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Best Japanese Restaurants in Melbourne: Sushi, Sake & More
From sushi and sashimi to ramen and robata – these are some of the best Japanese restaurants in Melbourne. You're welcome!
Melbourne’s best Japanese restaurants range from destination omakase counters and smoky hibachi grills to tiny ramen shops and neighbourhood izakayas. Minamishima in Richmond remains the city’s benchmark for Edomae-style sushi, while KIRISHIMA in Camberwell is turning heads with its 23-course omakase, and CBD newcomers Oden, Kentaro and Disuko are pushing Japanese dining in very different directions.
The beauty of eating Japanese in Melbourne is the breadth. You can disappear into a steaming bowl of ramen, hand yourself over to a chef for an intricate tasting menu, feast on Wagyu straight from the hibachi or settle in for katsu, udon, sake and sashimi. From polished special-occasion dining to brilliant everyday spots, these are the Japanese restaurants in Melbourne our editors rate highest right now.
In This Guide
The Best New Japanese Restaurants in Melbourne
KIRISHIMA
Camberwell was not the obvious place to find one of Melbourne’s most exciting new omakase counters, which is exactly why KIRISHIMA lands with such force. Chefs Jun Ha Park and Yohan Ji spent two months eating across Japan before opening this intimate 12-seater, and their 23-course menu is anything but timid. Seasonal nigiri meets smoked ocean trout with yuzu jelly and caviar, A5 wagyu with truffle and miso-cured quail egg yolk, and a miso black cod donabe rice that practically demands you arrive hungry. This is destination dining, eastside.
622 Camberwell Road, Camberwell
Kentaro
After building a following as a pop-up at Operator San, Kentaro has gone permanent, and chef Ken Kee is wasting no time flexing. The Shoya and Shiranui alumnus turns pristine seafood into a procession of Edomae-style nigiri, otoro and uni-laced chawanmushi, before bringing out the heavy artillery: rare Ozaki A5 wagyu, a prized Japanese beef seldom seen in Australia. Dinner is the full omakase affair, while excellent-value sushi sets and counter menus make lunch a very tempting back door in.
6/242 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Takezo
One of Melbourne’s most under-the-radar sushi counters is hiding in Footscray. Yokohama-born chef Takeshi seats just six at Takezo, channelling the stripped-back spirit of Edo-era sushiya through a $185 seasonal omakase. The procession might run from Tokyo-style marinated tuna and smoked Japanese mackerel to snow crab with crab miso, sake-braised abalone and a gloriously fatty toro hand roll. There’s no grand dining room or elaborate choreography here, just serious sushi craft at very close range.
157A Barkly Street, Footscray
Oden
Melbourne finally has a restaurant devoted to one of Japan’s greatest cold-weather pleasures. From the team behind two-hatted Ishizuka, Oden swaps elaborate kaiseki for steaming bowls of broth loaded with daikon, fishcakes and wonderfully less-traditional additions. Go straight for the foie gras daikon, then work through seasonal oden, sashimi and grilled wagyu with sake alongside. Michelin-trained talent in the kitchen and a hammered-copper Russell & George room turn humble comfort food into one of the CBD’s most interesting Japanese dinners.
137 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Atsu
Deep-fried dinner has rarely had this much poise. Former Kisume head chef Reki Reinantha and Kantaro Okada have taken an upstairs Carlton room and devoted it, rather magnificently, to the art of katsu, pairing Wagyu, Otway pork and chicken with different panko crumbs to engineer exactly the right crunch. At night, things get looser and more Osakan: kushikatsu of Wagyu with fresh wasabi, shiso-spiked tsukune and a menchi-katsu Scotch egg that deserves its own small fan club. Order a tomato-miso highball, settle in and reconsider everything you thought you knew about fried food.
Level 1/15-17 Lincoln Square South, Carlton
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KURU
At KURU, Japanese comfort food gets the attention usually reserved for far fancier dinners. The 20-seat West Melbourne restaurant centres on teishoku, with crisp tonkatsu, grilled market fish or gyu yaki arriving with rice, miso soup, pickles and changing side dishes. Then there’s shio ramen, Japanese curry and beef tataki sharpened with garlic ponzu and mustard seed. Save the final few bites for Rin Rojkaranwong’s matcha Basque cheesecake, carefully crafted with Uji matcha.
