Once a Waitress

Sushi bar at Izakaya Chuju

Bento box and donburi by day, izakaya by night, I’ve no complaints of my newly discovered lunching locale – Izakaya Chuji.

A sister venue to the popular yet smaller CBD location, also called Izakaya Chuji, this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spot sits on Clarendon St in South Melbourne. After walking past a few times searching for new lunching places for myself and the other “South Melbourne Twitter Gals” I was drawn in after catching a glimpse of tables set neatly with chopsticks, a tea cup, a napkin and…a pen and paper?

What would I possibly need a pen and paper for, I wondered. Couple this curiosity with my recent food-nerd bedtime reading of  “Japan – a history of modern cuisine” (hello cravings) and I didn’t need much more convincing. A few Tweets later and local ladies Pat, Eunice and I were all set for bento.

The little piece of paper turned out to be a very clever remedy to speed up lunchtime indecision. Divided into three sections you simply use the pen provided (I tried to steal mine, didn’t get away with it) to pick one option for each portion of your idiot-proof bento box. The hardest decision is probably going to be what beer to have (not that I condone drinking during work hours of course).

My lunch. Hot, sticky rice, Tori Kara Age (pretty decent crispy fried chicken), Salmon Teriyaki (always a favourite), stir-fried vegetables (had to have something healthy) and a pickeled something-or-other that was a bit meh (meh)

So back to the bento, it’s all pretty run of the mill – but in a good way: Tonkatsu; Ebi Fri; Teriyaki; seaweed salads etc. but it’s fast and it’s fresh and it’s a fairly authentic take on Japanese food in that rice, fish, meat, soy sauce kind of way. 

Izakaya Chuji serve their version with green tea and miso, and the bento box pictured above was only $15, which for a sit-in lunch in South Melbourne isn’t bad value. Sure, you might only pay $9 in Chinatown for more options (and a gyoza!) but I’m stuck in South Melbourne so that’s just how it’s gonna be, alright?

If you’re not bento inclined there are noodle soups and rice bowls aplenty – most of which hover around the incredibly reasonable $10 mark. They also serve reputable sushi and sashimi as well, which will come in handy on those 38 degree days we’ve got coming up. 

Oh, and they do takeaway. So, yes, good find. Go and check it out.

Izakaya Chuji
(03) 9690 7588
181 Clarendon St
South Melbourne 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Japanese, South Melbourne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.