Maedaya

400 Bridge Road, Richmond (03 94283918)

My sister introduced me to this little yet amazing gem of a place in Richmond on Saturday night. It is an izakaya venue; a Japanese drinking venue that serves food to accompany drinks (mainly sake); a bit of a japanese take on tapas or mezze, if you like.


There are two levels; downstairs has a bar stocked to the brim with sake upon sake and has a menu filled with many a small dish option; upstairs is the charcoal barbeque area where you are served raw plates of meat and vegetables that you cook on your own grill. The two levels offer different menus - there are only a few downstairs options that are avaliable upstairs.


We tried the upstairs BBQ. After climbing a few flights of stairs, the upstairs seating area was small, yet welcoming. There are only about six tables seating max 6-8 people each, so I was glad we booked as the place filled very quickly when we were there.


We ordered a plate of beef loin, chicken, pork, cabbage, mushrooms and eggplant to cook on the grill.  For other sides, we ordered edamame beans, 2 chicken breast skewers and a bowl of rice. The waiter brought over the hot BBQ and a pair of tongs, and we got to work cooking the meat and veg over the hot hot coals. Each table comes with a selection of sauces; sukiyaki, japanese BBQ sauce, hot miso mayonnaise, mayonnaise and black sesame seeds that you can mix and match to your taste in order to flavour your bbq'd meats. Each of the meat plates came with four pieces of meat, and the vegies - you get about a handful. It's a good amount, especially for the cost. For example, the beef loin was $9, chicken and pork around $7 each. The edamame beans $2, chicken skewers (already cooked) $3.50.All of the meat is sliced very thinly and cooks really quickly, so you're not left waiting around for it to be cooked. In fact, we were caught out a couple of times when we forgot about the meat cooking and had to rescue some charred bits off the grill. All part of the fun though!


For dessert we ordered the green tea pudding with black sesame icecream (comes with fruit also), plus an extra scoop of green tea icecream. The dessert was absolutely divine, especially the black sesame icecream - so wonderfully refreshing after the salty sauces of the BBQ. And the scoops of icecream were very generous.


For all this food, it cost only $59 in total - we were really stuffed at the end! The staff were amazing - so lovely, quick and attentive. The food was great, and I definately will be back again to try the downstairs menu