125 Rosslyn Street, West Melbourne
Yamagen
Yamagen makes dinner feel like an event. At the chef’s counter, snapper arrives glossed with truffled tosazu, spanner crab lands on crisp rice, Glacier 51 toothfish comes out in feather-light tempura batter and Wagyu is finished with wasabi butter melting into the edges. Adam Lane, whose CV includes Tetsuya’s and Nobu, keeps the technique exacting without making the experience feel stiff. Then there’s the Japanese whisky, the omakase and, next door, Tanto, a specialist knife shop by day and 12-seat dining room after dark. A very good reason to head down Portland Lane, that’s for sure.
6 Portland Lane, Melbourne
Udon Izakaya Tanukiya
Udon Izakaya Tanukiya puts udon centre stage, with chef Fujio Tamura drawing on nearly two decades in Japanese kitchens. The signature kamaage udon arrives in kombu water with a deeply savoury dipping broth, best paired with tempura fried to order using Japanese eggplant and shishito peppers grown in Woodend. At night, the menu stretches into izakaya territory with sashimi, ochazuke, Wagyu and nekomama, a humble rice-and-katsuobushi dish straight from Tamura’s childhood.
256 Johnston Street, Fitzroy
Disuko
Disuko has swept one of Melbourne’s most famous rooftop addresses straight into 1980s Tokyo. The multi-level Japanese diner packs in a vinyl bar, city-view terrace and eight-seat omakase counter, but the food can hold its own against the spectacle. Head chef Hung Hoa Duong works from hibachi and nigiri to a ridiculously good Fillet-O-Ebi Sando and udon carbonara slicked with miso and dashi-smoked bacon. Start with dinner; there’s every chance you’ll still be upstairs when the DJ starts.
Level 3/59-63 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Best Sushi and Sashimi in Melbourne
Sushi On Little Bourke
Chef Yong Hyun takes the precision of his two-hatted Kew omakase and loosens the collar at this more casual CBD sibling. The reason to seek it out is hako sushi, an old-school pressed style shaped by hand in wooden moulds rather than machines. Eight-piece boxes run from salmon with edamame purée and black tobiko to kingfish with mustard miso and jalapeño, while the assorted selection is an easy way to work through a few at once.
There are brioche katsu sandos for hungrier lunches, plus chef’s-choice five- and seven-course menus if your quick city stop starts developing ambitions. It has all the technical nous of the flagship, minus the $220 omakase commitment.
Shop 3/500 Bourke Street, Melbourne (entry via Little Bourke Street)
Sachi
Sachi takes Japanese seafood seriously without draining dinner of all spontaneity. Former Kisumé chef Reki Reinantha built the restaurant around dry-aged fish, precise sushi and the idea that exceptional seafood should still feel lively, generous and deeply pleasurable. Come for the signature chirashi don, layered with pristine sashimi over red-vinegar sushi rice, or settle in for an 11- or 15-course counter experience.
Sitchu Tip: The snow crab and uni rösti alone deserves a detour to Queen Street, just sayin’.
179 Queen Street, Melbourne
Nori Maki
One of Melbourne’s smartest sushi experiences is hiding inside a Bourke Street arcade. Former Nobu Melbourne head chef Keisuke Kita works behind a 24-seat counter at Nori Maki, handing over norimaki one at a time while the nori is still crisp and the rice warm. Sets start at $34, moving from salmon and avocado and torotaku into Hokkaido scallop with mentaiko and snow crab with kani miso. Feeling reckless? The gloriously named Cholesteroll loads fatty tuna, roe and monkfish liver into one magnificent handful.
7/235 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Izakaya Hosaku
Izakaya Hosaku is an easy Katherine Place address to have up your sleeve, especially when sashimi is your craving. Start with swordfish dressed in plum vinaigrette, miso mustard and nashi pear, or tuna tartare with kizami wasabi and pickled shallot, before moving into sushi or Wagyu fried rice. The splurge is a sea urchin rice bowl crowned with ikura and chopped toro, while the 12-piece sushi omakase offers a neat route through the raw bar.
Sitchu Tip: Lunch remains especially good value, with current diners repeatedly calling out the set menus as a CBD bargain.
9 Katherine Place, Melbourne
Moonfishh
Takeaway sushi rarely gets this serious. At Moonfishh, ex-Nobu sushi chef Haru Sonobe turns seafood selected through the Melbourne Seafood Market into pristine sashimi, seasonal nigiri and one particularly handsome chirashi scattered with kinshi tamago and shiitake. The mixed nigiri box is an excellent place to start, though regulars know to check the blackboard for whatever fish has caught Sonobe’s eye that day. Is this not proof that dinner from a cardboard box can still involve very good decisions?
