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At the sushi at bar at Shoya (25 Market Lane, Melbourne +61 9650 0848) our sashimi is prepared. We just eat what the chef thinks is the best of the day.
The toro – melt in the mouth tuna belly – is the pale pink flesh on the far right.
Cold saki, as recommended by the executive chef is served in a glass of antique design and in a lacquered box. The drink drink overflows into the box as you lift both and drink from the glass. I understand in Japan the box would be plain unlaquered wood but upon import in Australia this wood would be fumigated by customs ruining everything.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Well done Ed - You’re busy tonight! Everything looks tasty.
Toro…superb indeed. But I will never again be able to eat it without squirming. It only comes from bluefin tuna, stocks of which are hugely depleted thanks to the Japanese market’s huge appetite for this treasure. To the best of my knowledge, neither yellowfin, nor bigeye (which is also overfished) have the same deposits of fat in their bellies which make toro so delectable.
Steve, not that busy - I just managed to grab a few moments on the machine.
Stephanie, okay now I feel bad too.
A few of us have had very bad service experience at Shoya. Don’t get me wrong, the chef is a great guy, but not managing staff.
MD running around cleaning up after waiters mistakes.
For example, ordered the seven fortune gods packets, included scampi. Another in our party ordered the scampi dish. When the 7 fortune gods dish came, asked the waiter - is this the scampi, answered ‘yes’. Of course when the scampi came, confusion and disappointment all round, only resolved by Chef.
Too many uni students fresh off the plane, didn’t eat this sort of food in Japan and don’t know the first thing about it. Too many gomenasais,not enough corrective action.
Should look for Aussies who are fluent in Japanese or long term resident Japs to staff the place, and train them to fine dining standard. Not acceptable at this price level.
Food is great but can’t keep eating there while they do that. Prefering Hajime (Daisuke and Noriko for Yuu) even though tempura not that elegant, the service is tops!
Ricccardo, i must admit i did see a bit of what you describe lurkingin the background. Firtunately we just dropped in for the one plate and had none of these troubles. Good to hear though. Keep ‘em coming.
Ed, Riccardo - have you seen my review on Shoya?
http://myfavouritefoods.com/2006/09/shoya-wanna-eat-there/
Went to Shoya last week with my partner. Really looking forward to it after reading various reviews, blogs etc. We were seated in the dining section (maybe we were on the wrong floor- hard to know all that is on offer in this restaurant), and proceeded to order quite a number of dishes from a sea urchin appetiser, through to sushi, a scampi dish and a duck dish. Most of the food was just okay (sushi/sashimi was good)with no real flavour development but it was the duck dish that made us pay the relatively expensive bill and get out of there. This dish was straight from a large hotel chain from the 80’s. The duck, marinated in miso had a very strong bloody flavour of liver and to my palate tasted a bit old. But it was the garnish of lukewarm, bruised quarters of squash, lukewarm asparagus(in March!) and a slice of pasty, pale roasted tomato that really astounded me. Perhaps a smaller menu could help.
P.S. Just read your review, wish I had read it before going.
Thanks Cin/Michael
Shame to hear more about the bad service. Michael I’m surpised the sushi/sashimi was so poor - it really was pretty good when i was there but now i have second thoughts about returning.
Quite overpriced, and the waitress/ MD kept trying to pressure us into ordering the more expensive dishes. Not very good service, and the food was unremarkable.
Seems like Shoya is due for a bad service awards.
the worst japanese in melbourne the a disgrace the toro sinew through it the sushi chef not friendly i’ve eaten all over the world the price the quality crap
I had to write this as soon as i got home, the feeling that i had after coming out of this restaurant was a disgrace. Also as written above we tried the duck, this is one of my favorite dishes.
The first plate arrived which the whole party tasted, to our dissapiontment it was super chewy and had to be spat back out onto the plate, this was explained to that waiter after a short amount of time the next serving of duck arrived WITH COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF!! which was even worse than first serving.
The quail was ordered so we decided to go out for a smoke, when we returned the quail was sitting on the the waiters station and we were not served this dish until we had to gesture to the waiter that the food was waiting to be served!!!
I had lived in Japan for 6 years and since been back in in Australia for 8 years and eaten Torro on many occasions i was told by the sushi chef that it was wild blue-fin tuna, and was totally impressed, without hesitation it was ordered.
We received three standard slices of Torro that were totally full of SINEW!!! We made comment to the sushi chef regarding this as we were sitting at sushi counter as the sushi chef preceeded to tell us that this was the best part up on the rib cage of the fish which i know for fact is untrue.
The cost per head was $120 with 6 beers being the only alcohol ordered this was my first visit to shoya, all i can say it is a joke and will be telling all my friends of this woful experience
Signed Dissappointed