Is Sydney turning Japanese? Seriously. The city has more ramen than roadworks, it can be easier to find a seat at a new eight-seat omakase than somewhere to charge an electric car, and we’re flush with new Japanese listening bars.

Need more convincing? Amuro has just landed, chef Joel Best is opening a Japanese whisky bar and restaurant in coming months at Circular Quay, a Japanese steakhouse will open at Wynyard later this year, and Kame House has opened at Gordon.

Haiku, a Japanese-inspired bar-restaurant, has joined the party at Bondi, the latest venue from Ben Siderowitz and Florence Ovsec, the duo behind hospitality group My Wife is Calling.

Former Icebergs chef Marjorie Robertson steers the Haiku kitchen. The menu flits from traditional sashimi and chicken yakitori to more left-field options.

What could be more Bondi than burrata? Haiku gets its fusiony jig on, teaming the creamy cheese with XO sauce and serving it with wonton wrappers.

Haiku – which takes its name from the Japanese short-form poetry – mixes crab meat and udon noodles with a drinks list boosted by cocktails with quirky names such as That’s so Bonzai.

A few traces remain from former tenant Milky Lane at the TARDIS-like Curlewis Street site. But Haiku has updated it with a new colour palette, fresh accoutrements and a mural of a snow-capped mountain and blossom-tipped tree branches. Is that Japanese enough for you?

Open Tue-Thu 5pm-late; Fri-Sun 3pm-late.

41 Curlewis street, Bondi Beach, haiku.com.au