Mizuya Japanese Restaurant and Karaoke, Sydney

I was intrigued by this new Japanese restaurant on George Street, which had taken the places of the oh-so-cheap watering holes Maloneys and Bar Ace that used to provide a starting point for some alcomohol-fuelled nights. I gathered some friends and we descended down the once-familiar stairs to be greeted by a giant lit-up cherry blossom tree and a labyrinth of booths. So maze-like was the layout of this place that latecomers had to make phone calls to determine the exact whereabouts of our table. Funnily enough there were two other food-bloggers lurking about Mizuya tonight, and it was such a coincidence to bump into both Leona and FFichiban on the same night (hai guys!)

Mizuya is another one of those Japanese izakaya style restaurants that has the touchscreen ordering system. However, unlike others I've been to they don't seem to have additional hard-copy menus which makes it difficult for the people sitting on the opposite end from the screen to see what's on offer. We started the night with some drinks, including this test tube shots which we ordered purely for the novelty factor. They mostly tasted like juice or cordial with perhaps only the slightest hint of alcohol.

Test tube shots - $18 for 6

Takeru, Chatswood

Competition is pretty fierce in Chatswood for Japanese restaurants with new ones opening left, right and centre all the time. But Takeru is a little different. Tucked away in a little corner in Victoria Plaza, it offers modern Japanese food with strong Western influences - think Japanese-style pasta and pizza, as well as more traditional favourites like ramen and agedashi tofu.

It's open all day which is great for a late lunch, early dinner or afternoon snack, and prices are very reasonable with most of the dishes under the $15 mark. Today I'm here with a bunch of hungry boys for a late lunch, so as soon as we are seated in the booth we start poking away at the touch screen ordering system (which is the same as the one at Wagaya and Poporo).

Mentaiko potato salad - $7.20

The food arrives in no time, and soon the table is filled with dishes that we ordered only minutes earlier. A big dollop of creamy potato sits on a bed of lettuce leaves, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and corn kernels. The potato is mashed roughly so that there are still small chunks of potato, and the mixture is ever so slightly pink from the addition of mentaiko (cod roe).

Agedashi tofu with soft shell crab - $7.50

Poporo, Haymarket

Another pre-theatre dinner - this time Charm and I were watching the long-awaited Wicked! at Capitol Theatre and we were looking for a quick bite before the show. However, I forgot that Thursday was shopping night and that all the usual suspects around the area (Musashi, Chat Thai, Wagaya etc...) would be packed. As a last resort we went to Market City and were surprised to find a new place open which seemed to offer quick and tasty food, which is exactly what we were after.

Touchscreen Menu

 
Poporo calls itself a "Japanese modern cafe restaurant" and offers a variety of burgers, pasta, salad and rice dishes. Apart from the normal Japanese-style rice dishes such as curry rice and omelette rice, they also had something called "doria" which was "oven baked white mornay sauce and melty cheese on tomato rice". Everything was very reasonably priced hovering around the $10-15 mark. You simply placed your order at the touchscreen, paid at the counter and sat down at a table with your number. 

Spinach and cheese penne (cream sauce with bocconcini, tasty, mozzarella, parmesan and spinach) - $10.90