Discovery XIX

Wow.

I wasn't expecting much of Izakaya Mizu, a little Japanese restaurant on Riversdale Road near the Camberwell market, but this discovery turned out to be one of the best yet. Thank you to the marketers who popped a discount voucher into the letter box yesterday. This encouraged us to give it a try.

Our little group was smaller than usual tonight, with two discoverers offsite on interstate trips. Ms 31 stepped into the breach with aplomb.

Despite being situated on the wrong side of the great divide (Burke Road), Izakaya Mizu is licensed. Small consolation to those of us who had struggled up the hill with a bagful of Coopers on a very hot evening, or made the tram journey with a pile of Budweiser, but easily assuaged with a couple of glasses of Asahi. The complimentary dishes of bean sprouts in a spicy dressing made us feel very welcome too.

This is a picture of a garden on Riversdale Road, near the top of the hill, looking quite fetching in the evening sunshine.

Riversdale Road

The menu at Izakaya Mizu is very prettily laid out with coloured pictures of the dishes and it took some time to choose. We finally settled on eggplant with miso, seaweed salad, "spaghetti" with mushrooms, vegetable gyoza, and ribs to keep the carnivores happy.

Gyoza and eggplant

Ribs and salad

We had trouble deciding which dish was the highlight of the evening. The eggplant was beautiful - perfectly cooked and smothered in salty miso, served with some crispy fried noodle and green lettuce. The seaweed salad with broccoli, tomato, cucumber and iceberg lettuce added just the right accent of crisp refreshment. The gyoza were lovely - slightly scorched, soft little pillows of goodness - and the mushroom spaghetti was luscious, with an intriguing range of funghi. Apparently the ribs were OK too - at least there were only bones left when Mr 28 and Ms 31 had done their worst.

Next time, I have to try my all time favourites, the tofu and edamame - but tonight was all about discovery.

The host and the waiter at this restaurant are both absolutely charming and you should go there without delay.

And so we dispersed into the Boroondara night, Mr 28 with his Budweiser and me with my Coopers, already making plans for next week's big discovery.



 

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