What’s the most challenging type of restaurant for the permanently confused? I should explain that the permanently confused in question is me and the area in which I am permanently confused is direction. So when I’m in Melbourne one evening and my friend Christie suggests going to the notoriously hard to find Izakaya Den I’m not sure if it’s such a great idea. We walk slowly following the iPhone GPS which tells us where the restaurant is supposed to be but of course it isn’t and we ask several people who are friendly but have no idea.
“Do you think it’s here?” I ask her pointing at an entrance way with a flight of stairs leading downwards. A man stands
outside and asks us “are you looking for Izakaya Den? It’s just there, we got lost the first time trying to find it too” and
then makes his way into the apartment block adjacent. Phew, well at least it’s not just us.
The door showing the elusive sign for Izakaya Den hides a long black curtain and behind that, we can hear the repetitious beats of rap music. “This must be it” we say to each other as the curtain parts and the rap music gets louder.
There’s no irashemase’s here, they’re too cool for that, but service is very friendly and we’re shown to a place at the long
bar that runs most of the length of this long rectangular space. There are some tables to the right hand side but we love sitting at the bar where we can watch the action taking place. We’re offered two scrolls of paper, one large containing the drinks and cocktails, the smaller with the food menu. Both have Japanese on one side and English on the other.
Everything is cooked in front of you by one of the young bandana wearing chefs and izakaya food, a favourite of mine when I lived in Japan, is meant to be shared and eaten alongside alcoholic refreshment. Prices are very reasonable as befits an izakaya.
We ask the waitress for her recommendations and she gives these easily. The food starts arriving about 10 minutes after and while waiting we cleanse our hands with the oshibori hot towel. Specials flash up on the walls occasionally alternated with patterns and subtly announce the arrival of Namu Namu, Izakaya Den’s owners new udon restaurant. Right in front of me, a cloth draped bowl hides a stash of king mushrooms.
Sweet corn kaki-age $8
Looking a bit like molecules, the sweet corn appetiser is a favourite of both of ours. The corn is sweet and juicy with crunchy bits of batter which prompt us to wonder how it is made. It is served with a green tea salt which packs a salty punch as it is very fine so go easy on it but it adds a salty contrast to the corn’s inherent sweetness.
Den fried chicken $11
The Den fried chicken is essentially a golden chicken karaage with a light thin batter and moist chicken inside.
Spicy tuna tataki, garlic soy $19
The spicy tuna tataki comes as six pieces of gorgeous, thinly sliced raw tuna seared on the outside. It comes on two sauces, a wasabi cream and another cream sauce that tastes very much the tuna sauce in vitello tonnato. I prefer the latter although wasabi lovers might prefer the wasabi cream one.
Steamed eggplant, minced chicken chilli miso $16
The discs of steamed eggplant pieces and minced chicken with chilli miso had a strong flavour not unlike mapo tofu which is made with a fermented bean sauce. There were also bits of cucumber pickles which gave it a refreshing sweetness and our waitress recommended that we have this with rice which was a good idea as it is very rich and flavoursome.
Zucchini and pickled ginger temprura $7
This was an unsual tempura with a cooling disc of cucumber with a centre of pickled ginger. It’s unusual but not bad
and I’m glad that we ordered it as an unexpected palate cleanser. It came with a small side bowl of grated daikon radish.
Japanese omelette with cod roe $12
The only dish that we both didn’t love was the Japanese omelette with the cod roe. The cod roe was quite strong inside the omelette (I usually prefer cod roe in Japanese pasta dishes where it isn’t so concentrated) and the omelette was a bit watery and not sweet as it usually is.
Kurobuta pork belly $19
The Kurobuta pork belly, so luscious and tender is simply grilled and presented in four pieces. Alongside this is a slice of
lemon and some salt. Both are the perfect foil to cut through the fattiness of the pork.
Ox tongue, spring onion $15
This was Christie’s first time trying ox tongue and it’s a beauty. The thin slices of ox tongue are superbly juicy and
tender and topped with a spring onion and sesame topping. It has a lovely char from the grill and ends up being one of our favourite items.
