With only eight seats round a sushi counter, dining at Shoukouwa is an intimate, supremely refined experience, where Japanese hospitality is at its finest, and staff take pains to explain dishes as they are served. Its multicourse omakase menus are most popular, featuring seasonal produce prepared simply— through methods like ageing and charcoal searing—to bring out their best. For instance, intensely sweet, briny bafun uni sushi, and abalone steamed in sake and laced with boldly flavoured abalone liver, miso and uni sauce. Menus start from $180, but the splurge is worth it, considering produce is flown from Tsukiji daily and masterchefs deliver on bespoke dining.