There’s something very Hollywood about the Yugen experience – entering a curtained-off street-level tea bar, gliding below ground in a glass-walled elevator, stepping out into the golden glow of an extravagant two-level bar and dining room, and taking in the orb-like mezzanine suspended above you, before plotting your next move.
Will it be an Ume Negroni at the gilded bar – underneath the dazzling Jennifer Conroy-Smith chandelier – before an à la carte adventure? Or are you heading straight upstairs for Melbourne’s most memorable new omakase experience? If you weren’t one of the lucky few to nab a spot at “sushi florist” Alex Yu’s (Sokyo Sydney) six-seater, coral-hued marble omakase bar (the first six weeks sold out in just nine minutes), reservations reopen on December 6 for January. But you can also soak up the modern-Asian diner’s magic in the main dining area, on the mezzanine, or in the orb.
The omakase bar only opened last week, a month after the rest of the restaurant, inside South Yarra’s Capitol Grand building. The final piece of the puzzle, it treats diners to an intimate experience of performance art as chefs deftly prepare exquisite bites of seafood. The two set menus are a celebration of Yugen’s sushi and sashimi offerings.
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SIGN UP“The omakase is not something you are going to do every week,” says culinary director Stephen Nairn. “It’s expensive, it’s a commitment [and] you’re not just walking down the street on a Wednesday night saying, ‘Oh, do you fancy going to this omakase?’” So, while the à la carte offering is definitely bookable, it’s also available for walk-ins. “We are wanting people to just come in,” Nairn says. “And we want them to come back.”
To that end, he and the team have created a menu largely made up of shared plates. Expect charcoal-fired skewers, smoked-eel chawanmushi (a take on the delicate, savoury steamed egg custard from Japan) and a prawn-toast-Chinese-doughnut hybrid that fuses two classics into one iconic bite – it’s fast become a signature.
The drunken poussin in Shaoxing wine has a pronounced depth of spicy caramel flavour and the crispy lamb ribs are for those who are drawn to the citrusy, mouth-numbing green Sichuan pepper. “Fine-dining degustations are often designed to take people on a journey, but there’s no reason that can’t be done with an à la carte format,” says Nairn.
There’s also a late-night supper menu – available from 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays – that features a southern rock lobster roll with Sichuan yuzu mayo; garlicky, soy-smothered fried chicken wings; and a vanilla-choc ice-cream sandwich.
Drinking at Yugen is also a deluxe experience. The list includes back vintages of iconic Australian wines from the Barossa, Yarra Valley, Margaret River and beyond; an impressive collection of sakes wrangled by sake sommelier Rosie Kim, including 20 by the glass and 50 by the bottle; and several dozen whiskies and other spirits.
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