J-Pub Shogun
Shop 3, 233 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
03 9663 3996

Yeah look, whenever a supposedly “Jap” restaurant open in Australia, I become extremely skeptical.  Are you sure it’s not some other Asian culture pretending to be open an “authentic” Japanese place and you end up getting Laksa noodle soup with your sushi set?  So it took me a long time, I mean, a LONG time to get around to trying J-Pub Shogun.

The decor of this place makes me a bit hesitant and I tried straining my ears to see if they spoke Japanese.   Sadly, I couldn’t hear a word they say between strains of English old school music.  I am beginning to worry and hubby had the guts to order oyster.  Come on!  When pretend Japanese restaurant does seafood badly, it does it BAD.

But you know what?  Hubby told me that the oysters were AWESOME.  It’s one of the freshest he has eaten in Australia.  Even Tasmania can’t compare.  Amazing.  Well, I guess I should never judge the book by itself cover huh?

We had sashimi next,  I think it’s the build up of anticipation and expectation after the oysters, because we expect the freshest sashimi, but it disappointed us a bit.  I mean, it’s still good, but it’s not awesome.  I guess Shoya has trained me to expect the freshest you can get in Australia.

Another pleasant surprise!  I ordered Unagi Rice which is a main, but on the pic it doesn’t look that big.  Yes it wasn’t big when it comes out, but it’s nicely stacked like, erm, bad description here, a big Mac.  You’ve got a layer of unagi topped with seaweed on rice, with

another layer of unagi on rice…mmmm yum, not bad, not bad at all.  It’s actually quite filling also, and I guess for a Japanese Izakaya it’s the right size cos you get to try other yummie dishes too.

Ohhh can you see the cocktail in the background in this pic?  It’s really yummie!  I almost ordered another one but given that it’s mid-week on a school night I shouldn’t really be drinking.  Sadly I can’t remember the name but it’s called Kiwi something.

Hubby ordered chilli chicken with a potato nest thing.  Secretly I reckon he ordered the chicken because of the potato nest, not because he likes chicken at all.  And I must admit, the potato nest IS a highlight.  I kept “accidentally” breaking bits of it and putting it in my mouth.  Opppsss.

Well what am I supposed to do?  The potato nest is finely shredded potato mess deep fried to crispy perfection, well seasoned and so so so moorish.  The chilli chicken itself is quite nice, but I wouldn’t say it’s great.  It tasted like chinese stir fry chilli chicken with capsicum.  Hubby likes it though.  Probably because of the potato nest.

Now, this is a Izakaya Yakitori bar, so of course we needed to try their yakitori.  I finally figure out why I was a bit hesitant about this restaurant!  It’s a yakitori bar, but it was not smokey, there weren’t any drool-worthy aromas wafting through the doors.  All in all it’s a pretty sterile environment for a yakitori bar.  I suspect that the are using smokeless grill. Hrm, not too sure about this whole smokless thing.  How would the yakitori rate then?

As I suspected, it wasn’t as great as the traditional yakitori.  We ordered a prawn and scallop yakitori and it was pitiful, there’s no flavour whatsoever.  Disappointing.  The beef rolled in enoki mushroom is slightly better, but it was tiny.  The chicken wing though, is much better, it actually has the smokey yakitori flavour- YUM.  I would definitely order the chicken wings again, just not the other two.

Overall, it’s a bit of a hit and miss.  Not 100% sure whether I’d go back, but I think I am willing to give them another chance- in a few months time.  6/10