Izakaya Mizu

Izakaya Mizu

509 Riversdale Rd, Camberwell

(Ph) 9882 3618

We were having dinner around work one day and I found an Entertainment voucher for here so thought should check it out. Izakaya Mizu is the sister restaurant to Mizu at Prahran. It's like how Ocha2go is the sister restaurant to Ocha at Hawthorn. You'd think that being an Izakaya the menu would have more snacks and would be cheaper than the parent restaurant but it's actually quite similar =/ 

Mizu means "water" in Japanese - I'm not sure how that relates to the restaurant but anyway =P We didn't have too high expectations given it's a Japanese restaurant in a Western suburb, and after my disappointing visit to Ocha2go I thought this might be similar - but how wrong we were! =)

We got there at 6pm and found ourselves to be the only customers there - people started trickling in throughout the night but it wasn't very busy. 

The menu is a very colourful book with pretty pictures of all the dishes =) The waitress gave us a complimentary plate of marinated bean sprouts each - it seems more of a Korean dish but was quite refreshing and tasty.

There were so many interesting small dishes we wanted to try so decided to get the Mixed Entree - assortment of delicious appetizers created daily at the chef's discretion $15.50 

We asked the waiter what was on this dish today and she said it was the same as what's pictured and included -

Dengaku Tofu (tofu dressed with sweet miso paste sauce)

Ebi Shumai (steamed, home made prawn dumplings with dipping sauce)

Salmon Carpaccio (thinly sliced Atlantic salmon, dressed with Japanese vinaigrette)

Beef Tataki (thinly sliced, seared rare beef served with Mizu special sauce)

Kani Croquette (crab croquette with Tonkatsu dipping sauce)

Calamari (crumbed calamari served with a Japanese dipping sauce) 

The first box was the hot foods box.. The Dengaku Tofu was quite good - silky and smooth inside and slightly crunchy exterior, kinda like agedashi tofu. The Shumai was very Chinese =P nothing too special here but was different that they used prawn instead of the typical pork shumai. The second box was the raw foods box.. Quite liked the beef tataki with the Mizu sauce but the salmon carpaccio was a bit plain or maybe the vinaigrette wasn't as flavoursome as I would have liked. The last box was the deep fried foods.. The kani croquettes were really good - can never taste any crab in them sometimes I wonder how much they put in =P The calamari was good but nothing too special. Overall a very enjoyable entree dish with a bit of everything =)

We got another entree to share 'cause this looked very interesting. Yukke - chopped beef mixed with sauce served with raw egg $15.90

P doesn't like the idea of raw egg very much but I've been brought up eating it a lot and especially in Japanese food like sukiyaki so I didn't mind. Though in this dish, once the egg yolk is mixed with the beef you can't really tell it's there but it adds a different dimension to the dish =) The sauce was a bit peppery and spicy but in the end this was P's favourite dish =P

Last came our main dish. Sukiyaki - thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked in sukiyaki sauce and served with a raw egg $22.90

They also have other pot dishes like beef/chicken/seafood hot pot but from the pictures they look like any typical Chinese stirfry but with teriyaki sauce instead of soy/oyster sauce =/ I liked the sukiyaki very much though P thought the soup was a bit too sweet - but that's what sukiyaki is like! It's not as "sweet" once you dip it on the raw egg as well but again, he didn't like the idea of eating raw egg. I wonder why the Japanese decided to dip sukiyaki meats into a raw egg? It is a very strange concept yet it works well and is very delicious despite it feeling a bit gloopy in your mouth =P The hotpot consisted of thin beef, vegetables, tofu, Chinese mushrooms - all on a bed of wombok. The wombok had absorbed all the flavours of the sukiyaki so was very tasty =)

Food~
8/10 - surprisingly very good genuine food here! Would want to try some of their other small dishes next time

Atmosphere~
3/5 - nice cosy restaurant =)

Service~
4/5 - very good and attentive service here, especially the very polite old man who opened and closed the door for us =)

Definitely recommend this place!

C.
xo