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Time to interrupt our Japan holiday posts with a Melbourne dining experience, although as you can see I haven’t veered too far from the current theme. We were craving a taste of the food from our recent trip, and decided that Nihonbashi Zen might satiate that need.

The restaurant is located in a small basement off Little Bourke Street in Melbourne’s Chinatown, and is very Japanese in feel. Sombre lighting, Shinto vermillion walls, ikebana highlights, black lacquer and ebony coloured furniture make for a sophisticated space, whilst white linen tablecloths adds a necessary contrast. We sat at the counter, a long blond wood affair that ran alongside the kitchen, which offered a chest high view of Chef Hirokazu Yano in action. It was a shame that we couldn’t see what his hands were doing though.

Nihonbashi Zen specialises in kushiyaki - skewered dishes cooked on the grill, stone grill or hot plate. You can ordered them in pairs a la carte (there is a huge selection), or venture down the banquet/degustation road. We decided on the latter.

Chef Hirokazu is renowned for sourcing and using only quality produce, and for creating one of Melbourne’s best Sake wine lists (he directly imports them via refrigerated transport from Japan). Both the Sake and the food is not cheap, but you can be assured that the quality can’t be beat.

Our first dish, sashimi, was some of the best raw fish I’ve eaten in Melbourne in some time. The salmon was deliciously fatty and melting tender in the mouth, sitting high on a pile of finely shredded seasoned daikon and seaweed. The firm red bricks of tuna were so fresh, they almost cracked when I picked them up with my chopsticks.

Tofu cheese was next, a delicious light curdy tasting block of tofu. I don’t quite know how it is prepared, but it certainly has the taste and texture of fresh cheese curds. It is absolutely divine! It sat in a pool of dashi and light shoyu, and was garnished with crisp shards of nori.

Our first kushiyaki arrived sizzling on a hot plate, marinated in a heady savoury sauce. To the front, a stick of Angus beef was so good I had to close my eyes to savour the taste. Behind, a stick of tender spring lamb, once again cooked to perfection.

Our second plate of kushiyaki consisted of three double skewers of bacon wrapped goodies; Tasmania potato, firm asparagus and okra. Now as much as I love bacon, this was perhaps overkill. This was akin to eating six rashers of bacon - I don’t think I can even do that for breakfast! Other than than, the chicken kushiyaki was wonderfully moist and caramalised.

Dessert was an amazing scoop of home made red bean ice cream served in a neat little suribachi (Japanese mortar). I’d go back for this ice cream alone.

Service can be a little sketchy - despite having three on the floor in a small space, there was still a bit of confusion and mishap. After we’d finished our dessert and the plates had been cleared away, we requested the bill and were informed that we should wait as there was one more dish to go. I was understandably excited - could there possibly be two desserts?!? Alas, after 20 minutes the waitress, after seeing that we still did not have dessert, checked with the chef, and realised she had made an error. She apologised, but no other recompense was offered.

Despite that, it is a great little restaurant with some smashing authentic Japanese cuisine, and I look forward to going back to experience the delights of the a la carte menu.

Written by mellie on December 30th, 2007 | Tags: Japanese, restaurants | Category: Uncategorized |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL