HOT: Shoya Japanese Restaurant (Part 2), 25 Market Ln, Melbourne

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Jetsetting Joyce

After my previous post on dinner at the high-end Japanese restaurant Shoya, many people recommended that I try their more affordable but equally delicious lunch menu. So, to take advantage of a quiet day at the office, I joined my friends J and A for the $28 Shoya lunch set.

Shoya Japanese 25 Market Lane Melbourne

You get a LOT of food for your money. Our long lunch began with a small dish of pickled vegetables and what I think was slices of eel. Then we dipped our spoons into a ceramic ramekin of the most sexy silken baked savoury egg custard I’ve ever had.

Shoya Japanese 25 Market Lane Melbourne

Next up was a cube of chilled bean curd bathed in a soy broth and piled with ginger and spring onions plus a precisely sliced set of sashimi resting on a frozen orange hemisphere (I noticed that the grain on the fish was exactly symmetrical and cut in such a way to reveal in pretty half-moon shapes).

Shoya Japanese 25 Market Lane Melbourne

For ‘mains’ we received a large plate of featherlight prawn and vegetable tempura; a small serving of grilled fish and a mini bowl of slithery udon floating with seaweed. Actually, I should clarify – in fact I ate three bowls of udon as J and A were full at this point. Never one to let good food go to waste and having been to the gym that morning, I went to work on the noodles while they watched in amazement and suggested I try competitive eating as an alternative career.

Shoya Japanese 25 Market Lane Melbourne

Finally for dessert, a generous scoop of refreshing green tea icecream presented in a pretty leaf-shaped dish.

Having now gone for lunch and barbecue dinner at Shoya, I would definitely recommend lunch as the more wallet-friendly yet still delicious option – plus with that amount of food you’re probably not going to need dinner that night, even if you haven’t eaten three bowls of udon.

Shoya Japanese Restaurant, +61 ‎

HOT: Cibi, 45 Keele St, Collingwood

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Jetsetting Joyce

Cibi 45 Keele St Collingwood

I have two friends who are a couple. J is Asian and would like nothing better than a bowl of rice or noodles for breakfast. B is Anglo and in the morning the most substantial thing he can deal with is eggs and toast.

I think I’ve just found the perfect place for them to have their breakfast dates. At Japanese-styled cafe Cibi, those who sit in B’s camp can order a Western style breakfast of the eggs and toast variety. On Saturday mornings those who lean towards more of J’s style can be served a traditional Japanese breakfast. For $14.50 you receive a substantial feed of rice, a piece of grilled salmon (they also have a vegetarian option), slices of egg omelette, pickled vegetables, Japanese potato salad and a large bowl of miso soup complete with hand hewn wooden soup ladle. Paired with a pot of Japanese green tea, it’s a healthy and hearty start to the day.

Cibi 45 Keele St Collingwood

The Western/Eastern pairings continue with the delicious baked goods made by the owner’s wife. On one side of the counter, beautiful frangipani tarts laden with juicy berries. On the other side, green tea (matcha) muffins hiding a smear of red bean paste inside ($3.50). These unusual muffins were so moist and moreish – I had one straight out of the oven and then took another one home.

Cibi 45 Keele St Collingwood

The space’s simple and refined aesthetic is also a combination of Japanese elegance and Western warehouse chic. There’s a general friendliness and ease about the place. A large blackboard rests on one wall where customers scrawl their notes to Cibi and each other, and across it the Cibi staff have said ‘Thank you for everyone for hanging out at Cibi‘. Awww.

Each of the mismatched mid-century chairs has been restored by the owner Zenta, a trained architect, and sourced from a combination of junk shops and Zenta’s contacts in Denmark. I love the organic shape of the communal table which takes centre stage in the light-filled room and the way in which it echoes the waves of the traditional Japanese wood block print hanging on the white-washed wall.

Cibi 45 Keele St Collingwood

For the curious observer there are many nooks and crannies filled with interesting objects like vases and old books, and a whole section of Cibi is devoted to the display and sale of goods imported from Japan, from ceramics to fabrics to kitchenware. I particularly loved the pastel porcelain of the rice bowls by Masahiro Mori.

