Column 1:
a. 220204F-Fairfax-GoodFood-NewtownW-Ante-Japanese-bar.restaurant
b. 211113Sa-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-Yakimono-Japanese.restaurant
c. 210630W-Fairfax-Traveller-Japan-bar-cafe
d. 211113Sa-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-Yakimono-Japanese.restaurant
e. 210816M-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-Richmond-Maedaya.Japanese.restaurant
www.maedayarichmond.com.au
Column 2:
a. 211018M-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-Yakimono-restaurant-Japanese.food
b. 220214M-Fairfax-GoodFood-Yakimono-Japanese.restaurant
c. 211101M-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-Yakimono-Japanese-restaurant
d. b. 210727Tu-Fairfax-cre-SwanStreet-Richmond-KokoroJapanese-RichmondPieShop
www.kokorosushi.com.au/dine-in-menu
Column 3:
a. 201028W-Melbourne’Age’-NekoNeko-cafe
Yi Chan savours a fresh bowl of ramen at Neko Neko.CREDIT:EDDIE JIM
…Across the road at vegan ramen restaurant Neko Neko, Yi Chan is excited to sit down and eat.
“I came here once or twice a week before COVID and I still came here during lockdown.”
Some food just isn’t great in containers, though. “Their speciality is ramen and it doesn’t taste as good when it’s takeaway,” she says.
“Slurping it up, freshly made, from a real bowl – it’s the best feeling ever.”
From her window seat, Ms Chan watches the city move again. “It’s amazing, the weather is great, it’s nice to see the old Melbourne coming back.”
b. 211218Sa-Melbourne’Age’-Akira-ramen.bar
c. 211101M-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-GomiToysRamen
d. 211111Th-Launceston’Examiner’-SushiPlus
Column 4:
a. 210622Tu-‘SMH’-BondiBeach(NSW)-RawBar-sushi
b. 211022F-Melbourne’Age’-ChapelSt-street.party-sushi. This was a midnight party marking the end of covid lockdowns & curfews.
c. 211004M-Melbourne’HeraldSun’-ChapelSt-HakoSushi
d. 210916F-Fairfax-GoodFood-NakanoDarling-Japanese-food
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen
I had a ramen breakfast most mornings for a month in Japan: served from trolleys. Noodles cooked in broth in 60 seconds, then some extras: usually a prawn wafer or an egg shirred in the same broth.
Chin Chin boss Chris Lucas to open 7th restaurant, Yakimono, next month. Kara Monssen October 18, 2021
Chin Chin boss Chris Lucas will reopen all his restaurants at the glam 80 Collins site in one hit, when Melbourne’s lockdown ends, including long-awaited Japanese eatery Yakimono.
Fast-paced Japanese eatery Yakimono was the third and final Lucas Restaurant to open at the glam 80 Collins site, behind hyped Society and Lillian Terrace.
On Monday, Lucas revealed Yakimono, Society and Lillian Terrace were now taking bookings for its main restaurant and private dining areas when they reopened on November 5.
Yakimono, meaning grilled everything, is inspired by Lucas’ time living and working in Tokyo.
The two-level venue — which includes an outdoor terrace — takes on a late-night izakaya bar vibe, with all of head chef Dan Wilson’s (ex-Huxtaburger) menu cooked over flame.
Yakimono is the new Japanese eatery by Chris Lucas.
Yakimono’s quick bites include BBQ pork cheek with fermented chilli, Wagyu beef yakitori (grilled meat on a stick), spicy beef tartare and curried sweet potato gyoza.
Bookings are now open for November 5.
www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/food/seville-estate-shares…
Chin Chin boss Chris Lucas opens new casual Japanese eatery Yakimono at 80 Collins in CBD. Kara Monssen November 3, 2021
Golden-fried snacks are a hit in any restaurant— and at Chin Chin boss Chris Lucas’ new Japanese eatery, part of the menu is dedicated to delicious things coated in panko crumbs.
Melbourne burger king Daniel Wilson isn’t afraid to play with fire— or panko crumbs.
The Huxtaburger founder swaps burgers for the binchotan grill in his new gig as executive chef of Chris Lucas’ fiery new Japanese outfit Yakimono, which opens this Friday.
There’s even a section on the menu dedicated to delicious things coated in panko crumbs.
“So chicken katsu and panko-crumbed prawns, and a tofu mozzarella croquette with shiitake and green furikake,” Wilson said.