Salted caramel fondue for 2 $16
The salted caramel fondue is a clever and current version of the chocolate fondue. To accompany it are squares of butter cake and halved frozen grapes. The salted caramel sauce is thick and salted just right and we could just eat it on top of vanilla ice cream.
Warm tofu cake, brown sugar ice cream $12
The warm tofu cake was quite unusual, for those that don’t like their desserts too sweet. The texture was like that of a
Japanese soft cotton cheesecake-very light, fluffy and not sweet and it was topped with candied nuts and raisins. On the side was a very grainy brown sugar ice cream.
The bill? It’s a very reasonable $138 for the two of us although we didn’t drink so that would have contributed the bill. And the best thing about getting lost finding a place? Just retrace your steps and you’ll find your way home. Or just get a cab like we did 
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like to seek out hard to find or interesting places to dine? Or do you see that as a barrier and potentially offputting? Have you ever tried tongue and do you like it? Is there anything that you wouldn’t want to eat?
Izakaya Den
114 Russell Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: +61 (03) 9654 2977
Open lunch Mon-Fri 12-2:30PM (bookings taken)
Dinner Mon-Sat 5:30PM til late (no bookings)
The subtle signage to look out for
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42 Comments | Add your own
The salted caramel fondu is something I could enjoy very much. I find it a little pricey Finding Susur Lee’s restaurant in NYC and it proved to be quite a challenge. We had to Google it eventually discovering that you had to get to it from the hotel or by an unmarked door at street level. It is no longer in business, so I’m guessing it was too elusive!
Salted caramel fondue?! Oh boy does that sound good. I also love the look of the corn. Yum!
Yes I once dragged poor Will around Shanghai for more than an hour looking for a dumpling place. It didn’t help that I had no idea what I was looking for but we found it in the end.
I love that this is a hard to find restaurant – kind of makes it live up to the ‘den’ part of its name
The food looks utterly delicious, great atmosphere with it! A caramel fondue? *drools*
Great price as well considering everything looks and sounds so gourmet – a great review my friend!
Cheers
CCU
I suppose it IS a den and they’re usually hard to find.
I love this concept!
Love love love this place. It’s definitely not a cheap night out with drinks – but can’t wait to go back on my next Melb visit!
The food looks great, but honestly, if a place is too hard to find, I don’t bother – I’m hungry.
Ox tongue is amazing when cooked properly. It does need to be on the medium side of things to be really delicious! I have it all the time when dining out to have thai food. Nowadays, it’s always the star of the show at our home bbq’s. I do have to admit it is an acquired taste. But just try not to think about it
hehe
It’s great when a restaurant does things differently – that’s always a surprise and a bit refreshing. But hiding itself and making it difficult for people to find? I would have thought that was quite bad for business. I love the look of the corn dish and I’d love to try the cucumber with the pickled ginger – love pickled ginger xx
I would definitely try ox tongue, although for me it is generally a case of mind over mouth. I tried chicken heart at one of those Brazillian BBQ places and, whilst the meat reminded me of chicken-thigh-meets-lambs-fry (so, a strong but not unpleasant taste with a slightly grainy texture), the fact I knew that it was heart made me gag. I’m such a sook!
Certainly a fun place if you happen to live in the same city
! Food attractively presented: love the tuna! Am laughing – yours is the third blog this week on which my beloved ox tongue has made an appearance. Was quite puzzled initially: have eaten it from early childhood with great gusto, but it has never been grilled/barbecued. It is one of the fave meats in N Europe, but, as I have already posted on a few blogs, it is slowcooked with aromatics until it becomes pure buttery goodness once the skin is removed. Ask Mr NQN: no way would he have gotten thru’ his childhood without it 
! Of course I seeek out interesting places to dine and have never met a ‘hard-to-find’ one 
! And I cannot think of much anything I don’t like: perhaps the most problems I have had has actually been in Japan where at special dinners bright pink pickled lotus buds and tiny, greeny, shiny raw fish to be eaten whole has not always appealed 
!
Mmmm, I do love Japanese food. But I can’t eat tongue. Dad loves it and often kept one in the fridge when I was a child. It freaked me the hell out and I still feel squeamish at the thought of it!
