Menya: 437 Elizabeth St, Melbourne CBD
So this is another brainchild of O-Bento I think, the sister branch of the tiny Menya Ramen in that laneway entering Melbourne Central. I used to live around there and I’ve gotta say, Menya’s got some tough competitors. Before it opened on this particular strip of Elizabeth St (between Abeckett and Franklin St, to be exact), there were two eateries that caught my eyes, since it was very usual for them to have a fuckload of patrons lining up outside. Those two were Coconut House (who also opened a ‘Little Coconut House’ literally 3 shops away from its mothership) and Rose Garden. Sure, the origin of food is essentially different, but they are the absolute darlings of cheap asian food around this joint.
Menya’s interior is cute. That’s all I can think of right now. Tiny, blocky, japanese-y chairs and tables. What was even cuter is the thousands of sticker weed leaves on the glass door outside. Hm, maybe it’s not weed but it sure does look like one! Free, self-serve bottles of hot tea and jugs of cold water. Mind you, the water jugs are quite.. erm.. again, cute. I don’t know if it’s for decoration or there’s an actual taste or health reasons behind it, but in those jugs, you can find grapes, strawberries, thick slices of lemons and other green leafy shit (still not weed though, sigh). If you happen to pick up a jug that’s fully pimped out with those fruits then your water might just have a bit of a weird taste. Otherwise, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
The waitresses are cute too. They greet you with a super smile and a quick “howmanypeople?two?youcansithere!!!!!!!!”. Exactly, no spaces. A cool thing about Menya is the fact that we can see em cook our food in their kitchen. Gives me a bit of a ‘peace of mind’ knowing that’s it’s actually cooked, not microwaved.
So, the food. Right. It’s pretty cheapfoodslutty worthy to be honest. Starters ranges from $3-$6. Mains are below $14. They’re mostly typical Japanese rice bowls, think Gyu-Don or Katsu-Don, which is really overdone for me (that’s a lie, I was just not that hungry) - so we decided to try their small, cheap dishes instead.
First up was the Agedashi Tofu. It was pretty fucking ace. It’s well-cooked, filling, the sauce was rich, sweet and a bit sticky (yum!), and it was cheap as hell. I’m pretty sure it was under $4. I’m a faithful carnivore and this tofu kinda swayed me into thinking that I *could* apply vegetarian diet in my little asian life. That’s how good it was.
Next it was the okonomiyaki aka. japanese crazy pizza. What’s with the vegetarian dishes you said? Well, I was dining with Zia (our vegetarian cfs support critic) so there! Anyways. This thing is massive for a $4.20 dish. It was sizzling hot as they delivered it to our table and we couldn’t even finish it. Did we? Or didn’t we? There were a lot of vegetables involved in that crazy pizza. Like a vegetable rave. Strangely, I ate them without any complaints about them being too ‘vegetabley’. The sweet jap soy sauce combined with the mayo works really well on the okonomiyaki. It’s not overpowering and it’s totally perfect.
Now, I’ve always wanted to try a chawanmushi. They’re the little japanese egg custard bowl. Savoury btw. This one has a prawn in it! Extra points! Looks cute, cute, cute, too cute to eat. So I ordered one, and it took quite a while (this was a different visit, on a different, busier day). And when it arrived - shocker - it was half cold, half hot. Then the whole ‘microwaved food’ thing crossed my mind. Oh snap, they totally microwaved my chawanmushi! I tasted the hot side though, it was delicious. The egg custard is soft but defintely not bland. Flavours were alright. Yeah but the fact that they fucked it up still can’t be ignored. I returned the dish and got my money back. The little asian waitresses had a little fight with each other as I complained, aww - but keeping all smiles for me.
What’s the verdict? Well, I still think you guys should cheapfoodslut this place out. Do it. My friend recently had one of the main dishes (Chicken Curry Don) and from that little preview taste I know that gigantic bowl is totally worth it. Just make sure they’re not going to microwave your cute cheap food.
