Yu-u. What a funny name. And one of the best lunch deals in the hidden laneways of Melbourne.
There’s nothing to mark the entrance to this sleek Japanese restaurant except a steel warehouse door with peeling salmon-pink paint. Step down some concrete steps and it opens out into a dimly serene wood and stone room, with a large sushi bar taking up most of the space.
For lunch the restaurant only offers a set menu: a choice of a main meal, from seafood to meat to tofu, accompanied by a bowl of rice, soup, the appetiser of the day, a small dish of pickled vegetables and just for fun, a deftly sliced orange segment ($18). Sadly they no longer serve their hand-made soba noodles as part of the set lunch menu.
As you’d expect from the Japanese, the dishes are carefully presented on a lacquered tray, with each dainty part held in a different porcelain or ceramic dish. Our table gave the thumbs up to the sashimi and pork belly main dishes. The serving of salmon and tuna sashimi was fresh, colourful and generous, while my pork belly with Japanese BBQ sauce was just the thing to fire off my tastebuds on a cold day. Service was quiety unobstrusive and efficient – we were seated, served and billed in an hour.
I’ve not been to the restaurant during dinner, but my lunch experience has definitely encouraged me to try it. What’s your experience been of dinner at Yu-u?
For other great value lunch sets in the city, try Cafe Vue and Shoya.
- Yu-u, 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne +61 3 9639 7073
Hi Joyce.. I wish you hadn’t posted this Yu-U review. Because I was hoping to keep the place to myself! lol!
I recently spent a couple of weeks in Osaka, Japan with my two daughters and my mother gifted us a couple of the airfares. We had an amazing time which I’ll ever forget.
Now.. my parents have always celebrated their wedding anniversary by doing something together that they’ve ‘never done before’. A tradition I’ve taken into my own marriage of 7 yrs.
So – for their 42nd wedding anniversary recently, my husband and I organised a dinner at Yu-U’s to say thank you for the Japan gift. They’d never been there before. They asked us to come along too – another thing they’d never done… eaten at a restaurant with us sans kids!
We were greeted with the warmest Japanese friendliness, shown to a private dining room where we slipped off our shoes and slipped our legs into a pit under a table and spent the next 2.5hrs receiving the most delicious and artful dishes.
It was a very important and long overdue double date.
Hi Yvonne
Thanks for your great comment. I too loved Osaka (takoyaki! okonomiyaki! soft shelled crab on the street!) and in a Melbourne laneway Yu.u manages to embody much of the serenity and attention to detail that I found in restaurants all through Japan. I will definitely try them out for dinner soon.
Jetsetting Joyce
I am hoping to visit Yu-U for lunch this week. Fingers crossed it’ll be as good as your experience
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