Diamonji
179 Clarendon St.
South Melbourne, Victoria
Ph: 03 9690 7588

Back in the days of the eponymous HINCH current affairs programme my producer, Dermot O’Brien, and I would duck out for a Friday lunch with the end-of-week programme almost locked away.

We had discovered a small, Spartan, innocuous Japanese restaurant called Kobe near Channel Seven in South Melbourne which served my favourite Japanese dish – shabu shabu.

That cook-it yourself meal of finely sliced, lean beef, boiled in a seaweed broth with cabbage, Chinese mushrooms, tofu, bean sprouts, noodles and spring onion stalks. And served with a lemon-vinegar sauce.

It’s called shabu shabu  because that means ‘ swish swish’. And that’s about how long you wave the wafer thin slices of beef in the seaweed water before eating it.

That shabu shabu ritual all ended when we were sacked by the Seven Network and resurrected the HINCH programme at Channel Ten in suburban Nunawading.

Then, voila! Would you believe it?  We found another Kobe in Doncaster and shabu shabu was back on the Friday treat list. After two years we were dumped by Ten and had to dump the shabu shabu fix.

I moved to Sydney and found a great version at a fine Japanese restaurant called Shiki at The Rocks.  Then back to Melbourne and Kobe in South Melbourne had closed down.

But. A second Voila! Or whatever the word is in Japanese. Not only have I found shabu shabu again but at the same site. Kobe in Clarendon Street has become Diamonji which used to be in the deluxe Diamaru complex in the city.

Had it there twice recently and it was great. Especially the first timer where the meat was served ‘ western style’ – very lean with hardly any fat marbled through it. The second time it was the real Japanese version with thick veins of fat. That’s the way the Japanese love it. I don’t. It just gets a bit messy pulling the meat away from the fat with chopsticks and fingers.

(I had the dish in Kyoto once and it was so fatty I spent most of the lunch skimming the murky froth from the bubbling pot).

At Diamonji they have a huge and generous menu. Has to be one of the best and most comprehensive sushi and sashimi menus around.  If it wasn’t for the shabu shabu I could go there and be totally replete  with a tuna and salmon sashimi platter for $28.50. It comprises 15 pieces. A great way for two or even three people to start a meal.

They have great nori rolls – including the ‘inside out’ California rolls encrusted with orange beads of roe.  And a spicy roll with marinated tuna and a tangy soy sauce.

There is  also a good light tempura batter for prawns and white fish and  vegetables and ‘ kaki fry’ ( deep fried oysters) although nowhere  have I see or tasted a tempura dish as light as at the new TAXI in Federation Square. It is crunchy and almost translucent.

For the slightly less adventuresome there are more traditional ( bot good) offerings like teriyaki chicken  or beef  and a yakizakana grilled salmon.

As I said it is Spartan. A place that you would only go to for the food. But sometimes that’s exactly what you feel like. I feel a shabu shabu attack coming on right now.

January 22, 2007