Eat
ElkaSushi.
Dry-aged fish in the Leeds glass. Boxes to go.
Location
What people get wrong
Shop 2, 7-9 Leeds. Closed Tuesday. No phone. No bookings. Pickup can die at 3:30. Not a night omakase. We last walked this on 2026-09-21. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Elka Sushi known for?
Elka Sushi is known for dry-aged fish hanging in the Leeds glass: a white counter, a wave wall, and a chirashi that still looks like the reason you walked past the market.
You come off Footscray station and peel onto Leeds. 7-9 is the corner block. Shop 2 is the fascia that says Elka, whole fish in the window, coral and cream, a bright bar that Claire Adey at Broadsheet, 8 July 2024, already treated as takeaway first. A few indoor seats. Pink outdoor tables. An imported Japanese vending machine with Calpis, grape soda and canned coffee. You sit because the fish is already the room, and because a lunch box from this counter is how Leeds does sushi without pretending it is a tasting-menu hideaway. The marble table Good Food still photographs is a privilege, not a booking. Most of the suburb takes the box and walks.
Tran is part of the family behind D&K Live Seafood, the wholesaler and retailer Broadsheet said had been on this street more than twenty-one years. Elka is her nickname plus cá, the Vietnamese word for fish. She told Adey she grew up here, same as her father and grandparents, and that they call Leeds the Lygon Street of Footscray. Leave that line in the interview. The job is the counter. Ken Tran, former fisherman then construction, built the fit-out, including the wave wall contractors tried to talk them out of. Brendan Liew of Warabi consulted the menu and trained the team. Good Food still names them co-owners in Eddie Jim's December 2025 pictures.
Instagram @elka.sushi. No shop phone. That is a Broadsheet fact, not a missing field. You need a box, not a booking widget. Good Food still treats the hanging fish as the whole sentence. Believe the window.
What should you order at Elka Sushi?
You should order the OG chirashi if you came for the bowl Good Food still names, then decide whether the walk home still wants a box of nigiri.
December 2025: cubes of dry-aged Ora King salmon, bluefin tuna, hamachi and snapper, quick-poached St Helens oysters, braised abalone, salmon roe, yellow daikon, cucumber, sushi rice, a box of seaweed. Adey's first look added flash-poached oysters and scallops to that scatter. Ask what the cabinet is holding. The weekly special was raw trevally the week Broadsheet visited. Staples then were Ora King, tuna and kingfish. The board moves with the fish.
Nigiri to go is the other job. Good Food, 29 May 2024, already said they dry-age and slice a range into boxes. Broadsheet ate spicy salmon maki, aburi scallops, tuna-belly nigiri. House nikiri shoyu is brewed weekly, sweeter and milder than supermarket soy, because Tran told Adey she did not want sauce burying the dry-age. Kaisendon if you wanted salmon sashimi and roe on rice. Yuzu-miso king salmon is the signature roll the 2025 crawl still names. Temaki packs and ready maki exist if you were never going to sit.
Eat it at a pink table or walk it. Tran told Broadsheet to order from the neighbours and eat here. That is permission, not a second kitchen. Do not invent a night omakase. Good Food in December 2025 still describes a takeaway room and a vending machine. Adey wrote they were waiting on a liquor licence and talking doughnuts with Albin Lawang at Peck's Road. Until the glass says dinner, this is a lunch sitting.
Hours, payment and queues at Elka Sushi
Quoted hours from Broadsheet, 8 July 2024, and Good Food, 29 May 2024: Wednesday to Monday 11am to 4pm, closed Tuesday. Instagram @elka.sushi. Last checked 2026-09-21. Glance at the glass.
Walk-in. Broadsheet lists no reservations. Cards are normal. The order site prints pickup 11am to 3:30pm, no delivery, and info@elkasushi.com.au. If you are arriving after three, treat 3:30 as the honest close and the published 4pm as the window that can die first.
Directories still fight dinner. We put that fight in the hours note. A SEO card that prints 9pm is how you arrive at dusk and find a dark shop.
How do you get to Elka Sushi in Footscray?
You get to Elka Sushi by walking Leeds from Footscray station toward the market, to Shop 2 at 7-9, the glass with the hanging fish, not a night omakase and not a fishmonger tank.
Read the fascia. Elka. Fish in the window. You are on Leeds. If you are hunting a tasting-menu door on Barkly you have not arrived. Irving deck if you drove for the market. Eat at a pink table or take the box. This is a lunch door. Tuesday the shutter is dark. You do not need a car for 7-9. You need to arrive before the tray looks picked over.
At night this counter is shut. The night-walk advice is for Barkly and Hopkins, not for a 9pm chirashi that does not exist. Stay on Leeds if you are walking back to the station after the market.
What do people mix up about Elka Sushi?
They walk into the pho shop next door, or they treat a fishmonger across the road as nigiri, and they miss the lunch counter that actually slices the fish.
- Shop 2, 7-9 Leeds Street, Footscray VIC 3011 only. Instagram @elka.sushi.
- Wed-Mon 11am-4pm. Closed Tuesday. No bookings. No phone.
- Dry-aged chirashi and nigiri. Pickup can close 3:30.
- Not a night omakase. Not a 9pm SEO clock.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Elka Sushi?
- Elka Sushi is at Shop 2, 7-9 Leeds Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Footscray station is the nearest train. It is a lunch sushi counter, not a fishmonger and not a tasting-menu room.
- What are Elka Sushi hours?
- Wednesday to Monday 11am-4pm, closed Tuesday, on Broadsheet first look and Good Food May 2024. The order site prints pickup to 3:30pm. No phone. Instagram @elka.sushi. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- What should I order at Elka Sushi?
- The OG chirashi if you wanted dry-aged salmon, tuna, hamachi, snapper, poached oyster and braised abalone. Nigiri to go if you wanted the box. Yuzu-miso king salmon maki if that roll is on. Ask what has already sold.
- Can I book Elka Sushi?
- No. Broadsheet lists no reservations and no shop phone. Walk in. Instagram @elka.sushi. Email info@elkasushi.com.au if the order site is the job.
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