First Look: Matsu Triples in Size (and Still Only Seats 12)

When online reservations opened for Matsu, customers often told Hansol Lee that securing a seat felt as competitive as getting Taylor Swift tickets. “Sometimes 1000, 2000, even 3000 people wanted to make a booking,” says the chef and co-owner.

But at four seats, the intimate space meant Matsu was limited to serving just 32 diners a week. Two years after opening, co-owners Lee (who started his career on the tempura station at Kenzan ) and his business and life partner, Elly Hong, decided to relocate the restaurant so they could serve more people. They took over the former Poons Restaurant, 400 metres down the road, and, after a five-month renovation, opened the new Matsu in June.

With 12 seats, the new Matsu is by no means a large restaurant. But Lee and Hong are now able to serve kaiseki, a Japanese tradition of multiple delicate courses highlighting the season’s finest local ingredients, to three times as many diners.

The move to a larger space – with more storage and service area – has also allowed the kitchen to explore new techniques. They acquired a hibachi, enabling the team to use the warayaki technique. “This involves placing rice straw on a hibachi grill to create large, intense flames,” Lee says. When Broadsheet visits, the technique is used on hiramasa kingfish sashimi, imparting a subtly grassy, smoky flavour and leaving a lightly caramelised crust.

The restaurant has also traded Western-style deep fryers for traditional Japanese iron pots. Lee says their gentle, even heat and steady temperature produce tempura with a lighter, crisper finish. This season, that finesse is evident in the zosui dish, a soothing Japanese rice soup with egg and chive topped with a crayfish tail tempura – its crunch heightened by sprinkles of tenkasu (tempura batter crumbs) and slivers of aburaage (deep-fried tofu).

The menu, which can be paired with saké, is a thoughtful showcase of Victorian produce and Japanese culinary refinement. While it’s constantly changing, when Broadsheet visits, dishes included Inaniwa udon (thin hand-stretched noodles from northern Japan) topped with shaved black truffle from Winter Creek Farm and tender Tasmanian abalone; and char-grilled Wagyu from Ballan marinated for two days in shio koji, a rice-based Japanese ferment that tenderises the beef and deepens its flavour. A highlight is seafood balls made with prawn, white fish and corn served in a deeply umami dashi broth, finished with a touch of New South Wales yuzu for fragrant lift and brightness. As well as dessert – a scoop of green tea ice-cream with monaka (two mochi wafers sandwiched together with azuki beans) drizzled with a black sugar syrup and sprinkled with kinabo (roasted soy bean) powder.

Matsu
275 Barkly Street, Footscray
No phone

Hours:
Tue to Sat 6pm–10.30pm

@matsu_footscray
matsuxbar.com