米 kome — rice · 結 yui — to connect

Our Story

Connecting people through the craft of Japanese cuisine.

Rice, and the ties it makes

Kome (米) means rice. Yui (結) means to tie, to connect. Two characters, one idea: that the food we serve and the way we serve it are inseparable.

KOMEYUI opened in Port Melbourne in 2011 and moved to Southbank in 2020. Today there are two restaurants — Melbourne and Brisbane’s Spring Hill — and one KOMEYUI.

In both kitchens, rice is cooked in a cast-iron hagama. At the counter, fish is cut to order and shaped over warm vinegared rice, because nigiri is never the fish alone, but the balance between the two.

Fifteen years on, the approach has not changed. We keep on challenging.

2005
Kuma comes to Australia.
2011
KOMEYUI opens in Port Melbourne.
2020
KOMEYUI moves to Southbank.
2023
A second KOMEYUI opens in Brisbane’s Spring Hill.
2026
Fifteen years of KOMEYUI.

Two teams, one season

Some dishes on our à la carte menu have been with us since we opened in 2011. The seasonal omakase is created together by our Melbourne and Brisbane teams, with Kuma overseeing each season — proposing ideas and refining where needed.

A seasonal omakase dish being finished with chopsticks

Owner and director Kuma with the hagama rice pot

Our chef — Kuma

Motomu Kumano — Kuma — grew up in a small fishing town in Hokkaido. He came to Australia in 2005 and opened KOMEYUI in Melbourne in 2011. As owner and director, he oversees each season’s omakase — created with the Melbourne and Brisbane teams — proposing ideas and refining dishes where needed.

The rooms

Every KOMEYUI has been designed by Baenziger Coles. The collaboration began with our first restaurant in Port Melbourne and has continued through Southbank and Spring Hill.

In Melbourne, the way in is quietly Japanese: a narrow genkan entry, koshido screens and walls of charred yakisugi timber, opening onto a dining room built around the sushi counter. In Brisbane, the same restraint frames the counter, where guests sit at eye level with the chefs, the terrace beyond.

Our thanks go to Sue Coles, who has shaped our rooms from the beginning — as designer, and as project manager for every one of our fit-outs.

Melbourne by Baenziger Coles Brisbane by Baenziger Coles