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Dekoboko

Dani Valent
Dani Valent

Dekoboko is cool, breezy and uncluttered.
Dekoboko is cool, breezy and uncluttered.Emma Morgan

Japanese$$

If you love Japanese food but have sushi ennui, go to Dekoboko. If you want a peaceful and pretty inner-city hangout for coffee and jazz, go to Dekoboko. If you want to see the new venture from Toshi Maeda (he owns sake-soaked izakaya Maedaya up the road), go to Dekoboko. Maeda's new place is completely different but it's similar in that it brings a new style of Japanese restaurant to Melbourne.

Dekoboko (an onomatopoeic Japanese word meaning something like "collision of contrasts") is a happy mish-mash. It serves Japanese curries and rice bakes, western pancakes and eggs, and French salads and toasties. The curries come as dipping sauce ("fondue") or stirred-through baked rice; choose accompaniments from a brunchy list of poached egg, smoked salmon and mushroom omelette, or grilled chicken, beef ribs and seafood. Rice bakes come in cast iron skillets topped with cheese sauce, vegetables or seafood. The fusion can get a little kooky – toast, fries and rice on one plate is carb overload – but the flavours are good, the cooking careful and the presentation delightful.

Shaved ice mountains with syrup are the obvious choice for dessert (go the mango and passion milk) but there are also patisserie cakes of winning refinement including a gateau dyed with green tea and studded with red beans. To drink, there's serious coffee but the cloudy jade "deep-steamed" green tea has as much kick.

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Go-to dessert: Shaved ice mountain with mango and passion milk.
Go-to dessert: Shaved ice mountain with mango and passion milk.Emma Morgan

The aesthetic is cool, breezy and uncluttered with whimsy in details like spade-shaped spoons, a treasure chest of wine and potted plants that drape and droop like bored teenagers. The unhurried feeling extends to the waiters, who are friendly but display less than zero urgency. I have an inkling that service may be slow at busy times but even if the ride is a little bumpy the scenery and snacks are smashing.

Score: Three and a half stars (out of five)

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Dani ValentDani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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