Eat. @ Ishiya Stonegrill

152 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000 ph : (03) 9650 9510

I admit I am a sucker for gimmicky things.  I am amused by things like amuse bouche, fusion cuisine, and cooking at the table top - all of which you can experience at Ishiya.  Lunch at Ishiya offers you a choice of menu sets and also the option of stone grilling, 2 of my favourite ways to eat.  This was a fun-looking lunch which turned out to be quite delicious.  

The lunch sets range between $11.90 - $18.90.  Each set consists of a standard platter with steamed rice, miso soup, poached vegetables (we got edamame today), sushi, and a small servie of kara-age (fried chicken).

A choice of main goes with the standard platter.  We had 3 sets, the first was Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki which was served with a sesame sauce.

The Tonkatsu set didn't come with the standard tonkatsu sauce.  The sauce here was saltier and less sour, more like a kecap manis.

And the Tempura Set.

We also wanted to try the stonegrill and ordered a Wagyu Porterhouse.  This was 200gm of porterhouse served on a piece of volcanic rock heated up to 400 degrees celcius.  You then slice the beef thinly and cook it to your liking.  Obviously you want to keep the little ones away from the rock.  Fortunately our kids found this fascinating and tried some of the beef (and loved it), which we cooked well done, but managed to understand the concept of not touching the stone as they watched the beef sizzle away.

This was served with 5 sauces with which you can dip your freshly cooked beef.  My favourite were the ponzu and the sweet teriyaki.

From left - ponzu, tomato salsa, sesame, garlic with white miso,
and sweet teriyaki sauces for dipping

The stonegrill also came with a side serve of sushi and sashimi.

The black sesame ice-cream we ordered for dessert was pleasant, but a bit too icy towards the middle.

Overall this was a fun lunch for us all.  Even without the stonegrill, the set menus on offer for lunch are quite nice and are of a relatively good standard for the price.  We reserved a table and the staff were happy to accomodate our pram, and were otherwise very friendly and helpful. 

Eat.Play.Shop. Recommends : trying out the stonegrill!  Delicious!

Give it a miss : if you have kids ~ 18 months - 3 years who are difficult to settle and would want to touch the hot stone.  You can still have the set lunch menu though!

Toilets : Yes