Toko
After a decade and a half defining contemporary izakaya dining from a Crown Street terrace in Surry Hills, this modern-Japanese room has resettled on the lower ground of a George Street address in the city. The move has not softened the formula that has held since 2007: sharp, seasonal small plates built on Australia's produce and read through a Japanese lens, served across a dramatic space rather than a poky bar. A sushi counter and a robata grill anchor the kitchen, the charcoal lending smoke to skewers and vegetables while the cold section keeps its precision. The reopening leaned on an anthology of dishes diners had missed, among them hiramasa kingfish, miso-glazed salmon and the Moreton Bay bug tempura that long defined the place. There is a private room for larger occasions and a bar that treats sake and cocktails with equal seriousness. The style is contemporary izakaya in the fullest sense: designed for grazing and drinking, ordered in waves, best tackled with a group and a loose plan. Two decades in, it remains a benchmark for this kind of cooking in Sydney, carrying a hard-won reputation into a bigger, more central room without mislaying what made it matter.