We Love Value For Money Japanese

Sake & Grill Maedaya is well-known for its authentic sake and yakitori charcoal grill selection. One of the first properly set up izakayas in Melbourne, it has earned a reputation for its reasonably priced taste offering of Japan.

However, what is less known is its lunch specials. Most would head for Maedaya upstairs to enjoy a smokey dinner (and meat meat meat). Those who are more inclined toward travelling to Bridge Road during the day for, say, shopping would do well to also head to Maedaya to grab a good meal. The a la carte menu is attractive (there, I said it, I called a menu attractive.) but for $14 you choose an entree, a main dish or hot plate and a side dish. Serving sizes are generous, and miso soup & endaname are free. The black walls with hessian rope draped across the ceiling lend to the impression that you are in a big ship, with various sake bottles lined across the walls.

While the girls opted for fried soft shell crab and seaweed salad to go with their tuna tataki (dish of the day), I opted to have the tuna accompanied by a sanma (also known as a Pacific saury) & soba salad and spicy bamboo shoots. The waiter was slightly stunned when we requested for a sake tasting set as it is uncommon for sake to be requested over lunch.

The sake, three types of varying taste strength in colourful glasses of 60ml each, did actually help us wash our meals down. JJ preferred the first which ML explained was "a common though pricey, high quality sake which tastes very light, best served snow-cold", while I preferred the second (a cheaper, more robust concoction) which matched well with the strong grilled taste of the sanma and the lovely tuna tataki that was served with a light wasabi mayonnaise.

The meal was a silent one, punctuated only by slurping and chewing while ML occasionally reminisced over her time in Japan. The clouds rolled in and the rain intermittently drizzled. We sipped our sake and miso soups, we slurped our noodles, we loved the just-right crunchy and salty soft shell crab, we tried hard not to ask for a second helping of rice. We were a very contented bunch.

We are coming back we are coming back we are coming back. That is, when we can resist the nourishing, thick ramens next door at Momotaro Ramen (another Melbourne Japanese favourite).

Food - 4 stars; .5 star docked off when I found out that some side dishes like my spicy bamboo shoots (which I found less than titilating in comparison to the other dishes) had gone through a *shock horror* microwave oven;
Service and atmosphere - 4 stars; the Japanese hospitality industry is the kind that all other nations can only dream of, as with their attention to detail;
Sake selection - 4 stars; bring a friend or two for yakitori, a sake and a good chat. That is what an izakaya is all about at the end of the day, after all;
Value For Money Count - 4.5 stars :)