Itō

A two-storey corner room on Crown Street, opened by a Sydney hospitality group as a neighbourhood izakaya with a particular accent. The head chef spent five years running the pass at this city's outpost of a famous Japanese kitchen, and before that cooked modern Japanese elsewhere in the harbour city; his Italian heritage now threads quietly through the menu. That shows in dishes like yellowfin tuna laid over bonito bread with shaved bottarga, or wagyu mafaldine tangled with shimeji and miso, Japanese share plates that borrow an Italian hand without tipping into novelty. The word behind the name translates loosely as stay-drink-place, and the room honours it: eighty-odd seats across two levels, another two dozen out on the footpath, and a long list of sake alongside wines drawn from both Japan and Italy and a roster of Japanese-leaning cocktails. It reads as the sort of place built for lingering, snacks and a carafe early, something more substantial as the night settles. In a suburb thick with dining options, the appeal is the specificity of the crossover, an izakaya framework loosened just enough to let a second culinary language in.