One of Melbourne’s favourite daytime spots, Ima Project Cafe, has become a force since vacating its original Carlton home last year, reopening with two separate spaces in Brunswick. Ima Pantry opened in March, devoted to takeaway and groceries, and now restaurant Ima Asa Yoru has opened a few doors down.

“While building, we were thinking how much we missed [dine-in] service,” says co-owner Ako Miura. “We’re very happy that we’re doing this again.”

The new restaurant will, for the first time, see Miura, partner James Spinks and their team offer dinner in addition to breakfast and lunch.

The kitchen at Ima’s Carlton site was simply too small to cope with preparing izakaya-style plates plus the Aussie-meets-Japanese cafe fare that put Ima on the map.

The words asa and yoru mean day and night. Dinner won’t start for a few more weeks, but right now, fans are clamouring for another taste of Ima’s teishoku – rice sets with grilled fish or miso eggplant – plus brand-new dishes.

A cha-shu pork and fried-egg bun with charred greens is a riff on a bacon and egg roll, while mentaiko toast sees spicy cod roe paste slathered on toasted shokupan from Little Cardigan one block away.

Mazesoba (sometimes called dry ramen) arrives as a patchwork of spicy pork mince, chives, an onsen egg and tempura crumbs for diners to toss through noodles.

Traces of the old Ima are visible in the new 50-seat space, such as timber cladding around the kitchen, but the minimalist concrete building with double-height ceilings feels more contemporary than the Carlton terrace.

Cobalt blue fabric and stools add a lively jolt, as do large paintings of seafood by former staff member Lara Gough, while large rice-paper lanterns bob overhead.

Perks of the new site, situated within Brunswick’s growing Nightingale Village development, include space to cook noodles (hello, ramen Fridays), a Brick Chef fire pit that replaces a benchtop hibachi grill, and room to realise sustainable kitchen practices such as drying fish bones overnight for stock.

Open Tue-Sun 8am-3pm

1 Duckett Street, Brunswick, imaproject.co