The food court on level three of Market City in Haymarket has undergone a dramatic transformation. From March 2018, gone were the hole in the wall eateries serving on-the-go Asian take out in melamine on plastic trays, replaced with a small number of proper restaurants. One of these restaurants is a new branch of Yayoi.
Yayoi is a Japanese restaurant serving teishoku. In typical Japanese style, wood featured heavily in its fit out.
Rallying from (complete) body breakdown after a BodyPump session two days earlier, I spoiled myself with this Chicken Namban Teishoku ($18.80) and switched the miso soup with asari miso shiru for +$3.00.
Chicken nanban is ‘fried chicken topped with tartare sauce’, a dish originating from the prefecture of Miyazaki.
The chicken is absolutely delicious with a thin crispy batter covering super succulent chicken thigh. I could keep eating this forever with the shiny shirt grain rice.
The Asari Miso Shiru adds eight littleneck clams to the miso soup. I love clams and these were flavoursome.
There’s a side dish with sauteed collard greens with carrots and sesame dressing.
N’s in the mood for the Pork Loin Katsu-toji Jyu ($16.80), ‘steamed rice topped with pork loin cutlet covered in egg’, and she swaps the miso soup out for a half serve udon for +$4.00.
N lamented that her pork cutlet very dense and squeaky on top of not staying crispy under the egg, which was too cooked through for her liking. The flavour of soy dominated every bite, which left her wanting some freshness to cut through and for a change in texture.
As for the udon, N enjoyed the thicker noodles which gave them are more toothsome mouthfeel that she enjoys. She’s not a fan of the tempura bits that invariably end up soggy though.
We finish off with a dessert of Kinako Warabi Mochi ($5.00). Warabi mochi is softer than typical mochi and mostly tasteless so the flavour of kinako and kuromitsu are dominant.
Like many other Japanese restaurants, you order from the screen on the wall at your table. What’s extra cool about Yayoi’s version is that you can see the items in your order move through the stages of cooking, finishing and serving.
Yayoi is located at Level 3, Market City Shopping Centre, 9-