Where to drink great Sake?

How to find a good sake restaurant in Australia

With re-opening happening in most states across the country it’s a great time to get out and show your support. Below is a list of great restaurants and bars that showcase excellent sake amongst their other offerings. Some wonderful places that have opened or are opening soon.

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Where to find amazing sake in Sydney & NSW

• Ester Restaurant

• Poly

• Automata

• Cafe Paci

• Lumi Dining

• Hartsyard

• Where’s Nick

• Lankan Filling Station

• Dear Saint Eloise

• 10 William St

• Cottage Point Inn

• Sake Restaurant - The Rocks | Double Bay |Manly

• Kuro Bar & Dining

• Sunset Sabi

• Marble

• Nel Restaurant

• Small Town Food & Wine

• Sekka Dining

• Cirrus

• Saint Peter

• P&V Newtown & Paddington

• Winona Wine

Some brilliant sake in Melbourne & VIC

• Tamura Sake Bar

• Ides

• Brae

• Kazuki’s

• Provenance Restaurant

• Restaurant Gaea

• Minamishima

• Calia

• Bar Liberty

• Supernormal

• Future Future

• Attica

• Sunda

• Aru

Fabulous sake in Canberra & ACT

• Raku

• XO

• Akiba

• Mu Omakase

Sensational sake in Brisbane & QLD

• Joy Restaurant

• Spice Bar

• Maker

• Sumi Open Kitchen

• Iku Yakitori Bar

• Eddy & Wolff

• Yoko Dining

• Sono Restaurant

• Exhibition Restaurant

Fine sake in Adelaide & SA

• Shobosho

• Leigh Street WIne Room

• ShoSho

Vibrant sake in Hobart & TAS

• Tom McHugo’s

• Pachinko

• Fico

• Institut Polaire

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few of the places opening up that have a Black Market Sake focused list. Yes we have missed Perth & WA - still waiting to see who is opening when. Will update this when we hear some more info.

PRODUCER PROFILE: Fujiichi Shuzo

Katsuaki Yamamoto (Toji)

There are few more exciting sake brewers in Japan right now than Katsuki Yamamoto. His skill, passion and work ethic show in the fine sake he produces. Yamamoto-san until last year was Toji [Master Brewer] at Fujiichi Shuzo located in a small town called Inazawa just north-west of Nagoya.

Founded in 1870 Fujiichi Shuzo has a long history of sake production, however in the 80’s & 90’s their fortunes changed and the demand for their products diminished as did many other quality-driven brewers during that time. Fast forward to 2012 and Yamamoto-san took over as Toji moving his family from western Japan to take on the role. In the first year of working at Fujiichi Yamamoto-san developed the Kikutaka range. His concept in creating this brand was to marry the rice type with the yeast strain depending on the quality of the rice sourced each year. He believes that if you concentrate on making good Koji and understand the intricacies of the rice grown in that season you can make exceptional sake and exceptional sake he does make.

With this range of products under the Kikutaka label Yamamoto-san concentrates on creating sake with a lot of umami and acidity. This is achieved by meticulous work in the Koji room, where he strives to have every individual grain of rice fully coated in pristine Koji coating before being used in production. This level of care and work ethic has ensured the ‘Kikutaka’ brand as being one of the most sort after in Japan, regularly selling out within weeks of release. 

We have been lucky enough to import these wonderful sake to Australia since 2015, being the first export market for the Kikutaka brand. These are sensational products in very limited supply.

Sake & Cheese

In my previous life as a Sommelier, one of the big questions I had early in my career was ‘how can I match a beverage to cheese in all of its wondrous variations?’ There was no simple answer - until I delved into the world of Sake. 

In my early years working in restaurants I had looked for the somewhat ‘classic’ approach to matching cheese - tannic red wine with cheddar, port wine with blue cheese etc. But I came to the realisation that these were examples of wines that only just stood up to the character of the cheese and obliterated some of more nuanced elements of both. After much Sake tasting and cheese sampling I realised that Sake really does come to the rescue by handling the big flavours in cheese without overwhelming the other elements that make cheese so delicious. Almost magnifying this delicious nature of the cheese.

To understand this more we have to understand something called ‘umami’. Both cheese and Sake are full of umami. Umami is the Japanese word combining umai (delicious) and mi (essence) and is considered the ‘fifth’ taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Technically, umami refers to glutamate, a type of amino acid, which occurs naturally in many foods such as meat, fish, vegetables and various dairy products including cheese. 

In the production of Sake the protein in the rice is broken down leaving amino acids. The amount of amino acids depends on the length of fermentation and strength of the yeast (amongst other factors). The amino acids that remain give Sake its robust, gamey and often succulent flavour profile. 

With cheese long maturation enables more of the milk protein to decompose into amino acids, (think 2 year old Parmigiano-Reggiano vs fresh mozzarella as an example). This ageing plays an important part in the taste of cheese. 

These Amino acids, found both in Sake and cheese provide umami with its richness and savoury quality. This makes them pair well and compliment each other across a spectrum of styles and flavours. There is a certain ‘supporting’ element in matching Sake to cheese as if the Sake is there to highlight the flavour in the cheese without overpowering the more delicate elements.

So the next time you’re in search of the perfect match to a delicious wedge of dairy goodness, have a glass of Sake - I promise you wont be disappointed.

Matt.