Chiba

Bunny plate

More food needs to be served on bunny plates.

The cuteness adds to the flavour and no one could possibly be unhappy when faced with a bunny plate. Just look at it!


Chiba

Do you also want to have dinner on bunny plates? Then check out Chiba, a Japanese restaurant located in Moonee Ponds.

They’ve been been around for a while, and recently Bro and Bro’s gf treated Alastair and I to dinner there. Yay.

Sushi boat

Bro and his gf have eaten there a few times, so we agreed to their recommendation of the massive sushi to share (on the menu it’s the Chiba Special for 2 – $50). It’s a selection of sushi, sashimi and seaweed rice rolls.

Sushi boat

It comes on a boat. A boat! There’s enough here for four people to share as an entree or two people to share as a main and is very reasonably priced for the size. Everything on the boat was perfectly acceptable.

You can also order sushi, sashimi or hand rolls as individual servings / dishes if you prefer.

Soft shell crab

We also shared a aserve of the soft shell crab rolls ($15) which were fantastic. The rolls were filled with avocado, chilli mayonnaise and a lots of crispy soft shell crab. Really, really nice.

Okonomiyaki

We also had an okonomiyaki ($9.50) which was fine.

Beer

As if that wasn’t enough food (it was quite a lot already) we ordered separate mains.

Curry beef

Bro’s gf had the beef curry rice ($13). I have a deep, deep love for Japanese curry and I was tempted by this but decided to go in a different direction.

Beef rolls

I ordered the Gyu Niku Maki ($19.50) which were beef rolls stuffed with vegetables in a wine and soy sauce. Slices of beef were rolled around sticks of vegetables (carrot and I forget what else). The vegetables were cooked but still retained some firmness and crunchiness.

Tonkatsu

While Bro and Alastair both had the Tonkatsu ($19.50) / deep fried crumbed pork cutlet. It looked nicely crispy.

Black sesame ice cream

For dessert, Alastair and I shared a serve of the black sesame ice cream ($6.50). This was quite a lot of ice cream – the cup was already quite large and it was full to the top. Sadly, it wasn’t that good – it was far too creamy with not a strong black sesame flavour.

Banana fritter

Bro’s gf had the banana tempura ($8.50) which also comes with ice cream (normally vanilla or green tea though they allowed her to sub in black sesame “just this once”).

Red bean pancake

Bro had the dorayaki ($7.50) – a pancake filled with red bean served with fresh fruit and ice cream. (I knew he was only ordering this because of Doraemon. SIBLING MIND LINK.)

Chiba

Chiba is a nice local restaurant and I’d visit again (though I’d probably skip dessert). The menu is vast – sushi, sashimi, tempura, soba, udon, different rice dishes, almost whatever takes your fancy really. If the large menu gives you problems there are also banquet options from $35 – $43 pp.

PS: I’d recommend booking. They’re surprisingly busy.


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Chiba Japanese Restaurant
41 Hall Street
Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
Phone: 03 9326 0248
Web: chibajapaneserestaurant.com.au



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