Yukie's Snack Bar

Disclosure: I dined as a guest of the restaurant

I have this tendency to fall in and out of love with cocktail drinking, or perhaps it’s bars in general. While I love going out to eat, I’m almost sometimes more content to prepare myself a gin and tonic at home, or indulge in a bottle of wine with something light and cheerful to nibble on. Too often cocktail and bar snacks are salty, deep fried and fatty. Which isn’t a bad thing in itself…maybe just not too often.

Yukie’s Snack Bar though, has got me wondering if perhaps I should get myself out of the house a bit more. 

Tucked out the back of Mr Miyagi in Windsor, his mistress Yukie is entertaining the guests when there’s not quite enough tables, or they just want to stop in for a quick little nibble and tipple. 

The cocktail selection is varied, from Hello Kitty sour’s (lychee, citrus, and egg white) in curvaceous glasses with playful garnishes, to one of my personal favourites, Yukie’s green juice (cucumber, lime, sake and vermouth)…it’s almost kind of healthy! 

On a whole though, the cocktails were well balanced and not too sweet (a pet peeve of mine). 

She’s not just all about the booze though, Yukie’s got some great snacks to go with your cocktails; all with a bit of an Asian flair of course.

The rice paper rolls, soba with master stock poached chicken and lap cheong hoi sin and Japanese grilled eggplant with miso glaze, cucumber and peppery leaves are plump and generously filled. Fresh and light on the palate too, perfect if you’re just looking for something little to keep you going until dinner. I particularly enjoyed the grilled eggplant rice paper roll; but I love miso, so can’t help be a little biased!

Himalayan salt slab cured kingfish, with quinoa, green chilli, coriander, fennel, apple and lemon is everything. I loved the firmness of the fish, and how refreshing the dish was, the quinoa was slightly crunchy, fun little texture pops and the chilli just the right amount of zing. 

The two wagyu dishes, wagyu brisket betel leaf with peanut satay, red chilli, coconut and lime and the wagyu tartare pipe with peanut butter, Korean miso, capers, sesame and spring roll pastry were both good, but not my favourite dishes of the night. I found the pipe a little on the dry side, but I loved the flavours. 

However, I adored the flavours in the apple wood smoked salmon tostadita, the contrast between the crunchy tostadita and the meaty salmon was lovely, along with the smack of flavour that came with it. 

Top tip, it’s not on Yukie’s bar menu, but Mr Miyagi will sneak you some nori tacos if you ask sweetly. I raved on about them last time and god damn. They’re literally still one of my favourite things to eat in Melbourne. Crunchy, gorgeous thick cuts of grilled lush salmon belly, creamy Kewpie and chilli oil (my favourite combo ever). Do it. Don’t think too much about it. 

Yukie's Snack Bar

99 Chapel Street

Windsor

 

Tokyo Tina

Brad would probably not be fussed if we didn’t do anything for his birthday.

But why on earth would I give up an excuse to go out to have dinner together? Really?

When I told people of my plan to take him to dinner to Tokyo Tina, I got a lot of “Good Luck”. “Go early” and I have to admit…I was a little worried initially. I certainly ain’t keen to be doing a Chin Chin style queue for 3 hours, so had a whole lot of other potential restaurants in the area lined up in my head…just in case.

Fortunately, we were in Tokyo Tina on a Thursday night and the wait wasn’t long at all. We must have gotten there around 7:30pm and sent to a waiting spot at the bar, where we ordered a round of drinks and a nibble but before that could even get to us, we were seated at the bar. Not too bad if you ask me!

It’s quite nice sitting at the bar, a touch dark, but lit atmospherically and it’s always fun watching the bartenders to their thing. 

I enjoyed a refreshing umeshu on the rocks to get me started, and got involved with some karaage chicken ribs with gochujang. For $10 the serving was generous, Brad and I getting around 3 ribs each. They weren’t super crunchy, but the batter was definitely full of flavour, and the chicken tender. Finger licking good. 

The ocean trout sashimi that we had was a bit underwhelming unfortunately, although it looked beautiful, the citrus dressing it had over it completely overwhelmed the flavour of the trout, which I had always thought was pretty bold. In this instance it was completely overshadowed, and although I normally love trout, I have never had it sashimi-ed and wasn’t in love with the texture personally. I suppose there’s a reason the Japanese have always used Tuna and sashimi, which are incredibly smooth and velvety in texture, there was a bit of coarseness to the trout texture which I wasn’t completely sold on.

The tempura eggplant, miso chawanmushi and pickled ginger put everything back on track though, pumping with umami deliciousness. I loved that the eggplant got the tempura treatment, providing lovely crunchy textures through the otherwise soft textured dish, made it very moreish indeed!

My absolute favourite thing of the night though (which I’ve just realised is no longer on the menu…why guys why?!) was the king katsu, a 300 gram pork battered and fried cutlet with shredded cabbage some damn delicious plum sauce (or something along the lines). Oh my gosh. For $20, I would have returned for this along with a bowl of rice any night of the week. It was pretty much the size of my face, insanely and delightfully crunchy, but also so tender…when all combined with the sauce that it sat on…it was just pure perfection. So sad to now learn it’s no longer on the menu. (Please bring it back!)

To finish, we opted for ramen. I was quite excited to learn that they do provide a gluten free option, so we got one small bowl with gluten free ramen and one small bowl of regular so we could compare. 

I got the classic ramen, with a tonkotsu (pork) base, pulled pork, ramen egg and spring onion and Brad got the miso ramen with miso base, shiitake, enoki and oyster mushrooms with a ramen egg. 

