The Apollo Group To Open 100-Seat Rooftop Izakaya In Redfern

Lottie arrived on top of The EVE in early 2025 with an entirely gluten-free menu and a rotation of local line-caught fish cured with lime and yuzu. 

She was a very specific proposition for Redfern—polished, produce-led Mexican cooking with a meticulous mezcal program and one of the more ambitious new hotel dining rooms to land in the city that year. Now, less than two years later, the rooftop has changed hands, and cuisines.

This November, the former Lottie site will take new life in the shape of Tenjo, a 100-seat izakaya from The Apollo Group, the same brains behind Cho Cho San and neighbouring Olympus Dining—with sushi, yakitori, tempura and claypot rice moving in.

Tenjo takes its name from the Japanese word for ‘ceiling’, although there technically isn’t much of one here. George Livissianis has designed the restaurant beneath a retractable glass roof at the highest point of The Eve.

The kitchen is being led by former sushi e chef Fredy Lim, with the menu covering zensai, sashimi, nigiri and maki, tempura, grilled seafood and vegetables, as well as skewers straight from the yakitori grill. Sushi will be prepared at the counter, while the grill will work through chicken and whatever produce make sense at the time.

But the real part we’re watching is the donable gohan.

Japanese rice will be selected seaosnally for flavour, aroma and texture—carefully washed and cooked to order in traditional clay pots before landing at your table with changing combinations of meat, seafood and vegetables. Very slow and deliberate stuff.

And if you somehow cardinal sin and fail to finish the pot, the kitchen will press what’s left into onigiri for you to take home.

Washing everything down will look like cocktails designed around Japanese fruits, like a yuzu rum slushie featuring passionfruit and mandarin, a sudachi gimlet and a momo peach highball. You can thank the legendary Matt Whiley for those. Sam Christie is handling sake and wine, where you can dip across Japanese producers, champagne, chablis, pinot noir, skin-contact wines and chilled reds.

Ultimately, the idea will be that Tenjo works on multiple occasions, be it sushi at the counter, a drink on the terrace, yakitori and a couple of plates after work or the full donabe-and-all-long lunch.

More details to come.

Image credit: Nikki To