The cafe counterpart to renowned TRUCK furniture in Osaka, Japan, Bird Cafe is a warm and inviting space serving good food, good coffee and hot doughnuts, with a side of heartwarming chatter. Tokuhiko Kise and wife Hiromi Karatsu started TRUCK furniture in 1997, giving Tok a platform on which to make and showcase honest, beautifully crafted furniture. The doors to Bird then opened in 2009, starting in theory as a nook for TRUCK’s customers to sit and recline with a coffee, but before long becoming a dream space for a nourishing meal at any time of the day. The fare is still notably Japanese in its ingredients and flavours, but maintains a broadness to its style that suggests the menu writer is well travelled. The house dish of Bird Rice sees a bed of rice topped with a ring of roasted pumpkin, broccoli, capsicum and cabbage with a boiled egg nesting in the middle, while the desserts are dense and otherworldly in flavour levels. Many locals come simply for the hot doughnuts turned out each afternoon.