Damn that was good

I enjoyed a serendipitous dinner last night at Itō, a buzzy Japanese Izakaya restaurant in Crown Street, Surry Hills.

Suntory Global Spirits has partnered with acclaimed chef Khanh Nguyen (King Clarence) on an exclusive Suntory Bar pop-up at the restaurant.

Nguyen collaborated with Itō executive chef Erik Ortolani on the menu, which is paired with cocktails made with Suntory products including Toki Whisky, Laphroaig, Jim Beam, Minus 196 and more. 

The timing of the collaboration couldn’t be better. The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025 was launched on Monday night and both Itō and King Clarence scored their first-ever hats, so the chefs were celebrating their accolades last night.

After tasting the menu I know why they scored spots in the guide – it was bloody delicious.

Check it out …

I felt so lucky to be treated to their amazing food.

I was particularly enamoured with the snacks – the royal red prawn and nori rolls were to die for. They didn’t photograph well, they just looked like little fried logs, so I’ll dazzle you with pics of the salmon and the scallops instead …

Actually, everything on the menu was to die for.

I was a little lairy of the cocktail with -196 premix in it, but it was one of my favourite drinks of the night!

I went with my friend Sue and she was so impressed with the cocktail that she is considering whether to recreate it at her next party.

The evening also kicked off with Toki Highballs and we made some new friends during a toast …

We were seated upstairs in the media section, while the beautiful brigade – the influencers – were downstairs, flicking their hair and snapping away madly.

The main was another sensation, I even loved the beans and I am not a bean fan.

Then there Penicillins, followed by Jim Beam Berry Sodas … don’t worry we were just sampling the cocktails at this point and photographing them for posterity …

Ten out of 10 would recommend the Itō takeover. Nom nom.

Tickets for dinner seatings until Sunday are $140pp, learn more here.

It was also funny to catch up with Sue and belatedly realise we were standing just metres away from each other at the James Reyne gig on Friday night. We compared photos and our camera angles are literally 30 degrees different.

So near and yet so far.

Song of the day: Australian Crawl “Beautiful people”