
Design: Ben Siero.
How To Choose Your First – or Next – Melbourne Omakase in 2025
There’s an omakase option for everyone – here’s how to decide which one to try.

Words by Harvard Wang·Monday 3 February 2025
Melburnians are living through a golden age for omakase restaurants. Where once Shira Nui and Minamishima were the main choices, there are now 15 or more spots vying for our attention. Most are tiny and opened post-Covid, as chefs sought to simplify operations, cut staffing costs and establish more meaningful, face-to-face relationships with their customers.
Omakase is the way to do it. The word derives from the Japanese verb makasu, meaning to entrust, or leave something to someone else. Up until the early 1990s in Japan, to utter “omakase” to a chef meant the customer trusted them to deliver the best experience based on the ingredients at hand. In return, the restaurant also trusted the customer to pay whatever they were charged at the end of the meal. Today, the term has loosened and an omakase is like a typical degustation or chef’s table, with fixed items at a fixed price.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the close attention of the chef. No matter where they are and who’s in the kitchen, all omakase restaurants feature a counter with limited seats, where diners see the chef’s every move and receive dishes from them directly. Yes, omakase is always very expensive. But this is nothing like takeaway sushi. It’s a concert – a live experience where chefs turn food, and the act of preparing a meal, into an art form.
Nothing can beat the real thing in Japan, but Melbourne has talent that’d turn other parts of the world wasabi-green with envy. If you’re looking to experience omakase for the first time, or just want to know where to go next, here’s help.

For superstar chef fans
Minamishima is a must for those looking for a purist omakase experience. Chef Koichi Minamishima opened his eponymous restaurant in 2014 and has been at the top of the omakase scene ever since. He’s also one of the only chefs in Melbourne who’s easily identifiable by just one name.
When you visit, expect nigiri with seafood sourced from Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market such as fugu (pufferfish), kurage (jellyfish), kinki (rockfish) and nodoguro (black throat sea perch). There’s also soy-cured akami (lean tuna) topped with seasonal flowers wrapped in a paper-thin daikon sheath and Minamishima’s gold leaf maki and seasonal wagashi sweets to end. The way to score a $295 seat at the counter is also old-school – only by phone.
For low-key rollers
Chef Hiro Nishikura who opened Shira Nui in Glen Waverley in 2003, was one of the first people in Melbourne to offer over-the-counter sushi without a menu. The sushi master has worked at his craft for over fifty years (at age 16, he began working as a ship’s cook and spent 12 months washing rice). Today – 22 years after opening – his restaurant is still a local favourite. Nishikura doesn’t boast about his ingredients, but expect to be served sushi with oysters, beef, ocean trout belly and arctic clam with cod roe sauce while Nishikura sternly says “soy” or “no soy”.

For quiet diners
Chef Jang Yong Hyun is all about simplicity and flavour at his peaceful eight-seater Sushi On in Kew. Hyun is known for his delicate aging of fish, and his use of red vinegar to season his sushi rice (a classical method to balance the fat of the toppings). The true value of the $220, 22-course omakase here is the chance to venture outside the usual orange (salmon), white (kingfish) and red (tuna) sushi colours and expand your palate with 18 to 19 types of fish. This may include King George whiting from Lakes Entrance, oysters and sea urchin from Tasmania and abalone cooked in its own liver paste.
For rebels
Chef Patrick Kwong from Ronin is the round peg to conventional omakase’s square hole. He leans on his Malaysian background with Hainanese fish rice nigiri and laksa butter. The omakase at the 10-seater L-shaped bar is $185 per person and is paired with cocktails. Kwong also utilises ingredients such as salted egg yolk and Thai basil and has been known to serve an Italian Japanese hybrid “tira-miso” dessert.

For tiny groups
For intimacy, nothing beats the four-seater Matsu in Footscray. After spending years in the kitchen at Kenzan, chef-owner Hansol Lee wanted to highlight a part of Japanese fine-dining he says is often left out: the interaction between the chef and customers. With his friendly approach – and thanks to some magic renovations – dining at Matsu feels like being transported to a room in Japan. Not only is sushi served, but also a seasonal, eight-course kaiseki menu that comes with sashimi, tempura, rice cooked in a donabe clay pot, and dessert for $235 per person.
For laid-back diners
Ex-Warabi chef Jun Oya also works quietly, pushing kappo-style omakase at Shusai Mijo. Meaning “cut and cook”, kappo is perceived as a less formal style of Japanese dining, but Oya’s workmanship, together with the wine list curated by Matthew Ng, tell a different story. On Tuesday to Thursday, Oya offers a sushi menu at $180 per person, while weekends are when main dishes like a kaleidoscope jelly fish salad, chawanmushi (savoury egg custard), deep-fried Victorian abalone and wagyu come out to play for $275 per person.

For handroll lovers
The cheapest omakase experience on this list is at Nori Maki by ex-Nobu chef Keisuke Kita. The catch behind the $69 price tag? Handrolls and handrolls only. The omakase course comes with chawanmushi, sashimi, five sushi rolls and dessert. A la carte orders are also welcome. Salmon and avocado and bluefin tuna are always available, and you can go big with the Cholesteroll, featuring salmon roe, torotaku (tuna belly with pickled daikon), monkfish liver, chive, egg yolk and truffle paste.
For the perpetually busy
No time for dinner? Uminono in Prahran has a lunchtime omakase service. Chef-owner Arnaud Laidebeur, a French Australian who specialises in dry-aged seafood, has evolved Uminono from a premium sushi takeaway box into a 12-seat restaurant. Expect Ora King salmon from New Zealand, bonito from Lakes Entrance, scallops from Hokkaido and snapper sashimi served in its own jus.

About the author
Harvard Wang is a photographer, food writer, the author of "Soy Sauce, Sugar, Mirin" and a professional house husband.