Robata is a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant in a busy location of Melbourne city, with a slightly-overpriced menu and a retro restaurant fit-out. We dined as a table of 6 on a Tuesday, and it was half filled out. It’s a nice spot to dine if you’re looking for a last minute reservation for a big group but nothing stood out for us to want to come back.
Food
This was a 4 person portion of the assorted sashimi platter for $29pp. There was five varieties and each cut was decently thick. Everything was fresh and succulent, with a nice variety of toppings.
This was the wagyu tartare, chilli miso, nori and arare for $9 each. This was a moist and enjoyable bite. The wagyu was more umami and savoury than the standard tartare. It was just a tad salty.
This was the scallop katsu sando with Japanese tartare for $15 each. It was okay in flavour. It was great in creativity.
This chicken meatball with tare and cured yolk for $10 each. This meatball was super tender and flavourful, almost melt-in-your-mouth. The cured yolk elevated the bite with a creamy mouthfeel.
This was a sardine skewer that was about $10 each. It was salty and not memorable.
You know a place is average when one of the best dishes of the night was the fries. This was shoestring fries with seaweed salt and mentaiko mayonnaise for $12. And everyone couldn’t stop eating it, even though they said they were full or did not want to order the fries to begin with.
This was seared ora king salmon with Japanese mustard miso for $27. It was an interesting dish. The salmon was aged, giving a ‘sashimi-like’ mouthfeel despite it being seared. The sauce complemented the richness of the fish.
This was cured swordfish, wasabi dressing and sea grapes for $26. This was refreshing and nice, but nothing memorable.
For our mains, we got the chargrilled whole baby barramundi with mushroom ponzu, chilli and ginger for $48. The fish was fresh and moist, with that enjoyable slightly-springy feel to the bite.
This side dish was the chargrilled Japanese pumpkin, seeded mustard and dill mayonnaise for $19. The combination of ingredients didn’t really work. The pumpkin was delicious, especially if you love pumpkin, but overall the dish itself was average.
Our other main dish was the pork loin katsu with housemade tonkatsu sauce and pickled cabbage 300g for $38. The pork was average and a bit chewy.
We never get desserts but good thing we did this time around because this was also one of the best dishes of the night: a hojicha mochi donut with mascarpone cream, coffee Okinawa kokutou syrup and chocolate for $20. It was light and balanced, and sweet but not too sweet.
Service
The restaurant layout does transport you to Japan. The service was good. They were very prompt to take our orders and remove dishes – although at the end they did clear dishes a tad bit too prematurely.
Review
It was an enjoyable dinner, just slightly overpriced but that was a given considering location and cuisine. We would not return, unless desperate with a big group.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
