KOMEYUI

Melbourne’s Komeyui has a slick new Brisbane outpost and it’s bringing a little Zen interconnection to the everyday

- FIONA DONNELLY

It took me three years to realise that the rice is more important than the fish.” Our white-jacketed sushi chef places another perfectly formed piece of nigiri sushi before me. He’s been studying how to perform this alchemy since 2013, regularly putting in 16-hour days, and has picked up a trick or two. His satisfaction is palpable as we admire the hapuka topping, a dab of fiery chartreuse yuzukosho adding vibrancy to its lightly scored flesh.

I’m sitting at Komeyui’s sleek timber counter, midway through a $150 omakase (chef’s choice) menu. It’s brightly lit, in contrast to the moodier dining room where well-spaced round tables are arrayed beneath a charcoal-hued ceiling. It’s part of the ceremony of omakase to watch the chefs’ hand movements, who look like they’re communing in secret sign language, as they deftly form rice balls for each nigiri.