Ohayo!

I wish with a blog title like that, that I was blogging from Japan.

But unfortunately I'm not.

But back on the plus side, I am blogging about Japanese food. So that's always a yay!

The early weeks in January are always difficult ones to navigate in regards to food and eating out. Figuring out which outlets were closed just over the holiday season, or maybe for an extra week, some are even closed for two weeks?!

On a warm weekday, Brad and I set forth, hunting for Japanese for lunch. The original location I wanted to go to was closed until the 18th (boo!), so Brad made a recommendation and we headed down to Ohayo on Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn.

Surprisingly, it was quite busy and we couldn't actually spy a free table inside, although after a short walk we quickly occupied a table as it vacated.

Simple, completely unpretentious, yet cosy with the wooden tables and odd bit and pieces of Japanese decorations scattered around the place. I would have honestly expected it to be full of students (but it was still holiday season) and was surprised to see quite a bit of an older clientele occupy the space. Mostly office workers from nearby.

The menu is quite broad, with a variety of sushi rolls, rice dishes, noodle dishes, gyoza's, snacks...it was generous.

Making Brad order at the counter and get water for me. Fufufu.

Every order comes with a free miso soup (I think?), and although it was a hot day, I ended up downing most of it anyway. Always delicious.

I kept it pretty simple, it was hot, I wanted a fairly light meal, so I went with the sashimi entree. Whilst not some of the most beautifully cut fish I've seen, it was inoffensive and easy to eat. I didn't think too much of the salmon really, but I really enjoyed the tender texture of the tuna which was also lovely and sweet. I was actually quite surprised as to how full I got off this...(although I naturally nibbled on some of Brad's goodies as well...)

I also got a seaweed salad, admittedly just to make myself feel like I was eating more vegetables....it's green right? I appreciated that the serve at Ohayo was all seaweed and not buffered with lettuce or cucumber underneath the serve as you do find occasionally. Cool and refreshing, I could not really ask for more!

Brad got the teriyaki chicken bento box. For just $13.80 you get a generous serve of rice, chicken, miso soup, california roll and tempura. Steal?! I was slightly disappointed by the teriyaki chicken just quietly though, a little bit dry for my tastes and hardly saucy enough, I love it when I can drown my rice in that saucy goodness! However, I certainly wouldn't look down on it as a good, well priced feed.

So whilst the staff don't always look like they know what they're doing, and I moaned a bit about the lack of air-con working, the food whilst not mind blowing, is decent and an easy option on a lazy day. Especially now that Brad's got an office in Swinburne...

Ohayo Hawthorn

638 Glenferrie Rd

Hawthorn, 3122