Haco

A twelve-seat concrete cube on Alberta Street, tucked into the quieter fringe of Surry Hills, given over entirely to a single idea: an omakase that marries charcoal grilling with the delicacy of tempura. Chef Kensuke Yada, whose grounding is in washoku and who spent more than a decade in Sydney's fine-dining kitchens, works the counter in near silence, sending out a seasonal progression a few guests at a time. The Japanese word behind the name means box, or theatre, and the room treats each course accordingly, a small stage where a single piece of fish or vegetable is fried, grilled or dressed with obvious precision. There is no a la carte and little ceremony beyond the food itself; you sit, you watch, and the meal unfolds at the kitchen's pace. Bare concrete and close quarters keep the focus where it belongs, on technique and on the way tempura's lightness plays against the smoke of the grill. Lunch runs Friday and Saturday, dinner from Tuesday, and the format, this particular pairing of two Japanese disciplines under one roof, is hard to find elsewhere in the city.