Like almost everyone who lived in Melbourne in 2020 and 2021, I was forced to get creative when it came to celebrating milestone events.

For me, it was a 20th anniversary in the midst of the first long winter of lockdown. We had planned to be on a beach somewhere in south-east Asia. I struggled to come up with something that might feel worthy of the occasion but – as with so many bright spots during those dark times – the creativity of the restaurant community came to the rescue.

I ordered an extravagant chirashi sushi box from three-hatted Minamishima, along with a very good bottle of sake. I was sceptical that raw fish and the delicate balance of texture and temperature required for great sushi rice would work as a to-go item, but my anxiety was unfounded – it was an appropriately romantic, wonderful meal.

Around that same time, Arnaud Laidebeur was figuring out how to continue his business in the face of lockdowns. A Frenchman who was classically trained in Europe, Laidebeur spent his early years in Melbourne cooking, as you might imagine, in French restaurants. But a lifelong obsession with sushi also inspired him to spend a couple of months training at a high-end Japanese omakase restaurant in France, and in 2018 Laidebeur began a business hosting private omakase parties in people's homes.

Lockdowns forced a change in business model, and the intricate take-home omakase boxes that now define Laidebeur's business, Uminono, became his main focus. They were so popular that he stuck with the model even after lockdowns lifted, ushering in a trend in which some of Melbourne's most ambitious sushi is takeaway-only.

If the term "takeaway" has you picturing plastic boxes and tiny fish-shaped soy sauce packets, a box from Uminono will come as a pleasant surprise. Aesthetics are a priority: the packaging is almost as important as what's inside.

My advice: pick it up immediately before you eat it. Spending time in the fridge does no favours for the rice.

The black box with gold accents gives the impression of opening a luxe gift; soy sauce comes in glass droppers also embossed with gold. Pick-up takes place in a slick shopfront in Prahran – you schedule a specific time in the afternoon or early evening via Uminono's website.

Laidebeur sources all of his fish from Oceania Seafoods and, like many serious sushi chefs, he dry ages much of that fish to deepen the flavour and improve the texture. The signature omakase box ($140) includes 22 nigiri and eight pieces of maki roll, and might include duckfish, a beautiful white-fleshed fish from Victoria, dry-aged and served with kombu and salt, or Ora King salmon from New Zealand.

Toppings are sometimes untraditional and even veer into fusion: burnt orange and roasted cashews made an appearance in my mixed box ($140) that included nigiri, maki and sashimi.

In Hawthorn, Sushi Uokin opened in October last year, headed up by chef Angelito Bautista, who previously worked at Nobu and Ichi Ni Nana. This is much more like a traditional takeaway sushi joint – you can walk into the shopfront and buy a variety of rolls and sushi-sashimi combination plates – but the quality is far above what you'd generally get at such a place.

And the platters (which you do have to order in advance, pictured above) are a pretty great value. I got the Uokin mix large platter ($150), which came with enough food to feed four people as a meal or many more than that as a party grazing plate. Where Uminono's takeaway boxes are the fine-dining version of the form, Uokin sits somewhere between that and standard takeaway sushi.

For some restaurateurs, high-end at-home omakase appears to be a way to build a client base ahead of opening a more traditional restaurant.

Aoi Tsuki operated a business in North Melbourne very much like Uminono's: gorgeously packaged boxes of expensive and glistening fish (pictured, right).

As of this week, Aoi Tsuki is reviving that business in South Yarra, but is also opening a traditional omakase restaurant this Friday. At $235 a head, that experience is likely to be thrilling – but the take-home option is far more affordable.

Uminono is also about to undergo a transformation, shutting up shop on February 11 for a seven-week renovation. After that it will reopen with a small sushi counter that will offer an "express omakase" at lunchtime only. But the core of the business will remain the to-go boxes.

Nothing really beats a piece of beautiful fish cut minutes before, served over rice that's still warm from the hands of the chef. (My best piece of advice regarding high-end takeaway sushi is this: pick it up immediately before you eat it. Spending time in the fridge does no favours for the rice, in particular.)

But the trend of ambitious restaurant-quality sushi to-go provides a flexible and far more affordable alternative to the high-priced sushi counter experiences that are available around town. It's something I'm likely to consider the next time a romantic meal is needed, even if lockdowns aren't involved.

The lowdown

Uminono
Cost: Uminono boxes: $80-$140
24 Chatham Street, Prahran, 0481 112 235, uminono.com.au

Sushi Uokin
Cost: Individual items from $6.95; platters $70-$150
639 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, 0404 822 050, sushiuokin.com.au

Aoi Tsuki
Cost: $20 for individual maki rolls; boxes are $60-$170
384 Punt Road, South Yarra, 03 8394 3617, aoitsuki.com.au