Saturday, September 09, 2006

September 2, 2006: Akari

On Saturday evening we intended to visit Nyala African restaurant in Fitzroy, but again our failure to book a table meant that we had to revise our plans. Instead we tried Akari Japanese restaurant a little further along Brunswick St. Although seafood dominates the menu there are a reasonable number of vegetarian items, clearly marked in the menu. We picked out three entrees to share: tofu and spinach hotpot, gyoza and tempura veges.

Although I enjoy the occasional Japanese-style meal, I don’t think I’ve developed a true appreciation for Japanese food. It seems to me that everything is some subtle variation of soy-sauce-flavoured, and the subtlety is usually lost on me. (Perhaps it would be more varied if I ate seafood?) I did detect a sweeter flavour in the hotpot liquid. The gyoza are dumplings, fried on one side, with a delicious filling of bean paste and yam. Unfortunately the attention I was paying to the dumplings meant that the tempura veges were well beyond their crisp hot phase when I got to them. Still, the batter was light and the veges were fresh, and it probably would have been excellent had I swooped on it first.

I’d be content to revisit Akari for my occasional fix of salty soy flavours, and I’d probably continue to order from the sizable list of vegetarian entrees rather than the less expansive selection of vegetarian mains.

Address: 177 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Ph: 9419 3786
Licensed
Price: vege entrees ~$8


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