HIDDEN AWAY IN THE UNLIKELY LOCALE of a second-storey Chinatown loft, this jazzy supper club transports you to a time when people dressed for dinner and a night on the town. Dreamed up by Tannis Ling, owner of Bao Bei, and executive chef Joël Watanabe, sous-chef Alain Chow and chef de cuisine Felix Maristany, it’s a place designed for holding hands in dimly lit corners.

A masterful blend of Japanese TECHNIQUE with Italian FLAIR. David Palazzese

The imaginative and shareable menu is a sophisticated confluence of Japanese and Italian cuisines, an upscale version of a popular fusion that the Japanese call itameshi. Think butter-roasted lobster with miso romesco, hijiki tsukudani with amaro, and Hokkaido uni. Or a Sardinian pasta called culurgiones, with a filling of kimchi, ricotta and potato, dressed with a squash and sake emulsion. The short menu still features select enduring popular dishes from early days, like charcoal udon with Dungeness crab and Calabrian chili butter, and the whole, deep-fried Pacific rockfish with daikon-soy dip. But frequent specials keep things fresh and seasonal. Burrata might be matched with organic beets and chicories, Hakurei turnips and minted soy emulsion. A sprawling selection of libations from Italy, Japan and elsewhere — along with a clever list of cocktails — deftly walk the tightrope between Kissa Tanto’s two culinary ports of call.