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Hotpot can be daunting for the uninitiated, but it’s a breeze at Sydney’s first upscale shabu shabu restaurant. Instructions are tableside, and staff will walk guests through each and every step.

Order the pork, and thin slices of marbled Kurobuta belly arrive alongside an artfully arranged platter of vegetables – cabbage, pumpkin, enoki mushrooms, bok choy – primed to pick up with chopsticks and swish through simmering broth, rich with umami from a dashi base infused with kombu, bonito, sardines and shiitake; fish out slices, then finish it with citrus-sharp ponzu or sesame sauce.

There’s also sukiyaki, with marbled beef chuck grilled briefly over a scorching-hot iron pot before being doused in housemade sweet soy. Japanese beers, whiskies, sake and umeshu complete the experience in a room that’s all timber and warming comfort, especially when you end with a bowl of congee-like zosui.