Finally, I also had an interesting chat with one of the waiters, Leo Greenfield. When he’s not working at Cibi, Leo is a recent VCA visual arts graduate who majored in sculpture and has a side project publishing his sketches of Australian street fashion at The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. Go check it out!

Cibi, +

HOT: Shoya Japanese Restaurant, 25 Market Ln, Melbourne

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Jetsetting Joyce

Shoya

Market Lane in the city is where you go to complete the Melbourne Asian foodie’s trinity – Flower Drum, Hutong Dumpling and Shoya.

Shoya is a multi-storey venture into Japanese food. The basement and ground floor houses traditional Japanese BBQ, first floor is traditional Japanese seating providing a la carte and degustation dining and the second floor is the sushi counter. There are also karaoke rooms and an executive lounge on the upper floors.

Shoya

Although I would have loved to try a degustation option, given the high prices ($100 and above) and that one of our party was a student, we opted for the cheaper BBQ option with meat and seafood at $59. The “Gouka Tokusen” Special set still provided an abundance of food. We started off with Wagyu sashimi (thinly sliced fresh raw Wagyu beef) and a small bowl of salad. Then platter after platter was brought out to be cooked over the smokeless Japanese grills, from rib of Wagyu beef, Wagyu beef sirloin, thin rounds of ox tongue, juicy pieces of pork belly, marinated chicken, vegetables, huge prawns, scallops, squid florets, rather chewy abalone and kingfish. All this plus steamed rice, a bowl of warming miso soup and a choice of red bean, black sesame or green tea ice cream for dessert.

Oh, and I also opted for a serving of sea urchin cheesecake ($12) just because I couldn’t resist the adventure. On tasting the fluffy cheesecake I couldn’t detect any sea urchin at all, but the waitress informed me with delight, as if revealing the answer to a puzzle, that it actually consisted of 30% sea urchin. It seems a bit bizarre to use such an expensive ingredient in a dish where you can’t actually taste it, but now I know (and you know) what sea urchin cheesecake tastes like.

We had a lovely night at Shoya as all of the food was fresh and carefully prepared and I thought that quantity and quality of the food was good value for the price. However, I won’t go for the Japanese BBQ next time – I mean, how innovative can you be with barbecue? I’d rather save my money for a proper degustation, or else try the $28 Shoya set lunch menu which my friend J and Eat My Radish tells me is delicious.

Shoya Japanese Restaurant, +61 ‎

HOT: Izakaya Den, Basement 114 Russell St, Melbourne

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Jetsetting Joyce

Izakaya Den 114 Russell St Melbourne

The tapas trend in Australia seems to have now progressed to other forms of ‘little food’ – and in Melbourne, it has led to the growth of izakayas, or Japanese pubs.

Izakaya Den (from Simon Denton of Verge fame) is the latest restaurant in the izakaya-spurt. After you descend down the stairs from the barely-there doorway, it’s very Japanese: in the layout of the eating bench along the length of the narrow underground concrete chamber; the projection of the specials menu along one wall; the ninja-stealth staff uniforms and the paper scrolls listing the food and drink (including an extensive selection of sake, shochu and plum wine).

However, the food is not the sort you’d normally find Japanese salarymen scoffing down with beer before their late-night commute to the suburbs. Izakaya Den serves Japanese melded with Western tastes and so the menu encompasses traditional, but more often than not, fusion dishes, all to be shared.

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Izakaya Den 114 Russell St Melbourne

You could say that our experience veered from Japan to Italy to Switzerland and back again. We ordered the tuna tataki of thinly sliced melt-in-your-mouth cubes of tuna dotted with garlic soy, bresaola sheltering a daikon strip salad and my favourite, an unusual take on umagidon with eel and rice steamed in fragrant bamboo leaves. For dessert, C and I shared black sesame icecream topped with pink grapefruit, a white chocolate and green tea fondue with little green tea and macadamia mochi balls for dipping, and a cute little wagashi decorated with the tiniest of pink bows.

Izakaya Den 114 Russell St Melbourne

With a beer and a cocktail, the meal came to about $55 a head for three people. So the little food is not cheap – but it is beautifully presented, surprising and unique. Best of all, the cool space will transport you back to Tokyo.

If you want to read more about the izakaya invasion, check out articles in The Age’s Epicure, Melbourne Gastronome and Broadsheet.

Izakaya Den, +