Overview
Hatted restaurant Kuro Bar and Dining unites familiar Japanese flavours and techniques with high-quality Australian produce and native ingredients to create an exciting array of dishes. Led by co-owners Alan Wong and executive chef Taka Teramoto, Kuro is located in a heritage-listed building on Kent Street in Sydney's CBD — its sister venue Kahii is mere steps away.
The venue is split into three parts: the 40-seater dining room, the eight-seater bar and an intimate chef's table experience. Chef Teramoto previously worked at Michelin-starred Restaurant Pages, Paris and Florilège, Tokyo — he draws on this culinary experience and his Japanese heritage to create the venue's signature dishes.
Patrons can complement their dishes with a drop from the venue's 200-plus-strong wine list courtesy of sommelier Wanaka Teramoto (116 Pages, Paris). The focus is on boutique, minimal-intervention Australian producers. There are also Japanese beers and an extensive range of premium Japanese spirits, sake and umeshu (Japanese plum wine) on offer.
Designed by Potts Point's Henderson & Co, the space is impressive — particularly the lighting. Fifty-six American oak light 'portals' spread across the walls create an ever-changing ambience throughout the day and into the night.
Other design elements include a copper-tiled bar, sandstone and brick walls, polished stone and marble tables and a massive, blossom-shaped capiz chandelier. Cracks in the existing concrete floors have been filled with gold — a nod to the Japanese pottery-fixing technique of kintsugi — and soft fabric screens create semi-private dining spaces throughout.
Kuro's eight-person omakase experience, Teramoto by Kuro, curated by chef Teramoto, is currently on hiatus but you can sign up on the website to ensure you're first in and best dressed.
Images: Supplied, Kitti Gould