The Issen

The Issen is a small Japanese kitchen tucked into a shopfront on Tennyson Road in Mortlake, and it has quietly become one of the inner west's favourite sushi stops. The menu is a proper cut-above lineup: fresh sushi and sashimi, bento sets, shoyu ramen and a wagyu beef tataki that regulars single out. For a suburb better known for coffee roasters than restaurants, it is a genuine destination dinner or lunch spot.

On the dog front, the restaurant appears on Tripadvisor as dog friendly, and the reported practice from visitors is simple: dogs are welcome in the outdoor seating only. There is no dedicated dog lounge and no dog menu, so pack water from home if your dog is fussy. If your dog settles quietly at your feet while you work through a bento set, this is an easy pick; if it needs room to roam, save it for a solo visit.

Worth knowing

Hours are lunch shaped: the listed service runs from eleven in the morning to three in the afternoon, Tuesday through Sunday, with Monday trading after the lunch window too and Tuesdays closed. That makes it a long-lunch venue rather than a dinner reservation, which suits a dog walk plan nicely, walk the bay path first, eat at two, stroll home. The shopfront itself is compact and mostly counters and fridges, so most of the dog relevant space is whatever outdoor seating is out on the day, worth a quick look through the window before you clip the lead off. Demand is strong for such a small room, so midweek sittings are the safer bet for a table with a dog in tow.

Pair it with

Mortlake pairs well with coffee. Before lunch, grab a bag of beans at Wolfpack Coffee Roasters, which welcomes dogs and roasts on site. If you fall for the neighbourhood's Japanese food, Asako is the other well regarded table nearby. Browse more dog friendly restaurants across NSW or the Mortlake destination guide to plan the rest of the day.