The past few Fridays in a row, I’ve been steadily (and happily) losing my brain cells drinking at Nihonshu.

This place has recently become my favourite bar because:

• Great drinks at reasonable prices (a must try is the Yuzu – a drink that tastes like a mix of mandarin juice and lemon gelati but is still alcoholic)
• Friendly staff
• Sit down at the bar style drinking
• No ‘doof doof’ music
• Not a big place – so I don’t feel like I should be hanging there with all my facebook friends
• Good japanese food (they are part of Izakaya Chuuji)

By the way, I’ve decided to make this my belated ‘May Restaurant (ahem…Bar) of the month’. Previous winners can be found in my older posts.

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Nihonshu Shochu & Sake Bar
163 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 9663 8118
Operating hours: Mon-Fri 6pm – 1am, Sat 8pm – 1am
Web: http://www.nihonshu.com.au/

I have no idea what this was. We were served this at the end of our Korean dinner in Glen Waverley because they had over-cooked (burnt) our food.

I think it was a small piece of biscuit or cake wrapped in wonton skin and then covered with chocolate sauce. It looked better than it tasted.

Can’t afford to go to Japan? Neither can I. But that’s ok, why don’t you despair at Maedaya over yakiniku.

What did we eat?

At their upstairs dining we got:

• A grill (no gas or electricity required!)
• A choice of raw ingredients to cook. We had: wagyu, ox tongue, lamb, onion, pumpkin, chilli beef & capsicum
• A few cooked dishes – yakitori and squid
• The majority of us ordered ice-cream for dessert while others had ochazuke which is rice in green tea
• A choice of 5 sauces that you can add to some seasame seeds that you grind yourself.

Note: they also have downstairs with is more of an a la carte style menu and the prices also seem quite reasonable.

What I liked?

• On Monday and Tuesday they have buy 1 get 1 free dishes for you to grill
• On Wednesday and Thursdays they have a select number of drinks alcoholic drinks for only $3.50, including some sake.

What I didn’t like:

• Even though each table has their own ventilation shaft, you still come out of the restaurant smelling like dog heaven.
• The candy that we got at the end had a picture of a pear on it, but tasted like mint.

Top tip:

Wear some shabby clothing and go with someone who likes to cook or someone you can force to cook for you.

Rating:

7/10. My friends tell me it’s pretty authentic, but I’ve never been to Japan so I’ll take their word for it. Oiiishiiii.

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Sake & Grill Maedaya
400 Bridge Road
Richmond 3121
Phone: +61 3 9428 3918
Operating hours:Mon-Sat 12pm-2:30pm, 6pm-10:30pm

No, it’s not a new dance move. It’s the Japanese version of a Chinese hotpot/steamboat with a bit of flair – you swish your meat and vegetables around in the broth rather than just dunking it all in. (I’m generally impatient so I just dunk the food in and eat it after 20 seconds of cooking and spend all night on the toilet wishing I’d let my food cook more…)

Anyway…

What did we eat?

• You get a choice between 3 soup bases: miso, soy and chicken broth
• Fresh ingredients roll around on top of a sushi train style platform and you pick off what you want to eat. There are various vegetables (e.g. enoki mushroom, cabbage, chinese mushroom) and meat (e.g. pork, chicken, beef).
• You also get to choose a dipping sauce – traditional soy, sesame, suki (slightly chilli)

What I liked:

• IT’S ALL YOU CAN EAT BABY for $25 pp.
• Everyone gets their own little hot pot so you don’t have to worry about your friend with ‘flu-like’ symptoms dipping their chopsticks into your broth.
• They had plenty of meat on offer, not just 1 or 2

What I didn’t like:

• They give you about 1.5 hours to eat your food. Even though I couldn’t eat any more after about 1 hour, I still don’t like the idea of being time limited.
• An egg costs $1 extra?! I’m pretty sure I ate about $50 worth of meat that night…surely they could’ve made the egg free?
• Probably not situated in the best location either – the restaurant faces a carpark and you need to walk in the side of the carpark to get it.

Top tip:

They open at 4pm for bookings, so if you’re going on a Friday or Saturday night, make sure you book ahead first.

Rating:

7/10 Pretty good value and variety at $25 a head. Well worth a visit if you want to try something different.

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Shabu Shabu
380 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 9642 4934
Website: http://www.shabushabu.com.au/