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Izakaya Den

Japanese$$

From the new The Age Good Food Guide 2011, our countdown of the 10 most iconic Melbourne dining experiences.

They’re the places you’d send an out of towner, the places you’re happy to go to again and again. Some have been around for decades, some are fresh new arrivals on the dining scene. But they’re all quintessentially Melbourne. On August 30, The Age Good Food Guide 2011 will be launched at a gala awards night at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria. In the lead up, we'll bring you a sneak preview, day by day, of ten top restaurants that the new guide considers “Essential Melbourne”. Chosen by the panel of five who decide the Guide’s annual awards, they’re the restaurants that help make Melbourne dining unique.

#4.
Izakaya Den
Basement, 114 Russell Street, City 9654 2977

Dark, sleek, sexy and downstairs, Izakaya Den is possibly this year’s ‘it’ restaurant: that curious mixture of food, drink and chemistry that creates a heady and seductive mix, which means its lofty stools and tables are rarely vacant. The Age chief restaurant reviewer Larissa Dubecki last year predicted 2010 would be the year of the izakaya – a Japanese bar with food – and how right she was. The Den is run by a team of owners, including Verge’s Simon Denton, under chef Yosuke Furukawa, who sends out alluringly tasting morsels, maybe tempura sweetcorn with green-tea salt, or melting pork belly skewers, delivered adroitly by waitstaff who manage the buzzing room with great grace.  Unlike many Asian restaurants, dessert here is no afterthought, and well worth a look. There are no bookings unless you’re a group of five or more, so come early, or late, or for lunch (for which they do accept reservations).

Tomorrow, Essential Melbourne Eating #4


#5 Gill's Diner

#6 Flower Drum

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#7 Stokehouse

#8 Cookie

#9 Taxi Dining Room

#10 St Ali

Check out The Age Good Food Guide Awards finalists here.

Compiled from The Age Good Food Guide 2011, on sale at bookstores from 31 August. Available to pre-order New edition available soon online or as an App for the Blackberry or iPhone.


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