Daniel Wilson will lead the kitchen at Chris Lucas’ new Japanese outfit Yakimono. Picture: Jason Edwards
Yakimono will have a section of the menu dedicated to panko-crumbed treats. Picture: Jason Edwards
The restaurant is the biggest casual diner in the Lucas Restaurant stable to-date. Picture: Jason Edwards.
The restaurant is the biggest casual diner in the Lucas Restaurant stable to-date. Picture: Jason Edwards.
The project is Lucas’s biggest casual restaurant to date, seating 250-300 people across two levels, an outdoor terrace, in private dining rooms, and around an open kitchen and grill.
Like Chin Chin, Yakimono (meaning grilled everything) will take a modern approach to authentic Japanese flavours, with plenty of sushi, grilled meats and noodles to go around.
Yakimono means grilled everything. Picture: Jason Edwards
“The menu has something for everyone and covers all areas – hot and cold, heavy and light.
Yakimono is the third venue in the high-end 80 Collins space, opening next door to Lucas’s two other restaurants, Society and Lillian Terrace.
There’ll be two bars, with 10 beers and four wines on tap, plus sake and cocktails.
Yakimono is open daily from Friday, for lunch and dinner, with dinner only the first week.
NOODLES IN NEED
Two ramen-loving lads with plans to open a Brunswick bar dedicated to the Japanese noodle soup have called on the public for help.
Gomi Boys Ramen founders Ben Reardon and Ryan Maher’s at-home ramen kits went gangbusters in lockdown.
Now the duo plans to turn Sydney Rd’s old Beat Box Kitchen into a 60-seater restaurant.
The pair has already paid for 80 per cent of the restaurant, but are using crowd-funding platform Pozible to help raise the final $15,000.
The cash will pay for produce, staff, designers, marketing and a welcome to country.
So far they’ve raised about $7000.
Gomi Boys Ramen founders Ben Reardon and Ryan Maher.
gomiboysramen.com
www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/food/sandhill-road-group-o…
Chris Lucas’ new Japanese restaurant Yakimono injects high energy, fast-paced fun to city. Kara Monssen November 30, 2021
Hospo kingpin Chris Lucas’ new larger-than-life CBD eatery Yakimono will jolt you back to your pre-pandemic pace with fiery Japanese snacks and fast-paced fun.
Go big or go home. Or so the saying goes, and after donning activewear and scoffing Cheezels on the couch for the past four months, there was a fat chance of the latter happening this Saturday night.
Want a jolt back to your pre-pandemic pace? Visit Chris Lucas’ new plaything, Yakimono.
The 300-seater is the Lucas Group’s largest casual restaurant yet, pulsing big Japanese izakaya energy across two neon-lit levels and grand terrace.
Think Chin Chin on steroids. A sensory overload. It’s a lot.
Yakimono is the new Japanese restaurant by Chris Lucas and Lucas Restaurants. Picture: Jason Edwards
The people, colours, vibrating oonce-oonce beating through the speakers, sizzle, smoke and flame. Oh, and the people.
Did I mention people? They’re coming from all angles – beside, behind and in front of you, especially if you’re seated in the splash zone of burger king turned executive chef Daniel Wilson’s open kitchen.
Watching his black-capped and shirted army of chefs flip, fry and finesse is an almighty spectacle.
Almost everything is cooked over flame, be it inch-thick tuna slabs to meat threaded sticks (yakitori).
Running a Japanese restaurant may seem like a curious move for the Huxtaburger co-founder.
The classically trained chef has worked abroad in some of the world’s best restaurants, and most famously was behind Fitzroy hit Huxtable, which closed in 2016.
Raw tuna with smoked paprika.
Before that, he worked with chef Jacques Reymond at Arintji and ran the Giannakis brothers’ Graham Restaurant in Port Melbourne.
He hasn’t worked in Japan but has eaten and travelled the country widely, plus has a firm handle on the city’s casual dining scene.
Add Lucas’ business wits and love of late-night Tokyo snacks and sips in the mix, and you get Yakimono.
It’s where fast-landing snacks shine, such as the karubi dog ($14.50), which subs in ultra-tender waygu for sausage and is brimming with smoky depth, sharp miso mustard and pickly tang.
Edamame and wasabi dip.
Soft, gelatinous raw tuna ($27.50) is deliciously dressed in a fluorescent red pool of smoked paprika and sweet fermented chilli.
