The team behind Potts Point’s neo-Greco Apollo has ventured just a block down Macleay Street, but its second collaborative effort couldn’t be further removed. This new-day, modern Japanese izakaya serves up intelligent, easy, drinking food at a handsome, stool-lined concrete bar in a luminous, long, skinny space. A raw bar sends out a shimmering oceanic wave of ocean trout dressed with soy, mirin and wasabi, while meaty cubes of raw tuna team with avocado and pickled eggplant in a silky slippery-dip. More J-pop fun from Jonathan Barthelmess and head chef Nic Wong includes a soft puff of steamed bun filled with tea-smoked duck, miso cod that cleaves like an iceberg sliding into the sea, and fried chicken nuggets that are super soft inside and super crisp outside. And once one person orders the piled-high, green tea soft-serve ice-cream in a waffle cone, everyone else wants one.

And ... Chopstick rests are made from the same brass as the door.

THE LOW-DOWN
Vibe Street-smart izakaya. 
Best bit Anything from the raw bar.
Worst bit Getting in.