One of Perth’s most consistently excellent Japanese offerings wins out with plates that reach just a little higher.
“What is that, it’s not a restaurant?” asks a passerby, gesturing to James Parker. And they’re right to question: a glance at this glowing corner site reveals a spine of curved wooden beams forming a tunnel through the centre of a room elegantly obscured from the street. The form is striking, the experience of walking in, a little like entering the belly of a whale. To the right, booths and tables for groups. To the left, a sushi counter with chefs, led by Naoyuki Suzuki, attentively slicing pristine raw fish. Throughout, walls are decorated with gyotaku prints by Deryck Tan; rubbings that speak to the fish and shellfish gracing both the menu and the omakase offer (available at the counter). Diehards will pick the counter, but the standard carte packs plenty of interest. Five kinds of precision-diced sashimi, surrounding a mound of natto topped with an egg yolk, set for tossing and sharing. Or swimmer crab chawanmushi of rare sweetness and depth. Or miso soup, with the luxurious additions of scampi or hamaguri clams. Build these around plates of lacy tempura, maki sushi and nigiri, then delve into James Parker’s other specialty, sake, with a flight of junmai: the perfect travelling companion.
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