THE SCENE Purple lighting, skateboards on the ceiling and Tokyo pop kitsch. It’s a little bit of downtown Street Fighter Tokyo on the sunny seaside of Bondi.
THE GRUB Get the night started with some edamame with chilli salt ($6) and share a few lettuce cups loaded with roasted duck ($5/each). The stand-out dish has to be the pork belly buns ($6.50) and my hot tip for the next food craze – the humble bao. Cho Cho San may have made Japanese buns cool again, but you had it here first! Of course you can’t go wrong with sushi and the teriyaki chicken ($15) brings it home. If you really love it, grab some friends and share a skateboard-deck’s worth of sushi ($160/50 pieces). The gyoza pan-fried dumplings ($16) with creamy lemon wasabi foam and crushed wasabi peas are also winners in my books. If you’re not already swooning, try the Tokyo pot plant lemon cheesecake ($13), served in a terracotta pot. I love it when kitsch actually tastes delicious.
BEHIND THE BAR Take your pick from dizzyingly sweet cocktails: Tokyo Pop ($16) with popping candy for that party-in-your-mouth sensation, or the Chee Chee Mule ($16), a cheeky lychee-based tipple. You can also get your sake matched with your food – just ask the friendly bar staff. Or simply down a few smooth Japanese beers.
BILL PLEASE If you’ve got a group of people and you focus on the share plates, you’re looking at around $25 a head, excluding alcohol.
VERDICT An experience, as well as a taste bud explosion, with the high notes of drunken karaoke.
Shop 15, 178 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach
