Ichirin: Japanese diner is a secret find in Leeming

A SECRET spot. A tiny find. A suburban gem. Ichirin Japanese in Leeming is all of these things. In an L-shaped shopping centre facing a car park, it’s not what you expect to find in this quiet part of Perth.

It is modest (slotted into a former fish and chip shop) and fits few diners — I count only four other tables and a row of stools overlooking the one-man kitchen — yet its reputation travels far, thanks to its $60-a-head, six-course degustation, or omakase menu.

The fare is not fiercely traditional. Western styles and ingredients are fused with those of Japan. BYO is available and there’s a noticeable focus on fish — apt, when you learn chef-owner Shiro Okuchi spent more than seven years working at the Kailis Bros fish market in Leederville.

His attention to optimum seafood is evident with our opening dish — gently cured, thick-sliced salmon that’s stained radish-pink around the edges. Its freshness is met with spritzy minerality, thanks to ground nori dressing. Crunch comes care of rocket leaves and sweetness via grape tomato halves. It’s a satisfying sashimi salad where the quality of simple ingredients shines.

Panko-crumbed goldband snapper resembles petite fish and chips, but it’s so much more. A savoury ponzu and plum dipping sauce loaded with citrus tang has transformative powers, elevating the crisp batter and steamy, tender, fresh fish.

Next, a hoppy Japanese sake marinade delivers tender, juicy, opera singer-plump lamb cutlets, served rare beside three sauces: mustard, wasabi and malt-driventeriyaki balsamic. Then, a little misstep: the unobtrusive waitress clears my mate’s plate while I’m still finishing up.

Cold white soup poured into a big wine glass is the most unexpected dish of the night, not least because it’s speared with airy pork crackling that’s shaped like a grissinibread stick. Made with tofu, potato and soy powder from Kyoto, the puree has a fine chalk texture that’s not overly appealing, but the fragrant soy flavour keeps us spooning it in. Chunks of cooked prawn and raw scallop turn it into a quirky riff on chilled seafood chowder.

I’ve never seen pork quite like the fillet that follows. The flesh is sliced jagged, like crinkle-cut chips, and is as pink as a pig. It’s slow-cooked in a vacuum-sealed pouch at 64C, after being bathed in olive oil, garlic and red capsicum for 24 hours. The tenderness is telling.A salty soy sauce rides beneath, teamed with ridiculously flavoursome roast mushrooms, garlic chips,pickled onion and wasabi.

Dessert is a bit of a fizzer. Light, airy cheesecake is topped with glazed strawberries and icing sugar. It’s pleasant, but feels more country kitchen than old-school cool.

The menu changes monthly and the new one looks a touch more inventive and less Western, with eel sushi, duck breast and paper-thin raw salmon all part of the line-up. The secret’s out on this local legend — get there quick.