If you feel battle-tested by the idea of eggs and sides (again!) for weekend breakfast, then you’ll be happy to know Kuku Tanuki in Erskineville is now offering a Japanese spin on brunch.

This sake bar has been doing cool things, neighbourhood-wise, since it opened around new year. Having just relaunched, it scores extra grades for its new breakfast bento boxes, especially the vegetarian one ($22), which is beautifully loaded with a tempura eggplant sandwich, crisp potato-corn fritter, twirl of tomato-onion soba salad, pickled radishes, fig tempura, a flavour-stacked pile of grilled tomato and mushroom and the “autopsy” of an avocado, slathered in a gorgeously sweet sauce.

There’s a little “refreshment corner” in the bento of strawberry and rockmelon, too. The whole thing is greatness, compartmentalised.

You can also ask for Japanese iced coffee ($3) or zingy mocktails such as the goofily named Newtang ($7.50), which mixes two kinds of grapefruit with calpis. But if you need an alcoholic hit, do order a yuzu sake from Kuki Tanuki – it’s the only bar I’ve ever been to that stocks that delicious drink (besides Sake, but that’s not exactly the kind of place you can visit everyday).

This establishment is, though. And the new brunch menu is one of many things it is doing to earn your attention span (live music, new drinks and some gussying up of the already cool interior are other plays for your interest). Oh and when you walk into a bar and it already has The Cure’s endlessly replayable Greatest Hits on rotation, then you know it’s a place you want to spend (lots!) more time in.

Kuki Tanuki, 61 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW (02) 8084 7438. You can follow Kuku Tanuki on Facebook