Izakaya Den

I know I normally only put good reviews on my site however today I feel like writing about my dining experience at Izakaya Den in the hope that it will be better next time.  

I was so looking forward to my meal at Izakaya Den to the point that I knew they didn’t take bookings so I got there at 5.30pm on a Friday in order to ensure my table.  The space looks great and could upon first glance almost be considered a sure thing.  The music was funky and the service was sound.  

Chris and I started with a couple of cocktails to whet our appetite whilst we were waiting for Nick to arrive from work.  The cocktails were good though not spectacular.  We also nibbled on a couple of small plates during our wait and this is where it started to unravel....

Chris asked if they served edamame which they didn’t but they had char-grilled broad beans instead.  The broad beans tasted horrible and this is no exaggeration.  We even tricked Nick into eating one when he arrived and he had to spit it out.  Along with our broad beans we had a dish of deep fried chicken pieces (karaage) which were quite good once we got some Japanese mayonnaise to accompany it.

By now Nick had arrived as had a nice bottle of Riesling and even if we hadn’t been blown away by the food we still held out hope that the best was yet to come.

Reading the menu, I was excited about the potato croquettes with wasabi cream but what came out didn’t taste like potato rather it was a small ball of fried shredded potato (?) that was almost hollow.  Not the creamy, luscious croquette I was imagining.

Pork belly skewers with leek. Yum how good does that sound?  Well it was just OK.  I am one of those people that like my food to be visually appealing as well as taste good and unfortunately the pork belly looked really boring and this reflected in the taste.

What did we have next?  By now we were onto our second bottle of wine.  I give this place one thing it is a really nice atmosphere to sit and drink.  Luckily the next dish of salmon (or tuna) tartare rice paper rolls was good.

The desert menu reads beautifully and is quite enticing. Chris, Nick and I shared the green tea and white chocolate fondue which definitely had the right flavours but could have been a bit thicker it tasted a bit like condensed milk rather than melted white chocolate.

All in all, the vibe is cool, calm and collected and I really enjoyed my time in the restaurant but unfortunately the food just didn't do it for me.  I am sure with a couple of adjustments here and there they could turn a really impressive written menu into something that is also enticing for my taste buds.  I look forward to returning in a few months time to see whether things have improved as I am sure they will.

Address: Basement, 114 Russell Street, Melbourne CBD
Phone: 96542977
Opening hours: Tues-Sun lunch and dinner
Licensed:  Yes