On the hunt for a good Okonomiyaki (Take 2)

Ok, so you may have seen my other attempt - here. I decided to give it another go a few days ago. Myself and 2 friends (namely Gumby and Captain Planet) went to MATSUMOTO Japanese Restaurant at 48 Lygon Street (Brunswick end, after Brunswick St) Melbz. Captain Planet - CP - drove cos his car is rad and runs on his own methane gas.

Here's a happy snap of the 2 chumps enjoying the ambience of the place. It was a little quiet but that meant our food came out quickly, woot woot!

Gumby ordered the Lunch Special "Deluxe Bento box". I think it was around $16.50, and it contained: Tempura x 3 peices, Karaage chicken x 2 peices, spring roll x 1 peice, sushi x 4 peices, sashimi x 2 peices of fish and 1 octupus tentacle. There was also some ginger, wasabi, bonito flakes and spinach. Oh and it came with miso soup. Pretty great value i must say. But IMO the true test for me was the quality of the Okonomiyaki, Gyoza and Yakitori...

The Yakitori was pretty good, but it's not often i have had some chicken on a stick and gone "hmm, i don't much care for that!". Chicken + stick = yum, therefore i had to really think about it. The sauce was missing something that makes you go "yeah, that right there is some japanese chicken". bit of a shame.

The Gyoza were also good. The best thing was how good they LOOKED. That is some serious pastry folding skills right there. I took a bite out of the bottom right gyoza before i remembered i was meant to be documenting my meal. ho ho ho. They tasted pretty good too, but perhaps too much ginger and not enough of the other great ingredients. Captain Planet thought there was too much pastry, he's always noticing waste.

OK.. the final test, the Okonomiyaki! Well i was hoping to see a big pile of green spring onions ontop, with the sauce zigzagged over it, but alas no... it was not to be. It was Kansai style (as I expected) and had bonito flakes writhing ontop with the delicious sauces on the side. We quickly scraped all the sauce out of the bowl, and chowed down. I thought it was delicious- there were some great flavours in there and i came across a few prawns and crab meat gems. Captain Planet said there was too much potato, but i'm not sure if they use potato or not, its a batter as far as i know. But i know what he meant, he wanted more vegies and stuff.

Well, all around it was a great lunch - just dont try to pay with eftpos :s - NOT ACCEPTED! On th okonomiyaki front - it was a bit of a fail, but i am too fussy! I was looking for Hiroshima style and anything else pales in comparison. It was really really yummy though :)

I will just have to look at soome recipes for Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki and create my own slice of heaven on my teppanyaki grill.

Oh, look at this graffiti I saw near my work:

Cool yah?