The criteria is pretty simple, affordable which in this part of town is under $20 per person, within 5-10 minute drive away, no queuing required, easy parking, in and out in under an hour and obviously tasty grub.
So far, we have found a place for Thai, Indonesian and Fish & Chips which are all in South Melbourne. Deciding that we should not over rely on one suburb, we spread our search engine to Albert Park and guess what, all directions seem to point towards this little Japanese shop called Naked Japan.
So we went on an early Sunday night. The sky was dark even though it was barely minutes after six and the place ticked all the right boxes; no requirement to queue (we were the only ones), plenty of parking and under 10 minutes to get here. Looking at the menu, you can easily eat for under $20 too.
With everything ticked except tasty grub, lets see what we got.
The croquette was deep fried to a crisp but the filling was disappointing. No hint of crab like advertised on the menu.
The cousin had the curry udon and it did look rather comforting but there was no praises from him.
We ordered the katsu curry and the katsu don. This is where it tanked badly. For a restaurant that is not occupied and a meal that cost over $10, the least I expect is a meal that is made from scratch. Alas, the chicken and pork katsu were pre-fried and re-fried. This only meant the meat was dry. As for the curry sauce, again I was disappointed. Even the packet version tasted better.
I also saw fresh gyozas made on the spot but at the same time saw pre-cooked ones on display which I suspect would be the ones served to us had we order some.
To make things worse (only for me), I realised the whole crew was speaking Korean and not Japanese, marks deducted for authenticity but then again, it just me being particular.
So even though most of the boxes were ticked, it failed in the biggest box; tasty grub.
Address and contact details:
Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. Sub-par food and we don't think we will be coming back.
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