The duo behind Melbourne's sake brand Toji Sake, Shar and Yuta Kobayashi, brought a new taste of Japan to Richmond in 2019. The 100-seat restaurant on Swan Street is dishing up food inspired by both Australia and Japan, as well as sake cocktails.
Kobayashi's Australian-Japanese roots and Chan's experience cooking Japanese fare have both influenced the menu, which focuses on izakaya-style snacks, such as yakitori, and dishes cooked on a hibachi (a Japanese charcoal grill).
For yakitori, expect all the chicken parts — thigh, oyster, heart, breast — as well as leek, baby onions covered in miso and okra. Other snacks include the likes of duck gyoza with shiso and salted plum, kingfish sashimi with smoked daikon, smoked beef tartare and short ribs with chimichurri.
Bigger items at Eazy Peazy might include okonomiyaki, porterhouse with wasabi, aged dashi eggplant and chicken karaage.
Behind the restaurant's long concrete bar, you'll, of course, find a few Toji Sake concoctions. The brand's crisp junmai ginjo and high-grade junmai daiginjo sakes feature in a selection of cocktails, such as Aloe Peaches — with aloe vera juice, peach liqueur and cranberry — and the Shiso Crazy with shiso leaves, rum and soda. A mostly Australian wine list and a lineup of Japanese and local beers in tins, bottles and on tap round out the drinks offering.
The Eazy Peazy fit-out, by award-winning Melbourne firm Carr Design, is meant to fuse traditional Japanese elements with modern touches. Think interior walls representing the rice fields of the Niigata Prefecture, a snow-like ceiling reminiscent of the Asahi mountain ranges and doors that look like raked sand in a zen garden. These elements are juxtaposed with projections of Tokyo's famed Shibuya Crossing and Japanese cartoon figurines used as handbag hooks.
Images: Carly Ravenhall and Hortenzia.