Cuisines converge at Nonna San – Brisbane’s new home for itameshi-inspired fare
Woolloongabba has a new neighbourhood restaurant – and it’s doing things a little differently. Drawing on the long-standing tradition of itameshi, the eatery is layering Japanese flavours over Italian foundations. Think okonomiyaki pizzas, gyoza lasagna, chicken katsu fonduta and matcha tiramisu. Come and take a look inside …
Japanese and Italian might seem like strange bedfellows when it comes to foodie fusion, but the two cuisines actually have a long history of mingling.
In Japan, itameshi is the name given to the mixture of Japanese and Italian cuisines – a subset of yōshoku (Japanese-Western fusion cuisine) that has been around for more than a century. While there are very few opportunities to sample this culinary collision, a new restaurant in Woolloongabba is making Japanese-Italian fusion its calling card.
Nonna San opened in Woolloongabba in the final weeks of 2025, with owners Eastern Culinary Collective (the group behind venues like Nonda in Newstead and Soka in Maroochydore) transforming its South City Square outpost formerly home to Uncle Don into a welcoming eatery bringing together two cuisines under one roof. The local response was immediate, with lines snaking out front during Nonna San’s first few weeks of operation.
Though popular, successfully blending two distinct cuisines like Japanese and Italian is no easy task, which is why the ECC team took a careful approach to research ahead of the site’s rebrand.
“When it’s the first concept, it’s always a tough job,” says ECC’s Brian Lee. “We already have experience at Nonda and Soka. They are not pure 100-percent traditional Japanese – there is a mix of Italian, French and other cuisines.”
“Before making the final decision, I travelled to Japan for a focused research trip, visiting many restaurants to gain inspiration.”
Armed with a newfound appreciation for itameshi, Brian and the ECC team – including head chef Rino, who worked in Italy for eight years across Michelin-starred restaurants – decided to plate up a unique interpretation of the cuisine with tweaks designed to entice the Australian palate.
“It’s actually quite different from the food that I tried in Japan,” says Brian of Nonna San’s debut menu. “It’s a bit hard to meld Italian cuisine into Japanese food – it’s much easier to start with an Italian format, with Japanese inspirations.”
“The foundation is technically Italian,” adds ECC’s marketing officer Sara Amranizar. “A foundation of Italian techniques form the base, and then we include elements of traditional Japanese street food.”
That philosophy carries directly through to the menu, which takes an established Italian format and layers it with Japanese flavours. The menu is broken up into familiar categories, starting with antipasti plates. Here you’ll spy pump-priming morsels like yuzu and honey prosciutto with cream cheese, pistachio and figs, soy-marinated karaage chicken coated in parmesan, and the Tacoissant (an Italian cornetto stuffed with octopus, kewpie, takoyaki sauce and katsuobushi).
From here, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure type of deal. Make a pit stop for extra snacks like potato fritte with truffle mayo and housemade bread with nori salt, before making tracks for the pasta section. Highlights here include the nori mentaiko (spaghetti with roasted nori, pollock roe, spring onion and parmesan), the karai arabiata (rigatoni coated in spicy chilli oil, shichimi, peanut, tomato and parmesan), and the saikyo carbonara (a glossy mound of spaghetti with bacon, saikyo miso and an onsen tamago).
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Nonna San’s creativity continues to flow with pizzas based on Japanese dishes like okonomiyaki, chicken katsu curry and teriyaki beef. Rounding out this end of the menu are oven-centric dishes like the gyozagna (yes, gyoza lasagna) and the chicken katsu fonduta. Be sure to save room for a scoop of matcha tiramisu at the end.
The restaurant’s beverage list is balanced between Italian and Japanese drinks, with great care taken to ensure each country is represented across the wine list (which includes umeshu), beer range (Sapporo and Peroni are available on tap) and cocktail offerings.
“For the drink menu, we tried not to bias one side,” explains Brian, “We’ve mixed Italian and Japanese – so there are Japanese-inspired cocktails, but also you can see we have a lot of Italian-style drinks, including spritzes.”
The ECC team has given the old Uncle Don space a cosmetic makeover, not only to advertise the change in brand, but to also entice a more family-oriented clientele craving accessibility and affordability with a touch of luxury. Banquettes and booths dominate the neon-lit interior, while a strip of alfresco seating offers a breezy perch for groups.
“It’s about having the feel of a family restaurant where you feel at home,” says Sara. “There’s a lot of warm colours and a lot of greenery.”
The resulting venue is a collective effort, says Brian, who heaps praise upon his team for their hard making Nonna San an early success.
“Nonna San would not have come together so strongly without head chef Rino and his culinary team, as well as restaurant manager Gioia and her front-of-house team.”
Nonna San is now open to the public – menu details and opening hours can be found in The Directory.