Taiyo Sun, a Japanese cafe and shochu bar in Fitzroy North, Melbourne, offers a unique blend of minimalist design and traditional Japanese culture. Founded by Tats Kawabata nearly ten years ago, the venue aims to capture the essence of a kissaten (teashop) rather than a typical restaurant setting. The menu features innovative dishes like curry croissants and mochi pizza, alongside an array of shochu options including barley, buckwheat, and sweet potato varieties. By night, it transforms into a cozy bar with live jazz music, while by day it offers a serene atmosphere for casual dining.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-15,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
What do you get when you combine a tiny kitchen with exposed concrete and formal jazz training?
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you → get → concrete
Just under a decade ago, Tats Kawabata sought to pay homage to Japanese kissaten (teashop) culture.
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Kawabata → seek → culture
He aimed to offer a point of difference to Melbourne’s other Japanese-style cafes “that were like restaurants” and missing the more pared-back approach typical of the kissaten he remembered.
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he → aim → kissaten
When Kawabata viewed a seemingly unworkable Fitzroy North space, reminiscent of the concrete minimalism of renowned architect Tadao Ando, he knew he had found what he needed.
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Today, Taiyo Sun quietly welcomes you through a nondescript doorway which opens into a narrow corridor.
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A neon cat, hanging plants, and a long bench grace your passage as you’re drawn into a room no bigger than a single-car garage.
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you → hang → garage
A dual-function venue, Kawabata greets you by night, or his partner Mao Tega and a small team welcome you by day.
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partner → greet → day
Shochu nights have been a more recent fixture, where Kawabata showcases the (literal) spirit of his home island of Kyushu.
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Shochu distillation uses koji (a type of mould) to ferment a base ingredient; currently, you can select from barley, buckwheat, and sweet potato pours, best served with ice, soda, or perhaps neat.
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you → use → ice
The Kuro Kirishima shochu, for example, has a subtly earthen and almost umami character that belies its sweet potato origin.
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that → have → origin
Towari buckwheat shochu bears a smooth, toasted quality where savoury notes yield to a sweeter finish.
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notes → bear → finish
If it’s mixed drinks you’re after, the chuhai range uses citrus mixers and a cleaner rice-based shochu.
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range → ’ → mixers
(Or, if shochu isn’t your thing after all, there are several non-alcoholic, beer, or sake options.).
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One man, four burners, an oven and a toaster require the evening bar menu to be treated with deftness and concision.
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menu → require → deftness
A potato salad contains tiny hunks of iburigakko (smoked, pickled white radish imported from Japan’s mountainous Akita prefecture), with delicately fried kale and a dusting of seaweed.
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salad → contain → seaweed
The dashimaki tamago is an omelette made to order, where the egg is folded with a seaweed- and bonito-based stock.
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egg → make → stock
A mochi pizza sees chewy cubes of glutinous rice placed atop a simple dough-and-cheese disc, garnished with fine slivers of dried seaweed.
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cubes → see → seaweed
These dishes are united in being ideal drinking snacks.
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dishes → unite → ?
As you alternate between bites and sips, take in the mellow ambience of unobtrusive instrumental jazz or electronic music, soft ripples of intimate conversation, and an aesthetic that cultivates introspection.
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that → alternate → introspection
Kawabata’s background as a musician has found a clear parallel in this composition of an experience rarely found in Melbourne.
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background → find → Melbourne
By day, dappled light filters through trees and long windows to play upon cracks in the polished concrete floor.
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light → play → floor
This might mesmerise you between sips of coffee courtesy of Wide Open Road roasters, or one of a selection of loose leaf teas and matcha lattes.
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Scones are baked in-house, Brioche by Philip purveying shokupan and indulgent doughnuts.
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Brioche → bake → shokupan
Three-cheese toast with honey manages to be light and subtly rich at the same time.
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toast → manage → time
If you’re after a more substantial hot lunch, consider the curry.
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Like most Japanese adaptations of Western food, the approach of homage, innovation and refinement results in a genre of curry that is, broadly speaking, simultaneously familiar and novel.
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that → result → curry
It’s a pleasing counterpoint to the innumerable ones I’ve enjoyed courtesy of my South-Asian heritage.
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Rice with rangiri-cut carrot, zucchini, green beans and onions are cooked in a thick sauce that blooms on the palate with a complex spice and a slow, mild glow of chilli.
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that → cut → chilli
If feeling more experimental, try the curry croissant – in a move of seemingly paradoxical but restrained maximalism, grilled cheese on airy pastry halves works incredibly well with the vegetable curry.
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cheese → feel → curry
Three more places to try Japanese curries
Tokyo Table
Japanese curry is generally made with dried blocks of roux.
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The obscure brand of curry (the owners won’t divulge their secrets) used at Tokyo Table carries a rich pepperiness that complements your choice of fried tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet), prawn, chicken, or mixed vegetable tempura.
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Served with rice and a simple salad for around $20, it’s great value.
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638 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, tokyotable-online.com.au
Waku Waku
Hokkaido soup curry originated in northern Japan in the 1970s, showcasing seasonal vegetables in a thinner gravy.
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curry → originate → gravy
This spot on Little Bourke serves up Hokkaido-inspired soup curries in a cast-iron pan.
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spot → serve → pan
Vegetables arrive with meat or prawns (or by themselves) with a bowl of rice on the side.
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If your dining companions are not so curry-inclined, they might choose from the several prepared vegetable dishes in the deli-style cabinet, served in a wooden bento box.
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they → incline → box
Meanwhile, your decision paralysis will be directed to the curry and rice dishes, or should you try a “Grandma’s curry udon noodle soup”?
83A Smith Street, Fitzroy, obanzaimama.com.au
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently.
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A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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restaurant → pay → Guide
The Aporia
