkaido (with French onion, flying fish roe, chives and ponzu mayo), and slow-braised Adelaide Plains pork belly with leek, chilli and sansho (a spice made by grinding the berries of the Japanese prickly ash tree). There’s also a “raw bar” serving salmon, kingfish and tuna sashimi as well as three finely cut “fish of the day” sashimi serves.

Sodewa Sake Bar

268 Pirie Street, Adelaide

0408 654 502

Hours:

Wed & Thurs 5.30pm–9pm

Fri midday–2pm, 5.30pm–9pm

Sat & Sun 5.30pm–9pm

@sodewa_sakebar

www.sodewa.com.au/