Summer 2025 update: Izy Aki has found its new home in Saint Peter’s former digs on Oxford Street in Paddington. The pared-back, brick-walled space is the perfect canvas for chef Darren Templeman’s inventive Japanese-inspired dishes. The team offers five- and ten-course omakase-style dining options. Pair it with a couple of glasses of sake, and you’ve got yourself a great night out.
Read on for our original write-up of Izy Aki from June 2024.
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There’s no set menu at Izy Aki. Not really. Instead, chef-owner Darren Templeman creates an omakase-style menu each day depending on what produce is in season. Omakase roughly translates to “I'll leave it up to you” – and you’re in very good hands here, with Templeman serving innovative, delicious dishes with Japanese, French and Italian influences.
The intimate restaurant is located in the heritage-listed Sailors Home, tucked away in the sandstone of The Rocks. Blink, and you may miss it, which adds to its charm. But don’t actually miss it: head down George Street, and then descend Cadmans Cottage Stairs, and you’ll find Izy Aki.
Here, British-born Templeman draws on his experience working at modern Australian fine diner O Bar and Dining and Glebe's now-closed Restaurant Atelier, as well as his travels throughout Japan. And while the menu is not set in stone, you may enjoy dishes such as a crisp potato hash brown topped with Tassie uni and Caspian caviar; fresh bluefin tuna sashimi with persimmon, kimchi and kombu oil; carbonara-style noodles amped up with wasabi; succulent grilled WA marron with house-made kimchi butter (our favourite dish); and seriously good steak (we’re talking Wagyu with a marble score of ten). For dessert, you may be looking at a cheesecake soufflé with chocolate miso ice cream, and if you’re thinking that sounds pretty good – you’d be right.
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The drinks follow the same ethos as the food, spotlighting premium producers from Australia and Europe, as well as sake and cocktails made from native ingredients, crafted with a smile by Aurelien Jeffredo, who also holds the floor with ease.
Izy Aki is in the former home of cocktail bar Daintree Sydney, so there’s a striking Aussie mural on the wall, as well as deep-green seats, a long chef’s table and pretty ornaments.
While Izy Aki is not a cheap eat (you can head over here to check out our favourite ones in Sydney), if you love omakase-style dining, we reckon it’s good value. When we checked it out, we left full and happy. A five-course omakase will set you back $100, and if you’re keen to settle in for the whole shebang and full omakase experience, it’s $180 per person. There in the day? Izy Aki is now doing lunches, so you can pop in for tasty yakitori, sashimi and tonkatsu lunch bowls.
There’s buzz back at The Rocks, so if it’s been a while since your last visit, it may be time to change that.
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