Find some Zen over breakfast at Chotto, Fitzroy

At the end of the road at the top of a mountain in a village where almost nobody lives, the old school has become a ryokan (an inn) for travellers who have found their way to this remote corner of the Japanese alps. The food, cooked by a young man who manages the inn and has travelled the world, is in the tradition of ryokan cooking: an array of small plates relying on fresh local ingredients – river fish, mountain vegetables, home-made tofu, rice and pickles. Exquisite, intense tastes of simple Japanese cooking.

Brendan and Caryn Liew​ have brought these tastes to Melbourne. The venue is a calm shopfront with three communal tables in almost-disposable plywood over two levels; the buzz of conversation is kept low by the intimacy of sharing a table with strangers.

The aroma of grill smoke drifts from the kitchen, waitstaff whisper in polite tones and place one of Melbourne's briefest daytime menus on the table: just five dishes, an offer as spare as the single branch of plum blossom in an ice-like vase on a shelf. The huge pot of blossoming branches on the front table is as exuberant as things get.

There are two breakfast sets. A large ceramic plate comes with five tastes: a square of sashimi-grade fish seared on the grill is the hero. The fish, hand caught by Mark Eather​, could be bass grouper or kingfish: whatever is freshest on the day, says Brendan Liew. The flavour is clean and smoky.

There's a roll of omelette sweetly seasoned with dashi and tamari, a little pile of greens with a sticky sesame-miso sauce, a square of tofu topped with bonito, a little tumble of vegetable pickle. On the side, a bowl of donabe rice, cooked in an earthenware pot – Liew says he has these cooking all day to keep up – and a bowl of miso soup. It's the classic Japanese breakfast.

There's a similar set with vegetables cooked nimono-style (simmered in stock) for a vegan option.

More familiar are a couple of donburi bowls. Slow-roasted beef is served with an onsen egg on donabe rice. In the char shu version, pork is barbecued the day before then cooked slowly in soy, mirin, sake and dashi. Tender slices of that are layered on a bed of donabe rice with nori and ajitama – soft-boiled ramen eggs. Add pickles and miso soup for an extra $3 to make this a lunch set.

Dish No 5 is yaki onigiri ochazuke – a big rice ball, pan-fried to seal the outside and served in a broth of mushroom and kombu. This is simple soul food. But it comes with a surprising cube of stinging nettle tofu: a deep forest green thing made with arrowroot starch rather than bean curd, a sticky, herbaceous mouthful with a texture more like mochi – rice cake – than the usual tofu.

You can round out the Japanese breakfast mood with a cup of gold filter coffee from Monk Bodhi Dharma, rebranded as Disciple Coffee Roasters, or a tea latte – matcha, hojicha or chai.

Chotto means "Just a moment", and the Liews plan to replace the daytime cafe with an omakase-style eatery later this year. I would get in for breakfast while the moment lasts.