Hako

Ph: 9620 1881; 310 Flinders La, MELBOURNE 3000

japanese, $$ -
Open Mon-Fri noon-3pm Mon-Sat 6-9.30pm; Licensed, BYO byo, Corkage $5 bottle; AE MC V EFT
Chef Masahiro Hone (5-12-08) Owner Masahiro Hone & Ji-Ah Kim (5-12-08)

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 14.5/20 "e 1: Hako has expanded from its squeezy first digs in great style. With its stripped-back interior, big timber-framed windows and naked globes hanging low over communal tables, Hako buzzes with the energetic, informal confidence of a restaurant in its prime"

Herald Sun GLUTTON, "The name means 'box', explains my friend, Kazuyo, as we trip down Flinders Lane in search of the Japanese restaurant everyone's talking about. But there's nothing boxy about this loftlike space with its soaring black ceiling, sensuously curved wall and airy ambience"

Herald Sun Claire Sutherland, 10-06-08 Score: **** "The Japanese classics here are flawlessly presented by day with a more adventurous menu by night"

The Age Cheap Eats 2008 "Good news: once-tiny Hako has found itself spacious new city digs in a lovely old building with high ceilings and big windows"

The Age John Lethlean, 14-12-2007 "So what do you think," she asks a few familiar faces wandering into the new restaurant for the first time (the smart ones with reservations, the unlucky trying their shot at a weekend walk-in). "It's very Melbourne, isn't it?" Indeed it is. A Malaysian-Chinese-Australian host; her Japanese-Australian partner/chef; a long, narrow recycled city building on the corner of tiny, buzzing, hidden Bligh Place, done up in a way that emotes the simple aesthetic of Japanese design with judicious use of obvious cultural references"

The Age John Lethlean, 3-12-2007 Score: 15/20 "There are two Hakos, tucked away in Flinders Lane, south of Elizabeth Street. Each has its place, and I like them both, but don't confuse them. Needless to say, the pair have much in common. A cool new warehouse-style space, for one, with impossibly high matte-black ceilings and scuffed black floorboards, old window frames, lots of stark white plaster punctuated by simple Japanese furnishings and sculptural flower arrangements. It's a simple-yet-edgy contemporary fit-out by day or night, that reflects the owners' style and references Japan only subtly. And both Hakos have the same couple running them; chef Masahiro Horie in the kitchen, his wife Ji-ah organising the floor, a slightly more challenging role now they have 60 or so seats to fill (as opposed to their 20-seater in Degraves Street, the premises from which was born Hako's cult following.) Both have Japanese food; some of it quite traditional, some quite progressive, most very good"

Herald Sun Eat, Bob Hart, 3-11-07 "I visited regularly and - because of my preference for drinking tea with Japanese food, a cheap option inevitably left with change from $20. Now, visiting the new and improved Hako may cost a few dollars more. But it will still cost less than you might expect of an elegant, 60-seat establishment offering fine, modern Japanese food in the CBD: one visit to Nobu, I estimate, would cost as much as four visits here. And both should leave you in a deeply contented state of mind."