Machi

GUTSY! IT'S A CONFIDENT MOVE to open a restaurant on a strip where celebrity chefs rule. Paul Wilson's Newmarket Hotel is a few doors down and Karen Martini's Mr Wolf is across the way - two big players - so where does Machi fit in?

It's the new offering by Japanese-born chef Tatsuya Yamazaki, who has cooked his way from Tokyo to Aya (fine-dining Japanese in Armadale) to Chocolate Buddha and to his own place in Port Melbourne, Moshi Moshi.

You mightn't have heard of him unless perhaps you're a St Kilda footballer. ''It was the turning point,'' Yamazaki says about Moshi Moshi, a place that a bunch of AFL players (including Nick Riewoldt) made their regular hangout. ''Some guys came three times a day. Crazy.''

He sold Moshi Moshi in February, opening Machi last month, expanding from 45 to 80 seats. The L-shaped space, with a sushi bar and open kitchen, is modern and sleek, but perhaps looks a little generic, like a display showroom, depending on your aesthetic.

Yamazaki's dishes are made with Japanese technique but with distinctly Australian, market-driven ingredients. So Hervey Bay scallops come panko-crumbed on sticks (a ''scallipop''?), white-miso baked barramundi is saucy with gluten-free soy, and there's Moreton Bay bug sushi.

Bite-size chicken karaage is marinated overnight in sake, mirin and soy and deep-fried - tender, hot and delicious, spritzed with lemon and dunked in some green-tea salt and house-made tartare sauce. It's an outrageously good match with a beer (only Asahi from Japan, but oddly two from Mexico on the short list). Asahi shows up in the thickly beer-battered ''fish'n'chip tempura'', crunchy and golden around flathead, and around asparagus and sweet potato (add your own salt).

The sashimi platter - kingfish, salmon and yellowfin tuna - is OK, but the presentation seems a bit loose, with the fish, while obviously fresh, more reclining than pert.

The real star, and the biggest seller, is the lamb, like a Japanese-Australian Sunday roast. The chunky leg (for two or more people) is salty and garlicky, cooked for eight hours and sauced with teriyaki.

To the staff: chillax, dudes. The first 10 times were OK: ''Are you enjoying the meal? Is everything all right?'' Is the food OK?''But I reckon our table was asked at least 25 times - and, no, they didn't know it was a review.

There is real potential at Machi and some solid dishes. Let's hope it, too, becomes a celebrity drawcard on the Inkerman strip.

nrousseau@theage.com.au

Do … Try the slow-cooked soy lamb
Don't … Ask footy players for their autograph
Dish … Miso-baked barramundi
Vibe … Eager
Prices … Entrees, $3.20-$18.80; rolls & sushi, $5.60-$16; mains, $23-$45.80; desserts, $7-$13; omakase (chef's menu), nine items plus dessert, $55 a head

Machi
Where 14 Inkerman Street, St Kilda, 9534 5000
Cards MC V eftpos;
Licensed
Open Tues-Sun, 5.30-11pm; Fri-Sun, noon-3pm
Website machi.com.au
Cuisine Japanese