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Vegetarians – I advise you avert your eyes just for a moment as I delve into the world of yakiniku, the Japanese art of grilling various cuts of meat for ones’ carniverous pleasure.
I was not familiar with this style of dining, so my more experienced companions chose the smokeless grill at Shoya. You see, one small problem with the traditional style of yakiniku is that you come out of the encounter smelling somewhat like a grease-pit, as it is all about cooking the meat to your liking. The smokeless grill on the other hand solves this quandry – a gas flame cooks the ingredients whilst a vacuum sucks the smelly smoke downwards. Also, it is a fairly healthy style of cooking, as the grill allows the fat to drip clean through.
Shoya itself is perhaps one of the better Japanese restaurants in this town, but unfortunately I think it is let down by a distinct lack of customer service. This is not an uncommon experience it seems (check out Cin’s review and the comments over on Ed’s site). That being said, I love the very dark and very Japanese multi-level/multi-partioned dining space, and the food can really be something quite special. The service – well, there may be a few mistakes, a few misordered items, and a lack of wanting to rectify the issue. Although on this particular night they sent out a less than acceptable dessert (ten minutes after everyone elses dessert arrived), with the promise that a perfect one was on it’s way, and it arrived about twenty minutes after that. It was bloody good, but in the end we had to wait over forty minutes for it.
Anyway, back to the meatfest.
The yakiniku menu is quite extensive. If you’ve got a big stomach you can go the “Gouka Tokusen” special set menu for $55.00, which apparently will have you crying for mercy at the end. Alternatively you can pick a la carte, ordering several types of sliced raw meat, fish or vegetables. You can then dip the cooked ingredients into a number of sauces which vary from the sweet, the salty, to the hot.
The first of the meats to arrive was the 500 day grain fed Wagyu rosu – six slices of highly marbled beef. This didn’t take too long to cook, and after a suitable saliva-inducting sear had been acheived on the outside, we whipped it off before over-cooking. It was a total melt in the mouth experience.
Tsura hoho niku, or beef cheek on the other hand was a rather interesting cut of meat. Obviously the cheek of a cow gets a lot of work chewing cud all day, so it is a very flavoursome and muscular cut. Obviously this would make slow cooking a preferable method of preparation, allowing the gelatinous nature of the fibres to tenderise. So it was interesting to have this on the yakiniku menu, especially as the idea is to cook it quickly. That being said, it was an extremely tasty morsel, if somewhat chewier (obviously) than the wagyu.
Negi tan, or ox tongue, was prepared using spring onion and salt. The tongue was almost wafer thin, and didn’t need much cooking at all. Despite the fact that I was eating something rather gross by some peoples standards, I found this to be one of my favourites. The flavour was delicate and it cooked really well on the grill. Mmm…I’d have this one again in a heartbeat.
This is a good photo that shows how the BBQ grill actually works. The vents on the side are responsible for sucking the smoke away, and the fat from the meat falls straight through the grill. The heat is obviously hotter in the middle of the grill, and you can place slower/longer cooking items on the sides.
We also had the kurobuta rosu, which is black hair pork loin. Unfortunately the photo didn’t turn out so great, but the pork tasted bloody good!
The Wagyu soseiji, which was basically just a beef sausage, arrived partially cooked. A quick slice with the knife saw chunks layed on the grill for a final heat up and sear. It came with a side dish of wholegrain mustard, but I felt went so much better with a sidedish of smoky sweet chilli.
It was not all about the meat mind you, and we did have some vegetables dishes. This was just some simple sliced zucchini, onion, carrot and eggplant.
Some salady sides included a seaweed, lettuce and radish salad, or negi wakame salad. The addition of pine kernals added a lovely nuttiness to the saltiness of the seaweed. Delectable.
The mentai potato salad had as totally enraptured. Whilst there was meant to be some spicy cod roe in it (as far as the menu was concerned anyway), we didn’t see it. But we certainly didn’t miss it as this plate of creamy potato rocked. It was garnished with long shreds of daikon and bright green ed
amame.
We finished out meatfest with some onigiri, which frankly is some of the best I’ve had in this town. The rice was still blissfully warm and flecked with big flakes of grilled salmon, or ume (sour plum), okaka (bonito flakes and soy) or mentaiko (spicy cod roe). Made fresh and made to order is the only way to go.
With a couple of glasses of wine and desserts, we came out of the experience at about $60 per person. I think that is great value for a dining experience that is a little out of the ordinary.
One of my fav dining experiences in Melbourne. Would have been the best if they had nicer priced sake on the menu. You manage to take some really good shots in dim lighting. My friends (camera geeks) and I always wonder what kind of set up you have.
While the grill is somewhat smaller than what I was used to after living in Japan, it brings back memories of the occasional Friday night out in Yonohommachi followed up by a massively long dose of Karaoke and Calpis. One of my favourite dining experiences in Japan but haven’t tried here yet. I surely will now.
Ooooh looks delicious! I love a good meatfest!
Ooohhh, yum-O! Very interesting stuff there, wouldn’t mind trying it all!
