Calia

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Hey everyone! It feels like it’s been loooong time since we’ve published a post. We’ve been super busy travelling, working on other projects and then studying for my final exam ever! Now that’s done, we’re back into the swing of things such as our love for food.

Calia has been a place that we have wanted AND have attempted to get in to try for a while now. Located at Emporium Melbourne in the CBD, the Japanese menu has been designed by Michelin star chef Francisco Javier Araya. The reviews for this place has been high and the photos of the dishes looked amazing so we were dying to check it out. Attached to the dining area is also a retail concept space which stocks and showcases high quality, luxury food and food related products.

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However they are only open until 7.30 pm from Saturday to Wednesday and 9.30 pm from Thursday to Friday, and they don’t take bookings. Therefore you really just have to show up and try your luck at putting your name on the wait list. They take your number down and text you when it’s ready. However there are no guarantees you’ll get in because like us when we first tried, if it reaches almost closing time then you’ve missed out for the night. Their dining area is not huge either so the only tip we have is to get there as early as possible.

On this joyous night we decided to get there at 5.30 pm, and lo and behold, we were seated within about 20 minutes! We were so excited! While we were waiting we just browsed around in their retail store which had items ranging from wine, cured meats and truffle slices to tea pots, whiskey glasses and honey dippers.

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Once we were seated we perused the menu and realised we pretty much wanted to try almost everything because it all sounded amazing! After some time though we narrowed it down. From the grazing menu we ordered the Alaskan king crab claw baked in miso mayonnaise, Unami fries, raw scallops dressed in wasabi ponzu sauce, baked scallops (cause we just had to try both versions!), and ox tongue with yakitori sauce.

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The Alaskan king crab claw was a bit disappointing as it was dry and had no crab flavour at all. I think they relied heavily on the very strong miso mayonnaise. It was probably our least favourite dish of the night. The Unami fries were absolutely amazing! They were crunchy and flavoured with seaweed and the perfect spices. We couldn’t stop eating them! The raw scallops were SO fresh and their light dressing ensured the scallops itself were the hero of the dish. This was one of my favourite dishes of the night and I took my time savouring it. The baked scallops were also delicious and the creamy mayo sauce they baked it in was perfectly balanced in flavours.

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What surprised us the most however was the ox tongue. When it came out we were wondering if it was really ox tongue or whether it was actually beef as they were presented on skewers as thick square shaped pieces. I guess we were envisioning thin slices of meat being ox tongue. But oh my gosh they were ox tongue and they were so soft! The meat literally melted in our mouths. They were SO good! The best ox tongue we’ve ever had! We also enjoyed it with this special green matcha beer they recommended which went down really well.

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For the mains we ordered the marbled Sukiyaki bowl which had premium Marble 9+ wagyu slices with a 63 degrees egg and rice. This dish was SO tasty! The wagyu was so soft and flavoured perfectly, a spoonful of the wagyu, the rice and the egg was heaven. We also ordered the Ochazuke Samon which had grilled sustainably caught Tasmanian salmon with a dashi tea broth. The tea broth was lovely however the salmon was a bit dry. We recently had a similar dish with the tea broth in the U.S which was better.


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With dessert we ordered the chocolate lava cake which oozed of warm matcha ganache. This dessert was to die for and we loved that strong bitterness of the dark chocolate. Really yummy dessert. We were also given a complimentary dessert which was their newly created crepes filled with the loveliest yuzu flavoured cream. It was really good and I would definitely order that again.

The service was good and there were a lot of staff to attend to their diners. Food came out super quick. We did struggle a bit in communicating with one of the staff because his English wasn’t that good, but other than that they were really friendly and accommodating. The prices for high quality food such as this are also VERY reasonable.

Overall it was a great experience and we’re really glad we got the opportunity to try their food.

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Calia
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: Shop 8, Level 3/287 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 9662 1688
Website: calia.com.au

Calia Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sakura Kaiten Sushi

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So a friend of mine is currently over in Japan having the time of her life skiing and eating, sending me pics of her eating adventures (at my request), which of course made me really miss all the amazing food over there.  I thought that it was timely then that our next blog post was on a Japanese dining experience in Melbourne!

If you’re looking for a good sushi train restaurant with top quality produce in Melbourne, then Sakura Kaiten Sushi is one to check out. It’s been on our very long ‘to try’ list for quite some time and finally we did it. The outcome? Why didn’t we try this place earlier?!