101 Bridport Street, Albert Park
Sushi Uokin
Sushi Uokin is the Glenferrie Road sushi counter with far more pedigree than its easy takeaway format suggests. Former Nobu chef Angelito Bautista leads the kitchen, turning seasonal seafood into bluefin tuna nigiri, seared salmon hako, sashimi and generous mixed platters made for sharing. Go deeper with toro tuna over sushi rice and yuzu kosho, or the uni bowl crowned with ikura when lunch deserves a little theatre. The signature roll, torched and glossed with house sauce, still earns its place in the order.
639 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
Tombo Den
Chris Lucas channels the tiny late-night restaurants he loved while living in Tokyo in the ’90s at the sultry Tombo Den. Take a seat at the long sushi counter for daily sashimi, nigiri and hand rolls, with combinations such as bluefin tuna, spanner crab and nashi pear, or toro with cucumber and tempura flakes. Then look to the hibachi for charcoal chicken and beef, before heading upstairs for sake-spiked cocktails, Japanese whisky and, if the night requires it, private karaoke.
100a Chapel Street, Windsor
Tochi Deli
There is real sushi pedigree behind this unassuming Coburg favourite. Shingo Tochimoto spent more than a decade at his grandfather’s sushi restaurant in Tokyo before opening Tochi Deli with partner Rena, and his nigiri remains the reason to go. The selection follows the market, moving through blowtorched salmon, yuzu scallop, lightly cured alfonsino, sake-poached oyster and tuna from lean akami to gloriously fatty cuts.
Raw fish may command attention, but don’t race past the rest: chirashi, plump onigiri and rice bowls such as chicken nanban and agedashi tofu make this one of the north’s loveliest places for a Japanese lunch that doesn’t require an omakase-sized budget.
4/12 Victoria Street, Coburg
Sushi Baby
Pastel pink walls are only half the fun at Sushi Baby, Brighton’s candy-coloured Japanese restaurant with far more going on than good looks. The nori tacos remain the move, filled with salmon, Wagyu or bluefin tuna with smoked soy and wasabi aioli, while the Japanese aburi sends kingfish, salmon, tuna and scallops to the table to be torched over Himalayan salt blocks. There’s chirashi, bluefin tuna nigiri and generous sushi platters too, best taken outside beneath the cherry blossoms when the weather behaves.
414 New Street, Brighton
Bansho
Bansho makes Japanese-French fusion feel like a very natural proposition. At the green marble sushi counter, nigiri, maki and sashimi are made to order, spanning pristine seafood and A5 Wagyu to clever plant-based combinations such as lotus root with toasted sesame. Beyond sushi, the kitchen crosses freely between the two traditions: market fish with yuzu beurre blanc, koji-marinated duck with mirin jus and chawanmushi given the French-treatment with celeriac vichyssoise. Owners Larry Xie and Mira Wu bring an architect’s eye to the Art Deco-inflected room, while the wine list moves between France and Victoria alongside a deep sake selection.
960 High Street, Armadale
Kenzan
A Melbourne Japanese institution in the truest sense, Kenzan has been serving sushi and sashimi in Collins Place since 1981. More than four decades on, the detail still runs deep: sushi rice is seasoned to a house recipe and served close to body temperature, ready for pristine cuts of tuna, salmon, scallop and whatever the market has yielded that day. Order nigiri by the piece, go large with a sushi and sashimi platter, or settle into chirashi scattered over vinegared rice. There is a reason generations of Melbourne diners still come here for serious Japanese food.
Lower Ground, 45 Collins Street, Melbourne
Best Japanese Restaurants in Melbourne for Omakase
Matsu
Matsu may have tripled in size, but don’t start getting optimistic about your chances of a table. Hansol Lee’s once four-seat Footscray kaiseki counter now accommodates a positively sprawling 12, giving more diners access to some of Melbourne’s most exacting Japanese cooking. Lee spent more than a decade at Kenzan before going solo, and his $265 seasonal procession can move from pristine sashimi and chawanmushi to Victorian Wagyu cured in shio koji and abalone tangled through fine Inaniwa udon. It’s meticulous, deeply seasonal and now backed by two Good Food Guide hats. Footscray, you overachiever.
