When we walked in, it was the usual Japanese welcome-"Irashaimase" coming from everywhere. We were led to our table, and started off with OMG OMG OMG one of the best set of appetisers on the degustation menu. There are a few different degustation menus to choose from, but in the end we went with this one:
UNAGI CANAPE- Grilled miso marinated eel canape topped with crab meat salad, salmon caviar and truffle:
This really is a nice dish. Not too heavy and the taste from all the different ingredients actually mix really well.GOLDEN PERCH- Lightly grilled miso flavoured perch topped with tomato mousse, foie gras and semi dried mullet roe:
HATCHING OCEAN EGG- steamed savoury egg custard, spinach puree topped with tempura scampi tail:
This is a creative way of making 'chawanmushi'. The soup around the custard's full of flavour.UNITAMA- Scrambled egg with sea-urchin topped with fresh salmon caviar
We ordered this on the side because of how much I love 'uni' (sea-urchin).LOBSTER TAIL:
This wasn't from our set degustation menu. Don't think it was bad, but it didn't make much of an impression on me.ASSORTMENT OF SASHIMI:
My partner was really excited when he saw how this dish was presented. He kept on asking the waiter how they made the ice into that shape and of course they didn't tell us.Then there were the beef spinach roll, crab tempura, fish steak and the wagyu beef steak to follow. But we found the the first couple of dishes including the sashimi were actually the nicest. I didn't particularly enjoyed the crab tempura or the fish steak. Even the wagyu beef steak was a little bit disappointing (But nothing compares to the wagyu beef@ Rockpool Sydney- simply the best). It might partly be because I was already pretty full by the time it got to the beef spinach roll.
BEEF SPINACH ROLL
CRAB TEMPURA
FISH STEAK
WAGYU BEEF STEAK- dressed with black truffle, enoki, shiitake miso sauce topped with foie gras
SELECTION OF HOMEMADE DESSERT:
Their desserts are quite interesting actually. "Sea-urchin cheesecake"- who would have thought to use sea urchin to bake a cheesecake. It is surprisingly nice with no fishy taste of the sea-urchin at all. My favourite of all three desserts.
"Tofu chocolate mousse"- it's not bad, but it's just like any other chocolate mousse.
"Sesame panacotta"- also very nice. I like the rich sesame taste that comes with it.
We really enjoyed our experience there at Shoya. The service was good and the food was also excellent. 10 out of 10 for its creativity with the dishes. We've only tried a small proportion of what they have to offer on their menu, if everything else they make is as good as what we had tasted that night, then Shoya will be enough of a reason for me to visit Melbourne over and over again.