I used Google Streetview to stalk this place before we went so I knew exactly where we were going (I’d heard it was hard to find). Love the Karage Corn…genius.
Hi Lorraine I have been following your blog for many years and your passion and dedication to it really shows. Oh how I would love to be a full-time blogger! Just wanted to say that I am loving your Dilmah high tea videos!! You’re a natural on camera
HI sugarwhipped-Thank you so much! You are too kind to say that. I was so nervous when I heard that they were out! :O
It looks lovely but I hate loud music (especially rap) when I am eating and it seems very expensive for bar snacks.
It looks like corn krispie treats!
Oh no!!! I thought I had decided where to eat when I am in Melbourne next week but you have just thrown the cat amongst the pigeons!!! I love offal so the tongue and spring onion is a must try! decisions decisions…… We love getting lost on purpose when on holidays because then we find all kinds of wonderful hard to places to eat!
I meant wonderful hard to ‘find’ places to eat…
I agree, that Sweet corn kaki-age looks might fine! The interior of the place also looks unreal.
The warm tofu cake, brown sugar ice cream sounds incredible!
Beautiful concept..
That eggplant with mince chicken is making me drool!!
everything looks really good!!
Oh man! I remember looking high and low for this place while following the iphone GPS without any luck too! And finally having found the underground passage (even after walking past it several times) was such a “D’oh!” moment haha. Glad you enjoyed this meal here. The sweet corn kaki-age was my fav too, and so clever!
I had the exact same problem trying to find this place! We were yelling at google maps and each other! I also know another couple who fought until they FINALLY found the place! Haha!
But you’re right, once you find it, you never want to leave. The food is to die for!!
I love your post by the way, your photo’s are gorgeous!
The restaurant looks really nice. So many times I have walked along a street following my iPhone! LOL! I have no sense of direction either!
Salted caramel fondue YUM!
not interested in testicles and deathly allergic to tuna but I would eat everything on that menu.
Except maybe the ginger…
Oh I do love Izakaya Den! You got an amazing range of dishes, the corn kariage and deep fried chicken are always my favourites…
AND SALTED CARAMEL FONDUE? Oh my. Oh my! Was this a recent visit? Definitely want that fondue!
Hi Ashley! Yep we visited just a couple of weeks ago
Ohhh! This is the place you told me about the gyutan (ox tongue) your friend liked!
This place looks good. I don’t know why this kind of places are not in San Francisco… I might re-consider moving there if I can ever pick a place to live!
All the food looks interesting, but it was the salted caramel fondue that grabbed my attention. I can almost taste the richness of it!
Beautiful post – simple, delicious, wholesome eating at its best.
Does this mean that everytime you visit Melbourne you end up more confuse as all our places are hidden in some random laneway or basement?
Hi Ms I-hua-Yes!!
I have no sense of direction! 
Must get to Melbourne to eat here. 8 year old Claire would love most of it too. Oishi!
I love this place. I wish I can go back again!
So interesting the dishes in this restaurant…everything looks fabulous especially the desserts…
Hope you are having a great week Lorraine
I haven’t visited Izakaya Den yet
i really should go through hehe ~
I love going to places that are hidden and interesting ~ but there are a few things i don’t like eating lol and tongue is one of it and weird parts of meat hehe
Thank you for introducing me to Ox Tongue – what a taste sensation!! Especially when grilled. It is so hard to choose a favourite dish but those corn fritters were a real standout
Dear Lorraine,
You are an awesome photographer let alone food blogger but am I a little tipsy in seeing the Den fried chicken a little blurry?
Holy heavens, why has no one thought of salted caramel fondue before?! THAT IS AMAZING. I’m so in.
the tofu cake is something id definitely want to try
The omelette with roe looks amazing. Actually most of it looks amazing. I’ve heard great things about this place. Will definitely try and get there next Melb visit
Ohh, that eggplant dish looks lovely, I haven’t had tongue for years, but I’d rather have the eggplant
I love to try out all new restaurants, unless they are pretentious and too snobby for little old me
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