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Not to be confused with their sister restaurant Sakura Kaiten II which is located on Lonsdale St, the Sakura Kaiten Sushi we visited is located on Little Collins St, CBD and is the higher rated out of the two. It is a fairly small and intimate place so if you’re like us and don’t want to spend too much time waiting in the queue outside, call up and make a booking. We didn’t think that they took bookings but were pleasantly surprised when we called and they allowed us to reserve two seats.

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Now let’s get straight into the food. Just like most other sushi train restaurants, there are different coloured plates of glorious food that slowly travel by you for your choosing. Each colour represents a price (i.e. orange plates are $2.80, pink plates are $3.80 etc.). But of course being the piglets that we are, Davin and I never take notice of that and more look out for what looks good, generally taking plates off the conveyer belt as fast as they are topping it up. Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration but you know what I mean!

The quality of the produce was the closest reminder of Japan for us. The seafood was definitely fresh and we gobbled up more sashimi and nigiri than we probably should have. It would be too much to list every plate we tried but one of the highlights included the super tuna belly nigiri. Oh my gosh the tuna belly literally brought us back to Tokyo when we were just ordering plates and plates of the nice pink super fatty tuna nigiri over there because it was so good. Well this tuna belly nigiri for Melbourne standards was pretty damn good and pretty close to Japan! The tuna literally melted in our mouths and we could taste the fattiness of it on our lips. Of course we couldn’t stick to just one plate and took a few more plates for our feasting.

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We also really liked the salmon cream cheese roll, the octopus salad, salmon with lobster salad sakura flower, scallop nigiri, grilled salmon nigiri, grilled yellow tail nigiri, calamari nigiri, tsubugai nigiri, salmon belly sashimi, only to name a few! Even their deep fried oysters and chill prawn dumplings were top notch. We were so full by the time we walked out but was very satisfied with the food. Highly recommend if you are craving a taste of Japanese!

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Sakura Kaiten Sushi
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: 61 Little Collins St, Melbourne CBD, VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 9663 0898

Sakura Kaiten Sushi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Ponshu Kiroro


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Ponshu Kiroro recently invited us to their restaurant which they only opened about 4 months ago. We were excited to try it out as their food is based only from Hokkaido, which is up north of Japan. We didn’t get the chance to explore the north of Japan last time but after trying the food and hearing how lovely the people are there it will definitely be on our list for our next trip!

Tomoko Takashi is their chef and mastermind behind the creation of their menu and was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She also became in charge of various programs such as the Japanese version of Master Chef and live cooking shows.

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The restaurant is located in the CBD on Katherine Place. It had quite a presence with its large floor to ceiling windows and bright lights. What we did notice however was that the street itself was pretty quiet and it probably has something to do with Flinders Lane being just around the corner where a lot of the restaurants are situated so people probably don’t wander down Katherine Place as much. The restaurant itself felt quite spacious inside and the décor had a nice light wooden feel.

Upon entering we were cheerily greeted by Joel, the manager who seated us and talked us through their menu. As we were invited, we were happy to go with whatever they had in store for us. We started off with the spicy tuna parfait which was such a pretty and colourful dish! It was presented in a glass and had layers of bean curd rice, seaweed rice and hot spicy dressing. It was delicious and one of those dishes you could just keep scoffing!

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Next up was the Zangi Senbei, deep fried Hokkaido chicken crackers and stir fried Edame beans with garlic and red chilli. These dishes can of course be found in Hokkaido and are the type of dishes you can snack on with some beer.

For mains we were then served the pork belly which came with Kiroro vinegared soy sauce. The pork itself was slightly dry but the flavours of the sauce were nice. Our highlight dish of the night however was the Hokkaido Chanchan Salmon. The salmon was baked in foil with Hokkaido sweet miso paste. This dish was soooo good! The salmon was cooked perfectly and the sweetness of the sauce brought out the flavours, making it an exceptional dish.

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Throughout the night all the staff were super friendly, checking in on us and chatting away, even recommending restaurants to try both in Melbourne and if we’re ever in Hokkaido! Shinji even wrote his name down and told us to let him know when we decide to go to Hokkaido so he can give us a list of recommendations. Being from Hokkaido himself, he talked about how lovely the people are there and how cheap the food is too!

Overall it was a lovely experience and we want to thank Joel and everyone there at Ponshu Kiroro for the warm hospitality. We’re told the Hokkaido ramens, soup based and dry are also apparently quite popular too at lunch time, so if you’re ever in the area do check it out if you’re interested in trying out food from Hokkaido!

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Ponshu Kiroro
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: 9 Katherine Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 8657 8553

Ponshu Kiroro Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato