Kushiro, a Melbourne offshoot of a Japanese restaurant of the same name at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, is now open on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. The restaurant is housed inside the restored 100-year-old heritage building that was previously home to Shannon Martinez’s Smith & Daughters.

“We found this space early in the year and discovered the building has been around for over a century,” restaurateur and co-owner Yvonne Cheng tells Broadsheet. “It’s a beautiful parallel to Kushiro’s sister venue in Hong Kong, also in a 100-year-old heritage building. It felt meant to be.”

Inside, there’s now a mural of a Japanese fishing village in the venue’s namesake town of Kushiro, painted by Chinese Australian artist Shawn Lu.

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Joining Cheng is executive chef Jan Chung, who worked at three-Michelin starred Hong Kong restaurant 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana for over two years, and was a sous-chef at Haku, also in Hong Kong.

Chung oversees the menu at both iterations of Kushiro. But while the Hong Kong Kushiro is a traditional Japanese omakase restaurant, the team says the Melbourne iteration is more casual and has more of an izakaya feeling. The dishes at the opening reflect a fusion of Japanese techniques with global influences.

“Our venue has always been about offering a unique twist, by incorporating various international cooking styles into our traditional Japanese techniques,” says Chung. “It’s about adapting to the flavours and ingredients that are abundant and local.”

There’s scampi tartare paired with a lobster bisque panna cotta, umeboshi-cured salmon with black garlic, and a take on char siu that uses beetroot-marinated pork belly.

There are also Japanese-inspired desserts, exemplified by the signature tofu panna cotta (a mainstay of the Hong Kong menu). The silky panna cotta is topped with caramelised milk and soy sauce-infused caramel.

Sake is the main focus when it comes to drinks and the list includes a lightly carbonated Kushiro-brand junmai daiginjo sake.

Kushiro
175 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
03 9191 2561

Hours:
Tue to Thur 5pm–10pm
Fri 5pm–11.30pm
Sat midday–3pm; 5pm–11.30pm

kushiro.com.au