Choose your own Japanese adventure at Komeyui

"Are you sure?" I say to the driver as my rideshare app suggests we've arrived. The rain is sideways, the sky is growling and dark, and there's no signage that suggests we're near a restaurant.

But what kind of weirdo argues with an app that knows more about the world than I do? I get out, splash to the kerb and see curtains flapping in a glowing doorway. Tentatively pushing through, "Komeyui" is lettered in gold against black boards. I have landed in the right place.

The Komeyui experience unfurls in a series of revelations. That entrance corridor gives onto a welcome vestibule then leads to a large, elegant dining room with well-spaced tables, two semi-private chambers and a sushi counter that spans the room. It's calm and quiet but infused with humming energy. Straight away you feel that it's everyone's project to please you.

There are three ways to eat here. You can sit at the counter for an omakase sushi degustation, order from a concise a la carte menu that includes gyoza and tempura, or do as I did and succumb to the charms of the kaiseki tasting menu, a graceful and formal progression of dishes denoted in large part by their cooking style.

Every kaiseki meal will include raw, steamed, simmered and grilled morsels, presented with artistic flourish, changing with the seasons.

This menu starts with sakizuke (appetisers) in the form of a bouquet of different lettuces hitched by a strap of salmon jerky, and a "magical garden" created by miso-marinated tofu on a handmade rice cracker.

It's followed by an impossibly lovely oyster that's steamed in its shell with chawanmushi (seasoned, savoury custard) and foie gras butter and topped with torched yuzu meringue. It's simultaneously demure and luxurious and in this sense exemplifies the kaiseki parade.

Eel on rice is presented in a leaf parcel, a mystery that promises delight. Unwrapping it reveals a glistening layered morsel: eel fillet atop omelette, rice at the base, an adventure that resolves in the eating, rich and sweet, sour and salty, pungent and perfect.

If you take the sake matches recommended with each course, there are even more dimensions to the synergy.

Japanese traditions are the framework but chefs proficient in multiple cuisines work in the Komeyui kitchen.

Wagyu is grilled and presented in a pool of red wine sauce spiked with fermented raspberries. It's bold and beautiful, a power play of intention.

Motomu "Kuma" Kumano launched Komeyui in modest Port Melbourne premises in 2011. This grander space – open since 2020 – allows greater ambition.

The original premises became a yakitori and ramen bar for a while; it's now closed but ramen will soon be offered here at lunchtime.

In further developments, building has just commenced on another Komeyui in Brisbane.

The philosophy has always been the same: Japanese tradition energised and inflected by Australia, presented with a cheerful, considered spirit that brings Komeyui to life, every dish, every course, every day.

Cost: Kaiseki $220 per person; omakase $250 per person; a la carte $12-$112