275 Barkly Street, Footscray
Sushi On
At Sushi On, chef Yong Hyun turns dinner into 22 tightly choreographed courses, including 14 pieces of sushi, for a $245 signature omakase. His own path runs through Tokyo, Komeyui and a stint as head chef at Kisumé, and you feel that experience in the details: warm rice, exact knife work and Australian seafood handled with remarkable clarity.
There is a shorter 19-course dinner on selected nights and a 16-course lunch if you want the full counter experience without committing to the longest sitting. Either way, this is one of Melbourne’s most disciplined omakase meals, with very little standing between you, the chef and the fish.
1135 Burke Road, Kew
Aoi Tsuki
Aoi Tsuki is one of my favourite omakase experiences in Melbourne, partly because it refuses to be reverential about the whole business. Behind a 12-seat Punt Road counter, the chefs trade jokes while sending out a season-led procession that might move through uni, King George whiting and bluefin tuna before finishing somewhere altogether unexpected. The pedigree spans Shoya, Kisumé and Nobu, but there’s real personality alongside the precision. When someone calls “now it’s showtime”, they mean it.
384 Punt Road, South Yarra
Minamishima
Few names carry more weight in Melbourne sushi than Minamishima. Koichi Minamishima has spent four decades refining his craft, and his Richmond omakase remains a benchmark for Edomae-style nigiri. Otoro, bafun uni and Hokkaido king crab flown from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market meet exceptional Australian seafood, with fish cured, aged or torched and even the rice blend and vinegar adjusted to suit each piece. The $325 menu changes with season and supply, served piece by piece at the counter with almost forensic attention to detail.
4 Lord Street, Richmond
Kisumé
Chris Lucas has never been one for half measures, and Kisumé still proves the point across three levels of Flinders Lane. Street level is all sushi counter energy, downstairs handles the hot kitchen, but upstairs is where things get serious. The Chef’s Table runs to 14 courses midweek and 18 on Friday and Saturday, with a season-led procession that can include King George whiting sashimi with truffle soy and caviar, scampi sando, scallop and tuna nigiri, Glacier 51 toothfish and A5 Kagoshima Wagyu sukiyaki.
175 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Temaki Sushi
Temaki Sushi offers omakase you can truly get your hands into. Across a 16-course menu, each guest eventually receives a spread of warm rice, crisp nori and seasonal fillings to roll themselves: wasabi-soy tuna with tororo and okra, A5 Wagyu with mash and Japanese barbecue sauce, kingfish with lotus-root chip, seared scallop, duck with pumpkin purée and grilled eel with tamagoyaki.
There are only five tables, vegetables arrive from the team’s own Dandenong Ranges farm and even the ceramics are handmade. Start with Junmai Daiginjo, surrender to the $145 set menu and discover that DIY sushi can be a very elegant business indeed.
15 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Warabi
Warabi is the splurge for serious omakase devotees. Kyoto-born chef Hajime Horiguchi leads the two-hatted counter, applying kappo technique, literally “cut and cook”, to a menu that shifts with the season and market. The current Hyōka experience runs to 11 courses midweek or 14 on Friday and Saturday, moving through cold-water shellfish, ankimo and anago before a crescendo of sushi; the longer menu also folds in Yamagata Wagyu, scampi and pearl meat. Settle in for two-plus hours and let the counter do the talking.
408 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Komeyui
At Komeyui, the rice tells you everything. Chef-owner Motomu Kumano cooks it in a traditional hagama over fire, giving each warm mound of sushi rice the fragrance and texture needed to hold its own beneath pristine fish. Born from Kumano’s Hokkaido upbringing, the counter-only Seasonal Omakase follows shun, letting whatever is at its peak dictate the meal.
Go omakase and surrender your evening to the sushi counter, or order à la carte and roam through sashimi, nigiri, charcoal-grilled Wagyu and saikyo-yaki. In a city increasingly crowded with serious sushi, Komeyui still understands that the smallest details are the ones that separate good nigiri from the piece you remember days later.
181 Ferrars Street, South Melbourne
Tomo-An
Six seats, one sitting and 13 courses make Tomo-An one of South Melbourne’s most singular dinners. Chef Tomotaka Ishizuka, who founded CBD fine diner Ishizuka before stepping away, now turns his attention to Kaga-style kaiseki, a highly seasonal tradition from Ishikawa. The $350 menu might move through sashimi, grilled and simmered dishes, jibuni-style duck, wagyu sukiyaki and delicate sweets, all prepared metres from the counter. Sake leans heavily into Ishikawa producers, completing a three-hour experience that rewards booking well ahead.
