{"id":42210,"date":"2026-10-19T22:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/42210\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:48:19","slug":"esca-groups-nikkei-restaurant-ame-to-launch-in-darlinghurst-this-week-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/42210\/","title":{"rendered":"Esca Group’s Nikkei restaurant Am\u00e9 to launch in Darlinghurst this week\u00a0 – hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Esca Group\u2019s new Nikkei\u00a0restaurant will open on Oxford Street this Thursday, led by\u00a0Executive Chef Erik Ortolani.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new restaurant, Am\u00e9, celebrates\u00a0Peruvian and Japanese culture, with Nikkei tracing back to 1899, when\u00a0Japanese migrants settled in Peru and began adapting their cooking to local ingredients.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ibby\u00a0Moubadder, co-founder and creative director of Esca Group, says Am\u00e9 is the group\u2019s most ambitious project yet, and one that\u2019s been five years in the making.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNikkei is still incredibly underrepresented in Australia, and we\u2019re excited to interpret it through a Sydney lens on one of Oxford Street\u2019s most renowned corners,\u201d says Moubadder. \u201cAm\u00e9 is a venue and an experience that we hope will contribute to the next chapter of a street that has played such an important part of Sydney\u2019s story.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Eric Ortolani<\/p>\n

Ortolani, who leads the kitchens at Esca\u2019s\u00a0Japanese-Italian restaurant It\u014d and Japanese rooftop bar J\u014dji, has designed the menu for Am\u00e9.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The chef spent time in Peru where he experienced\u00a0Nikkei cuisine at its origins, working his way through markets, cevicher\u00edas, tabernas, and leading restaurants to explore the breadth of the cuisine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu is built\u00a0on bold Peruvian flavours, elevated by Japanese technique, and celebrates Australian seafood and produce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Highlights on the opening menu include: tuna nigiri acevichado\u00a0(a Peruvian-inspired nigiri); spanner crab causa croquette (a Japanese korokke blended with a Peruvian causa); arroz con pato, Peru\u2019s traditional duck rice prepared as an okoge, and served in a cast iron pan with ginger dashi and aji ponzu; and Murray cod with inaka miso and spring peas. Desserts include a dark chocolate and lucuma mousse, and a citrus financier with yuzu curd and passionfruit granita.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Ortolani says his training has shaped everything he has done at It\u014d and J\u014dji to date, and it is the foundation he has brought to\u00a0Am\u00e9.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat interests me about Nikkei is the way these two distinct cuisines come together, and the balance between the precision of Japanese food and the boldness of Peruvian cooking,\u201d he says. \u201cAt Am\u00e9, I\u2019ve taken that foundation and worked with the exceptional seafood and produce we have here in Australia to create something that feels true to both influences.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The beverage program, led by Jerom Morris (ex-Los Angeles\u2019 Gwen by Curtis Stone, and Accomplice Bar), is built around staple ingredients from Japan and Peru. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Cocktails include: Spice Crown,\u00a0a curried pineapple daiquiri; Aji Canopy, capsicum-infused Beefeater with gentian, Cocchi Americano and elderflower; and The Pink Rabbit, a strawberry milk punch with gin and Chartreuse, finished with freshly charged shishito.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The venue is located on the ground floor of 90 Oxford St, a heritage-listed site. The 115-seat space has been designed by\u00a0architect Matt Darwon, a longtime collaborator of the group.\u00a0Subtle nods to ESCA\u2019s portfolio appear throughout the space, including timber tables with chrome accents and kimono-inspired uniforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Am\u00e9 forms part of Darlinghurst\u2019s Oxford & Foley precinct, which is also home to the recently opened Mecca Coffee and Aenza, with Soho House set to open next door in 2028. The restaurant will open\u00a0for dinner on Mondays and Tuesdays from 5.30pm to 9pm, and lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday\u00a0from 12pm to 2.30pm, and 5.30pm to 9pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photography by Ethan Smart. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esca Group\u2019s new Nikkei\u00a0restaurant will open on Oxford Street this Thursday, led by\u00a0Executive Chef Erik Ortolani.\u00a0\u00a0 The new restaurant, Am\u00e9, celebrates\u00a0Peruvian and Japanese culture, with Nikkei tracing back to 1899, when\u00a0Japanese migrants settled in Peru and began adapting their cooking to local ingredients.\u00a0\u00a0 Ibby\u00a0Moubadder, co-founder and creative director of Esca Group, says Am\u00e9 is the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3353,58,59,33008,460,60],"class_list":["post-42210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japanese-restaurants","tag-esca-group","tag-japanese-restaurant","tag-japanese-restaurants","tag-nikkei","tag-openings","tag-sydney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117470012875108988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}