Hey there vince – uh huh, I so love sake but didn’t think much of their prices. From memory, the cheapest bottle was $80!! And yes, it is VERY dim in Shoya. Usually I take my point and shoot Sony DSC-P8 3.2megapixel (it is small and discreet). But for the Shoya shots I took my Sony SLR Alpha, which allows me to reduce the shutter speed so I don’t have to use a flash. Unfortunately one needs a VERY steady hand for this as I don’t use a tripod. I must admit I love taking food photos though
Hey ryopoi – ooh…looking forward to trying yakinuki when I go to Japan in October. Can you recommend anywhere in particular?
Hi truffle – well you will certainly enjoy this meatfest then. You can choose from 16 different cuts of beef alone (…and I’m not even delving into pork / fish etc.)
Heya anna – you should certainly try this then. And since you recently broke your salmon cherry, I suggest you try some of the salmon onigiri, or salmon steak for yakiniku
The pics look really good!
I’ve been to Shoya once last year to celebrate a friend’s birthday and I have to say I didn’t come out with an experience as good as yours. We didn’t order the yakiniku (maybe we should have!), just entrees and mains plus dessert.
We paid roughly around $60 plus too, but unfortunately a LOT of our party wasn’t full despite the three course meal! Hence some were dissatisfied with that. The food was okay to my memory – it was good but not spectacularly or anything.
The service was okay as well – what problems did you encounter? They weren’t massively polite or attentive to our party but I guess it was passable service.
One thing I have to give Shoya a thumbs up for is really their environment. The restaurant is really very pretty.
the yakiniku looks n sounds delicious.But I didnt try that the last time I went,and just ordered from their a la carte menu.Similar to mouse, I had entree, main n dessert yet didn’t feel full! The bill came out as $60++ p.p. as well. I think the portion is way too small for it is somewhat ridiculous to not feel full after u had a 3-course meal. Although I have to mention tt their dessert is v good and the ambience too, just gives u a very japanese feels, I never go back again. Mayb I should giv their yakiniku ago =)
San
I agree about the portion sizes for some of the dishes on the a la carte. from the descriptions, it’s hard to tell whether it would fill you up, for example, if you ordered the steak, this would probably be sufficient, but I’ve previously ordered the duck (entree), and this came out as 5 very thin slices which was delicious but would hardly constitute even an entree! also, as mentioned in Mel’s blog, our desserts were miniscule. the best value is probably the yakiniku, or the sashimi/sushi, which is very fresh.
a good time to go is at lunch time, where you can have a bowl of very nice ramen or udon.
the issue with service is that Shoya tends to use students who are not really trained waiters. This sometimes detracts greatly from the experience as they are unable to advise on menu selections, often get orders mixed up, do not clear plates in a timely manner, and sometimes it takes forever to get your bill. For the prices charged, I would expect more professional service. also, the kitchen can be a bit slow which results in the dishes not coming out at the same time which, for a Japanese meal, tends to detract from it, as Japanese meal is meant to be eaten as a set rather than one at a time.
having said that, I agree that the feel is very Japanese (though I have not been to Japan – soon to change in October though!!). there’s private karaoke rooms that you can hire out, and an upstairs bar which has the exhorbitant cover charge of $20 (!!) – although I think such cover charges are common in Japan/Asia. I’ve been to the bar and it’s really nothing special, but it’s an interesting experience as you have your own hostess to wait on you.
the other thing about Shoya is that it is one of the few places in Melb that has the Suntory Hibiki, which you can buy by the bottle ($250) and keep it at the bar, a la Japan. It has certainly allowed me to indulge in my Lost in Translation fantasies
Shoya is somewhat following the traditional Japanese way — serving multiple small dishes for a meal, which is different from the western entree and main system. Shoya’s menu does have a section for main courses, though. In this way, I reckon it is quite authentic. A more formal Japanese meal is not about large portions of one of two dishes, but small portions of many different dishes.
Of course, the down said is this may not satisfy the expectation of some people and may blow your budget if you want to get full.
I think you will have to get your expectation right if you want to enjoy eating there.
I used to love Shoya when we first discovered it in 2004. The service was great back then with actual Japanese waitresses! However, as time passes, the portions seem to get smaller.
They used to have oxtail Ramen which was really good, but unfortunately they took it off the menu. The service also wasn’t as good as it was, so I’ve stopped going.
The pictures are really nice though. Do you happen to know any good Ramen shop in Melbourne?
Hi hungry hamster – ohhh..what I would give for good ramen in Melbourne!! Unfortunately most of it is crap, which I now have the authority to say after eating many, many bowls of in Japan recently. If you find one, let me in on the secret!
[...] have written about Shoya before (refer here and here), but this is the spring rall (sic) of scampi which is part of the Matsu special lunch set [...]
Hi Mellie,
Thanks for the great post! Shoya is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants. Interestingly, I’ve never experienced this hit-and-miss service that others have spoken about. Maybe I’ve just been lucky or maybe it’s because it’s always been fairly quiet when I’ve been. From one yakiniku-lover to another, have you seen the Air Yakiniku website? It’s a hoot! – Cheers.