2 George Street, South Melbourne
Ishizuka
Hidden below Bourke Street, Ishizuka remains one of Melbourne’s most transporting Japanese dining experiences. Sixteen guests sit beneath the restaurant’s glowing lantern-like dome for a $315 kaiseki menu shaped around seasonality, balance and the natural character of each ingredient. Executive chef Katsuji Yoshino brings serious pedigree, including time at Michelin-starred Troisgros and Le Grand Véfour, to a procession that can move through pristine sashimi, delicate clear soups, grilled seafood, Wagyu and intricately composed seasonal courses.
This is not omakase dressed up under another name. Kaiseki follows its own centuries-old structure and philosophy, and Ishizuka remains one of the city’s clearest expressions of it.
Basement, 139 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Kazuki’s
Kazuki’s has spent more than a decade proving Japanese and European technique can share a plate without either losing its identity. Chef Kazuki Tsuya, who grew up in Akita, works with Australian produce through a distinctly Japanese lens: toothfish with miso and ginger, kingfish with buttermilk and avruga, Wagyu with seasonal accompaniments, and the house bread with black nori butter that regulars know not to skip. Choose three courses or settle into the longer tasting menu, with sake and wine pairings available for the full treatment.
121 Lygon Street, Carlton
Akaiito
Akaiito still knows how to make an entrance. A blood-red thread curls through the dark Flinders Lane dining room, a nod to the Japanese legend of akai ito, the invisible thread said to bind destined lovers. The current menu follows the same Japanese-meets-French logic, moving from beef tartare with yuzu emulsion and smoked kingfish with truffle ponzu to Patagonian toothfish with beurre blanc and ox tongue over akitakomachi rice. For the full experience, the 10-course Omakase at Your Table menu is served from the open kitchen for $188.
349-351 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
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Yakikami
For a serious Wagyu education, book Yakikami’s Josper Room. Its 10-course omakase moves between some formidable beef, from A5 Kobe and Ōmi to Sher Blue Label and David Blackmore, with seasonal dishes built around different cuts, textures and levels of marbling. Much of it meets the blazing charcoal Josper, developing a smoky crust while keeping all that intricate fat intact. At $195, it’s one for committed carnivores, especially with the optional sake pairing alongside.
150 Toorak Road, South Yarra
Robata
At Robata, charcoal is still the main event. The Exhibition Street kitchen sends out chicken meatballs with tare and cured yolk, MB9+ short rib skewers with pickled daikon, chargrilled mackerel with umeshu soy and porterhouse with yuzu kosho and karashi mustard, alongside sashimi and nigiri for contrast. Nab a kitchen-bar seat if you can; watching the robatayaki grills at work is half the appeal. Finish with genmaicha flan or hojicha mochi doughnuts.
2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Yaki Nau
Yaki Nau turns dinner into a very good excuse to play with your food. Every table comes armed with its own grill, ready for MB9+ Wagyu karubi, short rib and chuck tail flap, alongside king prawns and scallops glossed with yuzu XO butter. Ex-Nobu chef Hugo Mai oversees the menu, with sansho chicken karaage and beef-marrow kakuni filling the gaps between rounds of grilling.
Order a cold Japanese beer or work through the sake list and settle in.
Queens Place, S7/370 Queen Street, Melbourne
Yakimono
Chris Lucas goes full-throttle at this neon-soaked Japanese grill inside 80 Collins. The open kitchen runs hot on charcoal, sending out Wagyu intercostal skewers lacquered in smoky soy, kingfish sashimi with tomato ponzu, panko prawn handrolls and duck fried rice threaded with chilli. The bar keeps pace with sake, shochu and Tokyo-referencing cocktails, while seats near the grill put you close to the flames. Big, loud and made for dinner with momentum, Yakimono really is that girl.
80 Collins Street, Melbourne
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Karé Curry
Melbourne has Japanese restaurants for almost every craving, but dedicated curry shops remain surprisingly rare. Karé is fixing that. Tokyo-born architect Akiko Asano and Shizuku Ramen owner David Chen specialise in ōfū, the slow-cooked, European-influenced style of Japanese curry, with a deeply savoury beef roux at its heart. Order it with crispy chicken or wagyu hambagu, or go half-and-half if choosing feels cruel. The golden, curry-stuffed kare pan deserves a look-in too.
