Say hello to Disuko: The retro-cool Japanese rooftop bar formerly known as Madame Brussels

Standing in the former Madame Brussels site today, all that remains of the iconic rooftop bar is the skyline view from its third-storey vantage point on Bourke Street.

Unrecognisable after a significant refit, it reopens next week as Disuko, a multifaceted Japanese venue with room for more than 150 people across a restaurant with an eight-seat omakase counter, a cocktail bar, a rooftop terrace and a private dining “penthouse”.

“Anyone who’s seen it – who knew Madame Brussels – has been gobsmacked,” says new owner Thai Ho. It’s the most ambitious opening yet for his decade-old Mamas Dining Group, comprising the Hochi Mama restaurants, plus Suzie Q and Windsor Wine Room.

“I wanted to throw it back to Tokyo in the 1980s,” says Ho of the venue’s retro redesign.

You enter into the bar, where a cluster of disco balls speaks to the all-vinyl soundtrack – as well as the venue’s name, with “disuko” translated from the Japanese word for disco. Japanese red timber is a showpiece, as is the eight-metre-long American oak bartop.

Beyond is a sultry dining room and omakase bar, the walls soaked in a shade of deep terracotta, apart from a glass-brick feature, with blood-orange-coloured carpet underfoot.

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Leading the kitchen is former Kisume head chef Hung Hoa Duong alongside group culinary director Michael Stolley. “We’re not trying to make traditional [Japanese] food,” says Stolley. “But I always aim for the core flavours to be as authentic as possible.”

There’s a playfulness to much of the menu. Stolley says that two dishes were inspired by McDonald’s in Japan: the Filet-O-Ebi sando, with a panko-crumbed prawn (and prawn mousse) patty and house-made tartare; and the wagyu katsu sando, his Japanese take on a cheeseburger with bulldog sauce.

The miso-y udon carbonara is “creamy but not overly cheesy”, says Stolley, toeing the line between Japanese and Italian, with a shoyuzuke (soy-sauce pickled) egg yolk.

In the restaurant, you can order a la carte or choose five dishes for $65 per person.

The sushi-centric omakase experience is 12 courses. But, “We didn’t want to make it too ‘fine dining’,” says Ho. While pricing is still to be set, it’ll be more affordable than other big-ticket options across town, but slightly less refined. Dishes might include chawanmushi (Japanese savoury egg custard) with fried-chicken-skin furikake, with tiered sake pairings.

Outside on the no-reservations rooftop, the palette brightens to terracotta, splashed everywhere from the tiles to the umbrellas, popping against Bourke Street’s treetops.

An abridged rooftop snack menu adds curry-spiced fries and nuggets channelling tsukune (Japanese chicken meatballs) to the mix. But drinking is the main event out here, with a list focused on all sorts of sake and highballs, starring sodas made in-house. One pairs whisky infused with shichimi (a Japanese spice blend) with jalapeno soda.

Above is a 30-person private dining room with what Ho says is “an even better view of the city”.

Disuko opens on Tuesday, November 18 at Level 3, 59-63 Bourke Street, Melbourne, disuko.com.au

Lunch and dinner daily