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When a cafe’s stated mission is to make customers smile, it’s probably going to feel good to be there. And when the name of the cafe is Matta, from the Japanese “mata ashita” – see you again tomorrow – it sounds like they want to make you smile more than once.

I believe it: just thinking about my visit to Matta gives me a warm, glowing feeling. I actually think my eyes are twinkling as I’m writing this.

I remember sitting with my dog at a pavement table, sipping an iced yuzu coffee with rosemary and a slice of orange. The drink is a summery burst of bitter, sour, floral and tart.

I recall racing the warmth of the day to eat my shaved ice dessert, a homely spin on bingsu with frozen milk ice, tapioca pearls and taiyaki, the cute fish-shaped Japanese pastries stuffed with red bean.

And I swoon when thinking of the comforting, creative curry omelette rice, a happy refresh of a Japanese fast-casual staple with cloud-like whipped egg, pickles, frizzy fried enoki mushrooms and crisp panko-crumbed prawns.

The menu mostly riffs on Japanese dishes, but the setting has strong elements of bedrock Melbourne suburbia. Matta Blackburn has taken over an old corner milk bar in a residential pocket 20 kilometres east of the city and the homes nearby look like Howard Arkley paintings: single-storey brick veneers with neat front gardens on quarter-acre blocks and a wistful promise of affordable housing.

The city has changed immeasurably since they were built in the 1960s on old orchard blocks. This belt of neighbourhoods – near Box Hill, and Balwyn, where the original Matta opened in 2020 – is a vibrant Asian hub.

Sure, you can get eggs and extras, but wouldn’t you rather have a spicy octopus sando or a chicken karaage rice bowl?

Owner Minnie Jeong grew up in Korea where her foodie family ran Japanese restaurants. In Australia, she combined hospitality studies with performing arts. There’s something that gels about that: the poise, the joyful “curtains up” feeling here and the open-hearted striving to make today’s bout of cafe theatre better, smoother and more moving than the day before.

Matta’s menu is developed in collaboration with chef Eva Teh, who has a Malaysian background. You can get eggs and extras, but Matta Blackburn, which opened in August, is crafted in response to the dull orthodoxies of most cafe menus.

Wouldn’t you rather have a spicy octopus sando, a matcha soba salad with parmesan shavings and yuzu pepper dressing, or a chicken karaage rice bowl?

If you must have avocado toast, at least know it comes with Japanese dukkah; spaghetti carbonara is fine, but how about udon carbonara with fried nori?

Matta’s menu shakes up brunch, but it’s all rendered so carefully, winningly and responsively that radical and cosy can easily coexist. No wonder you’ll hear the sincere, humble and hopeful refrain, “Mata ashita!”