Aka Siro

It must be blossom season in Collingwood, with countless back streets flowering with quirky Japanese cafes. This bright, woody outing is no exception. Idiosyncratic touches abound - $3 special plates are hand-scrawled on a teapot lid, the lemonade is a home concoction, and the tenth of each month is pork tonkatsu day. Meals might come with a crisp cabbage salad topped with a signature carrot relish, or feature Hungarian sausage in a sweet sauce glaze. Even the standard miso soup contains thin shards of almost translucent daikon in its cloudy depths. No wonder the staff are perpetually beaming: it’s always springtime here.