173 Victoria Street, West Melbourne
Future Future
Future Future has been holding down Swan Street since 2018, serving modern Japanese food with a very Melbourne streak. The current menu is especially sharp: kingfish and scallop sashimi with guajillo kosho and white ponzu, tuna with whipped tofu cream and kombu oil, karaage with yuzu kosho mayo, and miso-marinated Wagyu off the grill. Go à la carte or hand things over to the kitchen with the chef’s menu, then finish on matcha and sake tiramisu.
191 Swan Street, Richmond
Omi 380
Come hungry and slightly indecisive to Omi 380. This sprawling Lonsdale Street Japanese dining hall moves from MBS 9+ Wagyu and jewel-box sushi platters to ramen, sake, serious matcha and a bakery turning out shio pan, melon pan and shokupan under the same roof. The Sudoku platter is still the visual knockout, bringing seasonal seafood including Ōra King salmon, maguro tuna, hamachi and blue swimmer crab into nine little compartments. The correct move, if you’re asking, is to start savoury, order more than you planned, then leave via the bakery with tomorrow’s breakfast handled.
380 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
279
279 has made musubi its calling card, pairing Japanese comfort food with Melbourne’s coffee obsession from a handsome West Melbourne corner. Owners Austin Allen and Kantaro Okada serve rice triangles wrapped in nori with fillings such as tempura prawn, cured mackerel, chilli cod roe and katsu chicken, alongside small vegetable dishes based on Okada family recipes. Filter coffee gets equal billing, with rotating local and Japanese roasters, while the chewy mochinuts remain reason enough to order something sweet.
279 Victoria Street, West Melbourne
ima Asa Yoru
ima Asa Yoru earns its place twice over. By day, Japanese teishoku is the draw, with grilled market fish, rice, miso soup, pickles and daily okazu arriving as a beautifully complete lunch rather than brunch theatre. Come evening, the room shifts into izakaya mode for oysters with ponzu, chicken nanban, sake, icy beer and jazz.
A few doors down, ima Pantry handles the take-home temptation: onigiri, pastries, Japanese groceries, matcha and housemade bits you will almost certainly find a reason to buy.
1 Duckett Street, Brunswick
Papirica
Papirica is one of Smith Street’s most endearing Japanese restaurants, built around owner Yutaka “Matsu” Matsuda’s Osaka-style okonomiyaki. He makes the sauce from scratch, using vegetables, fruit and spices rather than bottled shortcuts, then folds okra and potato into the batter for extra body. Pork belly, seafood, vegetarian and vegan versions are the menu’s backbone, with mochi, kimchi and cheese available for customising. Weekend omurice, shokupan sandos and matcha tiramisu only add to Papirica’s enduring appeal.
22 Smith Street, Collingwood
Frequently Asked Questions
Minamishima is widely regarded as one of the best omakase restaurants in Melbourne, with sushi master Koichi Minamishima serving an exacting Edomae-style menu in Richmond. For other standout Melbourne omakase experiences, try Warabi, Sushi On, Aoi Tsuki, Komeyui and Kisumé’s Chef’s Table.
For some of the best sushi in Melbourne CBD, try Kenzan for classic nigiri and sashimi, Nori Maki for made-to-order hand rolls, Sushi On Little Bourke for hako sushi, Kisumé for a polished sushi-counter experience, or Izakaya Hosaku for sashimi, nigiri and sushi omakase.
For a special-occasion Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, Minamishima is hard to beat, with Koichi Minamishima’s celebrated Edomae-style omakase served at an intimate Richmond counter. Ishizuka is another standout for kaiseki, while Warabi and Aoi Tsuki deliver memorable chef-led omakase experiences.
Yes. Melbourne has plenty of affordable Japanese restaurants, including Nori Maki for hand-roll sets from $34, 279 for musubi and Japanese breakfast, KURU for teishoku and curry, Tochi Deli for excellent-value sushi and donburi, and Hinoki Japanese Pantry for chirashi, sashimi and takeaway sushi without the omakase price tag.
As of September 2026, Tenko Sake and Wine Bar in Brunswick East is one of Melbourne’s newest Japanese openings, launching in late August. The intimate 10-seat spot from sommelier Nicholas Oliveiro pairs rare sake and offbeat wines with dishes such as udon carbonara and Vegemite-yuzu kosho Welsh rarebit.
Hungry for more? Once you’ve worked through the best Japanese restaurants in Melbourne, keep eating your way across the city with our guide to the best new restaurants in Melbourne. You can also explore Melbourne’s best dumplings, best Italian restaurants and pasta and best pizza for more of the city’s must-try dining spots.
