Aenza

Japanese$

A Darlinghurst wine bar for Japanese wine and snacks.

When was the last time you sat down at a bar and ordered a glass of Japanese wine? Not rice wine, but a rosé pét-nat from Nagano, say, or a cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend from Miyagi?

These are just some of the wines on offer at Aenza, a Japanese wine bar in Darlinghurst from the team behind Amuro. The drinks list, curated by beverage manager Paul Beaton (formerly head sommelier at Aria), focuses on wines from Australia, France and Japan. There are more than 120 bottles on offer, 38 of them by the glass. Beyond wine, there’s Japanese whisky, gin, sake, shochu and umeshu, plus five highball cocktails to choose from.

The food menu, by owner and chef Joy Liu, focuses on Australian-Japanese snacks, and includes red emperor sashimi with mandarin ponzu, eggplant agebitashi and karaage chicken with takana (mustard greens) mayo.