Chris Lucas’ new Japanese restaurant Yakimono injects high energy, fast-paced fun to city

Hospo kingpin Chris Lucas’ new larger-than-life CBD eatery Yakimono will jolt you back to your pre-pandemic pace with fiery Japanese snacks and fast-paced fun.

Kara Monssen

2 min read

November 30, 2021 - 11:30AM

Food

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Go big or go home. Or so the saying goes, and after donning activewear and scoffing Cheezels on the couch for the past four months, there was a fat chance of the latter happening this Saturday night.

Want a jolt back to your pre-pandemic pace? Visit Chris Lucas’ new plaything, Yakimono.

The 300-seater is the Lucas Group’s largest casual restaurant yet, pulsing big Japanese izakaya energy across two neon-lit levels and grand terrace.

Think Chin Chin on steroids. A sensory overload. It’s a lot.

Yakimono is the new Japanese restaurant by Chris Lucas and Lucas Restaurants. Picture: Jason Edwards

The people, colours, vibrating oonce-oonce beating through the speakers, sizzle, smoke and flame. Oh, and the people.

Did I mention people? They’re coming from all angles – beside, behind and in front of you, especially if you’re seated in the splash zone of burger king turned executive chef Daniel Wilson’s open kitchen.

Watching his black-capped and shirted army of chefs flip, fry and finesse is an almighty spectacle.

Almost everything is cooked over flame, be it inch-thick tuna slabs to meat threaded sticks (yakitori).

Running a Japanese restaurant may seem like a curious move for the Huxtaburger co-founder.

The classically trained chef has worked abroad in some of the world’s best restaurants, and most famously was behind Fitzroy hit Huxtable, which closed in 2016.

Raw tuna with smoked paprika.

Before that, he worked with chef Jacques Reymond at Arintji and ran the Giannakis brothers’ Graham Restaurant in Port Melbourne.

He hasn’t worked in Japan but has eaten and travelled the country widely, plus has a firm handle on the city’s casual dining scene.

Add Lucas’ business wits and love of late-night Tokyo snacks and sips in the mix, and you get Yakimono.

It’s where fast-landing snacks shine, such as the karubi dog ($14.50), which subs in ultra-tender waygu for sausage and is brimming with smoky depth, sharp miso mustard and pickly tang.

Edamame and wasabi dip.

Soft, gelatinous raw tuna ($27.50) is deliciously dressed in a fluorescent red pool of smoked paprika and sweet fermented chilli.

Golden-fried mozzarella tofu ($19.50) squares squirt and ooze salty, molten cheese goodness from the panko-dedicated menu section.

Stick to what you know with plenty of sushi, sashimi, rice and noodles to go around, or eat outside your comfort zone to reap the best rewards.

A wonderfully charred octopus coil ($34.50) is licked in a sweet soy glaze and showered in crispy chilli flakes.

Humming heat, loaded with texture and burnt bits, it’s a real flavour bomb.

BBQ octopus.

Karubi dog.

I once thought smoked eel udon ($28.50) was a little ho-hum but lately I’ve been pining for another comforting bowl, mainly for those fat slurpy noodles, chewy shimeji mushrooms and gooey, just-cooked egg.

Pair anything at Yaki with one of the 10 Melbourne brewed beers on tap, sake (either as is or in cocktails) and you’re set.

Dessert may need a little work. Portioning, especially that mochi waffle ($18.50), is way too much for one after a big feast and is better shared.

The yaki-kult ice cream sandwich ($12.50) — a fermented milk and monaka (rice wafer) mash-up riffing on the popular probiotic drink — is most baffling.

Be jolted back to your pre-pandemic life at the CBD restaurant.

Yakimono pulses big Japanese izakaya energy across two neon-lit levels and a grand terrace.

On paper it’s great, and is served in an edible milk bottle, but in reality has a weird styrofoam chew I can’t get past.

That said, I’d eat my weight in that sour soft-serve any day.

Yakimono is a larger-than-life, well-oiled machine that will get people back into the city — and hopefully off the couch — with open mouths and pockets this summer.