Before you’ve even been handed a menu at Sake Bar Icco, you’ll sense you’re somewhere special. If you book via email, giving your name, upon arrival you’ll be addressed with the Japanese honorific ‘san’ and greeted with the warmest of smiles by co-owner Junko Matsumoto, who runs the front of house (most often solo), and her partner Ikko Yamauchi, who helms the kitchen. At your table, a handwritten name card resting on an origami swan awaits you, which you can take home as a keepsake at the end of the meal. Charmed yet? Just wait until you start eating.

Located across the road from the Morningside train station, Icco embodies the ideal of a neighbourhood restaurant. It caters admirably to the needs and lives of the community that surrounds it, being low-key enough for a weeknight dinner date or for children to tag along, but with enough necessary sparkle for a celebratory meal.

From the permanent menu, there are three dishes that always make it into our order. The first is the agedashi shiki tofu: six faintly crunchy morsels giving way to silky-soft tofu in a pool of dashi. Then there’s the grilled eggplant with sweet haccho-miso sauce and cheese — umami upon umami upon umami. And don’t miss the sashimi platter, which comes in three sizes. The second menu you’ll encounter is a singular blackboard, transported from table to table as necessary. This lists the daily fish for sashimi, seasonal desserts and specials — if the karaage snapper wings appear (and they do often), be sure to order them. 

In Japanese, Icco translates as ‘one house’ — and what better way to describe this treasure of a restaurant?