Yakikami, in Melbourne, is an excellent traditional Japanese restaurant offering quality food, great service and an overall excellent experience.
It’s not hard to find good Japanese restaurants in Australia, so large is the immigrant community from the land of the rising sun, and after a bit of research I decided on Yakikami, which, as you’ll see, offers a very interesting choice of menu and experiences.
You’ll find a summary of the articles about this trip to Australia at the bottom of the page.
The concept
Yakikami is a traditional Japanese restaurant offering a variety of experiences, including à la carte and tasting menus. depending on the atmosphere and the area of the restaurant you choose.
The setting
As I’ve just said, the restaurant offers a variety of settings: a dining room for à la carte meals, a private lounge for the chef’s menu, and a counter for sushi and the “omakase” tasting menu, which is prepared in front of you.
The menu
When I made my reservation, I opted for the Omakase menu (which means “I trust you”, a sort of tasting menu where the chef tries to surprise his guests by making his own selection), which meant I had to eat at the counter. Indeed, it’s the only menu I can show you.
The meal
I arrive 10 minutes early and am made to wait at the bar. I’ll order a cocktail, which will take a while to be served and will only be served once I’ve settled in.
I’m quickly picked up and seated at the counter. From there, I’ll have an unobstructed view of the preparation of the dishes that will be served to me live.
The service starts quite quickly.
Zensai (starter): Snow crab, king fish, scallop, Tosazu jelly.
The fish are fresh with firm flesh, and the jelly adds a slight smokiness. A treat.
Fresh shucked oyster, Yuzukosho vinaigrette.
It’s lemony and a little spicy. It’s fresh and tasty, but the sauce is so thick you can hardly taste the oysters.
Luxury assorted sashimi, freshly caught with Japanese Toro.
For the uninitiated, the Toro is a basket used for fishing by Japanese fishermen.
With sashimi, there’s no secret: it’s the quality and freshness of the fish that counts. Here it’s fresh, firm and tasty.
Chawanmushi snow crab, steamed egg omelette with shrimp and chicken dashi.
I feel a bit like I’m eating an egg custard with crab and chicken in a broth. I’m not a fan, you can hardly taste the ingredients, the chicken is insipid and if the whole thing wasn’t disgusting I’d have found it hard to eat another bite.
Not my thing.
Chef’s selection of 5 Binchotan robata grill skewers, Nomad chicken, vegetables, choice of Tsukune meatballs with cheese.
The skewers arrive one by one.
First the chicken skewer.
Very good, very crispy, and very hot….
Then cheese balls.
Fine and melting, caramelized but not too much.
I can’t identify the next two.
The first will be quite tasteless, the second fine and smoky.
Vegetable skewer.
On the face of it, I was expecting something rather bland, but in the end it was melting but not too much, and they picked up the smell of smoke from the grill. Excellent with a few condiments and lemon.
Wasabi Mayo king prawn, beer batter, wasabi mayo, crispy apple coleslaw.
Nice, but the mayonnaise, however light, made the dish a little heavy. The apples add a welcome freshness.
Chicken ramen, 12-hour homemade chicken broth.
The slightly spicy broth is a delight. Very good, and perhaps a little hearty for the end of a meal.
Mango ice cream.
All in all, even if one or two dishes weren’t quite to my taste (it happens), it was a very good meal, with quality ingredients and quality service.
The service
Very friendly and efficient staff. What’s more, when I ate at the counter, most of the dishes were given to me directly by the chef.
Atmosphere
Lively like all restaurants of this type when you eat facing the cooks, but not disturbingly noisy.
Bottom line
Quality experience for a very solid performance.
The articles about this trip to Australia
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