What is the best moment of a meal? Lately I’ve found it is the opening of proceedings where you are busy catching up. It feels like catching up has taken on new meaning as it’s no longer taken for granted. What once was the usual is now precious moments to find out how your friends and family are going; or in this case how my wife is going.

It is not completely clear when you have a toddler in tow. As much as we adore and love our little boy, the moments in a meal where you get to have more than two sentences of dialogue are few. Tonight it takes me at least two minutes to sort out the booster chair that we brought along, we sit down, check in, open up the menu, order a wine, and by now we are a little less relaxed!

Why are we out on a Thursday night with a toddler? Besides Catherine’s friend not feeling well and having to cancel a night out in the city, it is the eve of our fourth lockdown. We know from experience that in most places it ends when expected, or early, but in Melbourne it takes at least double the time (and potentially weeks or months more). I’m not keen on not eating out for another few weeks and neither is Catherine.

I’ve had the Japanese offerings of Torissong on my list for ages, but didn’t realise it was across the road from The Lincoln Hotel which has become a favourite in recent years. It is on a good looking laneway corner at the bottom (city end) of Carlton on Queensbury Street near the corner of Cardigan. Open windows to the corner and an open kitchen give a sense of space, and it’s simple and minimalist as Japanese does so well.

There’s a formula to ordering at Torissong. You need to choose a teishoku (set menu) and the base is either a premium or higawari (daily special) set. Catherine and I both chose from the latter, with mine a chicken katsu (the kingfish sashimi was sold out) and hers the salmon teriyaki. The bento comes out with a miso soup, shiitake and chawanmushi (egg cooked slow to resemble custard), salmon sashimi, beef sukiyaki, wombok tsukemono (pickled), matcha cheesecake, and we added a serve of prawn tempura (two prawns) to share.

Having kept Sydney happy with some two minute noodles brought from home, and the usual toys, and other games, the teishoku arriving was a further source of curiosity for the entire family. The service was excellent throughout, with one waitperson very attentively offering Syd some chopsticks to keep him occupied as we needed ours to eat! As we tried the offerings of the teishoku there was a consistent theme of excellent depth of flavour and execution.

We love Japanese, and we’ve had a ball going around Tokyo, but we do find a clear distinction between the usual dime-a-dozen Japanese around Melbourne, and the better quality establishments. There is a noticeable quality at Torissong, with items like the couple of mouthfuls of salmon sashimi being really satisfying, the beef being deliciously tender, and the matcha cheesecake finishing us off with a punch of balanced sweetness. All aspects could have been larger, but given the diversity, there was well and truly enough food for us.

My chicken katsu was delicious the way crumbed and fried chicken should be, but did have that extra virtue of not feeling bad for me! Thinking back to a bit of sauce, and some compact steamed rice, with the katsu, and I want to go back immediately. Catherine’s salmon teriyaki was much the same, but the flavour came with the sauce, as opposed to the fryer.

In the end the lockdown was a couple of weeks and it took its toll on us, and many Melburnians. We were glad in hindsight to have got out of the house on the Thursday night, and were very happy with our decision to check out Torissong.