Ibuki Sushi

Eight seats, one counter, and a chef working directly in front of you: this Kent Town omakase keeps its ambitions tight and its focus absolute. Yohei Hombo trained as an itamae in Tokyo, cutting his teeth in one of the city's busiest fish markets before a run through Melbourne's serious Japanese kitchens, and the discipline shows in a menu that changes with every service. There is no printed list to order from. Instead the evening unfolds as a guided sequence of nigiri and small courses, shaped, brushed and set down piece by piece across the counter. Fish is the whole point. What can be landed locally in South Australian waters is used first; the rest is flown in from Japan, Tasmania, New Zealand and the eastern seaboard, chosen for what is at its best on the day rather than what a fixed card demands. At around two hundred and sixty-five dollars a head it is priced as an occasion, and the intimacy is the reason. With so few places at the counter, the pacing is personal and the conversation easy. For a city not overrun with sushi of this order, it is a quietly serious room.