Ajitoya is the inner-west's great provider of Japanese food.Michael Clayton-JonesAn Italian terrazzo floor and Victorian pressed-tin ceiling aren't typical features for a Japanese cafe. But Ajitoya is a bit freewheeling like that. On the one hand,it's a casual day-night eatery - with inherited Old World fixtures,matt timber finishings and fresh flowers - but it's also something of a Japanese craft beer specialist (stocking about 47 types that can be bought to take away,too).
There's a small store of imported groceries - because there is no substitute for Pocky sticks,umeboshi paste (pickled,pureed salt plums) or okonomiyaki flour (made with kelp and mackerel powder). It's the inner-west's great provider of Japanese food.
Owners Adam Sleight and Maya Fujihara opened Ajitoya almost two years ago,''partly because we couldn't buy Japanese groceries near home,in Yarraville,and partly because it beats a desk job'',says Sleight,who still moonlights in web design (Ajitoya's web presence is his handiwork,but those pugs dressed as geishas aren't his dogs).
The niki beef udon.Michael Clayton-JonesThe food is simple,home-style Japanese.''It's the sort of food we like to eat at home,''Sleight says. The small menu includes a few share-type dishes (edamame,gyoza),five udon soups and''mains''served either on rice (don) or as a meal set. Meal sets (like a classier equivalent of a TV dinner) are small portions of food on a tray.
They include a ceramic bowl of sticky white rice,a wooden bowl of miso,a few mouthfuls of salad (shredded chicken and cabbage) and maybe tonkatsu - crumbed pork neck (some pieces a little dry) drizzled with Ajitoya's house sauce,with a slight spice - or salmon sashimi,its blushing marbled flesh draped over mounds of thread-thin grated carrot.
Udon noodle soups appeal on these wintry days. The caramelised beef strip option may be a better choice than a''tempura-smash''(kakiage);its subtle dashi-based broth can become oily as the battered and fried balls of shredded veg are gradually broth-logged. Ajitoya does a cracking lunch trade in sushi rolls (brown rice,too) - eat in and takeaway.
Beer drinkers can stick to light-style lagers typical of big-name brewers (Asahi,Kirin) or go off-piste with a crimson-coloured Coedo brewed with roasted sweet potato. Here is where the drinking-sharing food shines:starchy takoyaki balls with a chewy little nugget of octopus in the centre come doused in thick Worcestershire-oyster-style sauce,zigzagged with mayo and topped with waving bonito flakes;tasty fried chicken with a healthy squirt of Kewpie;and tempura of fish (basa) and veg sprinkled with house-made matcha salt.
The kitchen shuts at 9pm,the place clears,and snug Seddon's busiest street falls still. So,as tempting as the beer list sounds,it's unlikely you'll go off-piste and go off … tipsy.
Do … Press on past the kitchen to the back room,or courtyard,if the front room is full.
Don't …Drink beer? There's wine and sake (tea,too).
Dish … Niku beef udon.
Vibe …Fresh and neat little local champ.
Nina Rousseau is on leave.