This place was recommended to us by Cam from Acme and he was spot on. In fact, this was the first place we went to right off our 15 hour flight. We literally walked there from our hotel through the Botanical Gardens. (It was a long walk.) But bottom line, it's a great asian fusion spot that makes great coffee and baked goods.
Their restaurant is slightly below street level and has outdoor and indoor seating. The neighborhood is reminiscent of Boston's Back Bay if you've ever been there, so it's not a sketchy area. Since we were past breakfast, we had the lunch menu only available to us. (However their breakfast menu looked SICK and I totally need to go back next time.) They had run out of some things on their menu when we were there, but the food we did have was great.
We started with the scallion pancake with jambon (if you like pancetta you'll like this). That was fantastic. Then we had the soup with enoki mushrooms. That too was flavorful and not too spicy. The fresh tofu in it was soft and the soup itself was like a lighter version of a korean soon du bu soup. We also had the eggplant which has this fantastic thick miso-esque sauce on top of it. Make sure you order a bowl of rice (it's a legit bowl of sticky white rice) because you're going to want it to mop up that eggplant sauce and eat it with the soup.
It was a hot day so our waiter recommended the taiwanese shave ice dessert. However, we went for the yuzu cheesecake because if it wasnt hot, that's what he'd typically recommend. It was light, slightly citrusy from the yuzu, and had small little flowers on the plating. Good choice sir, good choice.
Between the dessert coming out, I went to check out the baked goods in the case we passed on the way in. I had the hardest time deciding. They had a matcha cookie, a nori miso sesame cookie, a sourdough cookie, and a double chocolate cookie. Choosing what to eat is really hard and I usually will get them all if I cant decide. But I only let myself pick 2, however, they were nice enough to throw in the other 2!! Love them! The nori cookie was the right balance between savory and sweet and the miso made the cookie taste like peanut butter a little. The matcha was surprisingly good because it tasted like it was made of GOOD matcha and not overwhelmingly sweet like some places tend to do. The sourdough cookie was chewy and big. And the chocolate cookie is nice and decadent.
Honorable mention: I saw some people eating the fried chicken and that looked amazing. Get that. And tell me how delicious it is because I have no doubt that it's good.
The service here was amazing. Our water was always filled, our waiter gave us great recs on food and where to walk post meal, and they went the extra mile to make sure our first meal in Australia was fantastic. Not a lot of people know about how good this place is since it's been open for less than 2 years I believe, but go check it out! read more