Golden-fried mozzarella tofu ($19.50) squares squirt and ooze salty, molten cheese goodness from the panko-dedicated menu section.
Stick to what you know with plenty of sushi, sashimi, rice and noodles to go around, or eat outside your comfort zone to reap the best rewards.
A wonderfully charred octopus coil ($34.50) is licked in a sweet soy glaze and showered in crispy chilli flakes.
Humming heat, loaded with texture and burnt bits, it’s a real flavour bomb.
BBQ octopus.
Karubi dog.
I once thought smoked eel udon ($28.50) was a little ho-hum but lately I’ve been pining for another comforting bowl, mainly for those fat slurpy noodles, chewy shimeji mushrooms and gooey, just-cooked egg.
Pair anything at Yaki with one of the 10 Melbourne brewed beers on tap, sake (either as is or in cocktails) and you’re set.
Dessert may need a little work. Portioning, especially that mochi waffle ($18.50), is way too much for one after a big feast and is better shared.
The yaki-kult ice cream sandwich ($12.50) — a fermented milk and monaka (rice wafer) mash-up riffing on the popular probiotic drink — is most baffling.
Be jolted back to your pre-pandemic life at the CBD restaurant.
Yakimono pulses big Japanese izakaya energy across two neon-lit levels and a grand terrace.
On paper it’s great, and is served in an edible milk bottle, but in reality has a weird styrofoam chew I can’t get past.
That said, I’d eat my weight in that sour soft-serve any day.
Yakimono is a larger-than-life, well-oiled machine that will get people back into the city — and hopefully off the couch — with open mouths and pockets this summer.
80 Collins St, Melbourne yakimono.com.au
OPEN: Mon-Sun, 12pm to late
Go-to dish: BBQ octopus
Cost: Snacks ($12.50-$29.50) Mains ($25.50-$46.50) Share plates ($95.50-$125), Dessert ($12.50-$17.50)
RATING: 7/10
More Coverage
New restaurant’s ode to golden-fried snacks
Society owners leave high-end Melbourne restaurant
Society Melbourne’s must-try snack, drink combo
www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/food/chris-lucas-new-japan…
25 new Melbourne CBD cafes, bars and restaurants that opened while you were WFH. EMMA BREHENY March 14 2022
Hikari is a celebration of Japanese craftsmanship in everything from gorgeous ceramics (available to buy) to beans roasted by Tokyo names like Onibus (317 Swanston Street, Melbourne).
Grilled things on sticks are a group dinner’s best friend and Yakimono (80 Collins Street, Melbourne) offers plenty of ’em, plus handrolls, sashimi, rice dishes and big dishes like charcoal chicken. Add Robata (2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne) to your list for a more tightly focused menu of yakitori and other grilled things in a buzzing room.
www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/icymi-25-new-melbourne-c…
Chapel St: Plum corner site sells, luxurious dental spa building up for grabs. Kiel Egging October 4, 2021 Stonnington Leader
Melbourne’s lockdown has failed to deter buyers, with a Chapel St corner site changing hands for millions of dollars.
A prime corner site on one of Melbourne’s biggest retail strips is set for a huge overhaul after it was snapped up for millions of dollars at an online auction.
Agents Fitzroys sold 232-234 Chapel St and 2-2A Cecil Place in Prahran for $3.84m after the double storey building came on the market for the first time in 50 years.
The 440sq m site has two retail spaces on Chapel St, one of which is leased by a sushi shop, along with office space on both levels facing Cecil St.
Fitzroys’ director David Bourke said the site was sold to a Melbourne family after more than 100 inquiries and performed better than expected after an asking price in the mid-to-high $3m range.
Mr Bourke said the sale showed there was still strong demand for commercial buildings along the famous strip despite the impact of Melbourne’s ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
“High-quality assets have been in short supply on the market over the past 18 months, and there is a huge volume of capital waiting to be deployed across the market,” Mr Bourke said.
“The huge inquiry from occupiers and developers showed a huge confidence in the future of Chapel St, which is seeing a generational development and renewal phase in its immediate surrounds.”
Mr Bourke said the family was yet to reveal their plans for the site, but it was looking to redevelop parts of it and transform it into a “value-add opportunity”.
“That’s certainly the intention, in the short term they’ll try to further the leases on the ground floor, but in the longer term they’ll look to redevelop the site and maybe add another couple of levels there.”
www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-east/chapel-st-plum-cor…
