Port Melbourne's Komeyui finally opens its new chapter

Komeyui, the Port Melbourne favourite with new premises in South Melbourne, has a plaque on the wall that will forever strike a chord as you drift through its charcoal-coloured noren drapes: "Opened April 1, 2020."

What a date. What a year. It has felt like one great April Fool's joke, but especially for restaurateurs like Motomu Kumano, who had it all on the line with these brand new digs plus a rebranded yakitori bar on the original site.

But you could look on the bright side. Komeyui, now tucked away at the far end of Ferrars Street where only flashy sound recording studios lie, has opened to a world of re-energised diners.

Loyalty has also come to mean a lot in the past few months, and Hokkaido-born Kumano has built a cult following over nine years at his Bay Street premises, and before that at Kenzan, incubator of many of Melbourne's sushi masters. Here, he's finally starting a new chapter, in more ways than one.

For starters, he probably didn't plan to be wearing a face mask and gloves. The option to scan a QR code and order via your iPhone doesn't exactly square with his mission to have people get offline and connect with food, and I'm sure he is as eager as I am to have diners sit before him at the cool stone bar (impossible until restrictions lift). Regardless, the story has started and both sides of the pass are pleased.

If a pub parma was high on my list for cravings, sushi was up there, too. Not for the raw fish factor. Top takeaway was being offered by Minamishima and Komeyui itself (you can still order their elaborate chirashi with myriad fish scattered over rice for the home). It was to watch edible art in action. In one week that will be your go-to.

A seat at the bar for the $100 omakase sushi or $165 chef's selection menu where fatty tuna belly and scarlet scampi will be pressed onto Kumano's distinctly well-developed, elegantly nutty rice before your eyes and delivered one bite at a time.

Both menus are available now in the bright-lit dining room, all soft greys, blond woods and charcoal-coloured tables. But a broader a la carte menu also draws on the repertoire of the former restaurant, lifting the stakes just a little.

Delicate savoury custard, chawanmushi, is adorned with a flame-touched notch of foie gras, landing a luxurious knockout punch to the silky dish.

Tempura-bound nori sheets become the squeaky substrate for slips of slow-cooked abalone and a swipe of its liver as paté for a umami-rich, dank bite. More entry-level, yet no less a thrill, is a version covered with spicy tuna and explosive orbs of salmon roe.

If your ticket to the knife-work show currently only gets you back row seats, you can still experience the full force of Kumano's skills in a platter of the sushi and sashimi, where scampi is pressed over that mellow rice, with hints of ginger and tiny notches of yuzukoshu used as well-placed exclamation points; and the bracing freshness and beauty of his chosen weapons, from red-skinned alfonsino to tuna, appear as deep, dark slips or marbled mellow bites.

The style is spare, built on restraint. Two fillets of black cod, laminated in miso then caramelised over a charcoal grill, are the sticky-skinned, mellow-fleshed ideal of the Kyota staple, and paired only with a cheek of lemon for lift. Fine-skinned, deeply golden gyoza, dipped in vinegar-spiked soy, are all crackle and juicy, gingery pork.

There's no scoring in the age of social distancing, but I can tell you this restaurant is good. The table is set for blow-it-all-on-wagyu-and-foie-gras and adding a load of sake, or laying back into a familiar but refined take on tempura and elaborate hand rolls with Suntory beers.

Either way, it comes with the delightfully awkward dance of waiters unsure if you want to be approached, and more space between tables than it was built for.

That, in the words of relationship guru Dan Savage, is the price of admission in 2020. I'll pay.

The lowdown

Komeyui

Address: 181 Ferrars Street, South Melbourne, 03 9645 5420, komeyui.com.au

Cost: Omakase $100, chef's selection $165; plus a la carte.

Go-to dish: Omakase with Australian seafood and a few Japanese imports ($100).

Pro tip: The old Komeyui site on Bay Street is now Yakitori Bar, reopening early July.

Protocols: Contactless ordering. Maximum party size six. Names and numbers must be provided before booking.