Unfortunately, especially after coming back from Sydney and enjoying Ippudo’s delightful and cheap ramen, Tokyo Tina’s ramen did just not live up to much. My classic ramen’s soup base just had no flavour. I couldn’t believe it, whilst Brad’s had much more flavour than mine, but was still lacking and did not impress either of us. Believe me, we’re not usually difficult judges, and try as I might, I just could not enjoy the ramen.

Regardless though, even if we did finish on a bit of an unimpressive note, there was definitely some high notes that would keep me coming back. The smaller more fusion style dishes are definitely the way to go, and if that king katsu is back on the menu…I’ll be there in a flash. So short of the long, enjoy grilled stuff, skip the ramen! 

Tokyo Tina

66A Chapel Street

Windsor 3181

 

Saigon Sally

Disclosure: I was invited to dine as a guest of the restaurant

The day after this dinner, I knocked on my boss’s door at 11am and asked if she wanted anything from Laneway Greens, since I was going to grab a green juice as I was feeling a bit run down. 

She looked at me.

“No Ashley. You’re hungover.”

Urk. Got me there. 

But good food, good wine…good company. Being hungover on a Wednesday was only natural thing. Surely.

Saigon Sally is a sensual little lady, hiding off on a side street perpendicular to Chapel Street. Keep an eye out for the red light, lively beats and great smells wafting out the doorway to find her. 

She’s dark and a little bit of a mish mash; dim lights, gorgeous wall mural, sanded down tables, white brick walls. 

We settle down on to our table and are swiftly greeted with a ‘You got Girlfriend Vietnam?’ cocktail, a dangerously delicious mix of Tanqueray gin, junmai sake, lime, cucumber, mint and jasmine tea. Sweet, but not overly so, and so refreshing. I want these all the time, especially through all of summer!

But before we get too drunk on cocktails, fried chicken ribs make their way to our table, with gocuchang, sesame, garlic and siracha mayo. Crispy batter, succulent chicken, seasoned well. What more do you want to stuff your face with? 

In contrast, the kingfish ceviche served with pomelo, green papaya, shallots and chilli on betel leaf is a lovely refreshing mouthful, with a nice array of texture thrown in for good mix.

The seared scallops with green curry, apple and salmon roe smell amazing, and have me tipping the shell so I could slurp the rich coconut broth from the bottom. I loved the crunch of the green apple as well, slightly tart, slightly sweet, just lovely with the perfectly cooked scallop. 

The wagyu beef tartare with young coconut, Vietnamese mint, perilla and puffed rice paper was simply, simply stunning. Beautifully presented, gorgeously tender, and such an experience on top of the crunchy, crunchy puffed up rice paper, which in my opinion just accentuated the tartare’s texture. Although it was a little messy to eat!

The DIY Banh Xeo Taco was quite cute, with a serving of prawn, pork, coconut, turmeric, bean shoots and spring onions; however DIY always means it’s a bit of a mess to eat (especially after a couple of glasses of wine)! 

The crispy barramundi sat in a spicy pho broth with lettuce, clams and lemongrass, beautifully aromatic and cooked well. I particularly enjoyed picking out the clams, sweet but also spicy from the broth. 

Sticky lamb ribs with mandarin, oyster sauce, fennel and star anise hide under an enormous flowery salad. The meat just pulls clean off the bone, and just melts in the mouth, a beautiful emulsion of fattiness, sweet and just a touch tangy. 

Bia Can Chicken is a whole roasted chicken cooked with Bia Hanoi in a Hainanese style. Don’t make the mistake of trying to drink that can of beer, it’s actually a broth to be poured over your roasted chicken! Herbaceous, salty enough, the chicken was tender, but I don’t recall it being super succulent and didn’t leave as much as an impression flavour-wise as I might have thought it would. Although having said that we were fed a lot of wine…

The pumpkin and tofu with coconut roasted pumpkin, crisp tofu, lemongrass, taro and watercress is simply an art piece when it arrives on the table. On top of that, delicious. I think this came out at the same time as the chicken…and although it was supposed to be for the vegetarian on the table…I certainly got enthusiastic about it too. Beautiful crunchy textures from the tofu and taro, with the creamy and beautifully savoury sweet pumpkin…yum!

Honestly, by the time we finished the mains, I’m surprised head chef Adrian Li hadn’t kicked us all out (or at least our end of the table). Seriously, put I-Hua and I next to each other, provide us both with ample amounts of wine and you’ll hear us from a block or two away. (Sorry other people at Saigon Sally!) 

But Adrian was good natured, laughing with us (or maybe at us) as he told us about his dishes. 

Looks like a sandwich, but this is actually the Tira-mi-Sally, and she’s sweet; macaron, Vietnamese coffee parfait, condensed milk and peanut brittle all in just a couple of mouthfuls. The Vietnamese coffee parfait was lovely and rich, and I loved the texture of the macaron, it wasn’t the usual macaron type of texture, there was a little more density to it, but it was still light when paired with everything else.  

But now really, the show stopper for dessert was the Dame blanche, bounty chocolate meringue shell, coconut ice cream, coconut cremeux and molten chocolate was another sculptural masterpiece. Although we were definitely feeling a bit of tummy stretch going on, I could not resist continuing to reach back for the meringue shell coated in chocolate, light, but sweet with that delightful texture that meringues have when it crumbles in your mouth. 

Obviously, a roaring good night. Literally. Saigon Sally is described as the ‘older, more sophisticated sister’ out of Hanoi Hannah and Tokyo Tina, and she really is. Creatively and beautifully plated food with big and interesting flavours. Great for dinner with the beau, or a long and boozy cocktail session with the girls. Make your pick! 

Saigon Sally

2 Duke Street

Prahran 3181