izakaya

Lizzie invited us to dinner for alan's birthday tonight. Was quite a delicious evening :)

We cut cake that lizzie got from a cake place i'd never heard of (regrettably!) just in the city called Le Petit Gateau. Gosh their cakes look divine...even seem lots nicer than Brunetti's and Laurent and that. hehe Even the box looked pretty fancy hehe... we cut the cake at vic gardens food court lol, Dinner was yet to come...and we'd all had seconds of cake already haha!


Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gâteau!

Mmmm rich brownie base, crunchy praline, passionfruit custard with chocolate mousse leftovers~~~


Strange order i know, but after cutting cake we headed to bridge rd for our dinner reservation at Maedaya - a little jap restaurant which is apparently known for it's most extensive sake range available in melbourne. They specialised in izakaya which is a Japanese snack bar style like how they have in Japan, where the type of eating is like you basically just order as you go lots of little small entree/snacks instead of any main dishes. The menu was huge, so many choices of food and drinks (sake,cocktails,beer etc) and all that look so good that it was so hard to know where to start lol. By the end of the night, we probably ordered at least two dozen different types of different foods between the 6 of us! We had started with a cocktail each, till later alan wanted to have warm sake as it was the proper jap way to do it lol we cheers to the bday boy and i just thought it was like drinking a shot so i just swallowed all my sake and was like eww... as i didn't actually realise that everyone else just took a tiny sip. lol opps. Hmm actually sake isn't too bad coz unlike other stuff it doesn't really give a burning feeling so it's probably easier to be drinking.

I remember trying this for the first time in HK with the rich local girls ahah...and i mostly remember us complaining afterwards how it wasn't even filling and it cost us so damn much! haha... but tonight was definitely filling! I'm actually writing this post now coz i'm so full and don't wanna lie down in case i burst? lol. I think munching on the edamame beans was totally satisfying in itself. hehe it's like so addictive and fun to eat! Too bad the only place they are to be found here are in made in china freezer bags which taste like crap.

Well here are JUST SOME of the dishes we ordered haha... I think this is the most pictures for one post I've had to date, but only coz there were sooo many different dishes we had!

Lotus Chips w/dipping sauce that we were offered when we sat down.

Yakitori grilled skewer sets~

Pork Belly (why does fat taste good?)

Ox Tongue

Takoyaki (octopus balls), Scallops, Fried Chicken

Okonomiyaki

Edamame

More skewers - chicken, scallops and a skewer of just CHICKEN SKIN in front there..

And if stuffing ourselves with all that was't satisfying enough; dessert time!! Even though the desserts menu wasn't anywhere near as extensive but yet we were still tempted enough to end up with 3 of the 5 available choices on our table lol!

Giant ice cream ball wrapped with mochi skin ~ yum yum!
Black Sesame Ice Cream & Green Tea Ice Cream

Green Tea Chocolate Fondue set

Anyways it was a neat little place with good food, good atmosphere and pretty good service too. I really like how with this izakaya dining style you can just relax, drink and chat and just order snacks to share as you go. I definitely wanna go back some day.

:: Maedaya Sake & Grill ::
400 Bridge Road
Richmond 3121