Domo 39 is a new Japanese café and eatery located right near St Peters train station by the team from Kurumac and Cool Mac cafes. Start with a Swamp drink (made with matcha and hot chocolate) and then try a range of onigiri and bento boxes perfectly packaged to go or to eat in. Save room for sweets too as they have house made "rice cream" soft serves.
As Monica lives in St Peters I sent her a post about Domo 39 as soon as I heard about it but it turned out she had already been. This takeaway cafe and eatery is located at the southern end of St Peters train station replacing a vegan eatery. You can either grab something to go from the fridge (bento, onigiri, cakes, mochi or drinks) or take a seat at an indoor or outdoor table and order something to eat in.
The team that is behind Domo 39 is made up of Eugene Leung and Dika Prianata (from Kurumac in Marrickville, Cool Mac in Kirribilli and Poketto Bar in Chippendale) and Ophelia Ng of Cool Mac. Matteo Pochintesta of Mapo Gelato handles the rice cream soft serve.
I take a seat inside and wait for Monica to arrive. In the meantime I have a look at the menu wondering what on earth a Swamp drink is. It turns out it's a mixture of matcha and hot chocolate. Intrigued I order that and Monica goes for a matcha latte which she likes as it is unsweetened. The Swamp, despite its name is delicious with the sweet hot chocolate tempering the grassiness of the matcha. It was designed to taste like a matcha kit kat and indeed it does.
The onigiri are either $6.50 to eat in or $5.50 to take away and they come in 6 different flavours including some vegan/vegetarian ones. They tell us that the flavours for the onigiri are set to change over time too. My favourite one is the tuna mayo rayu made with mayonnaise and rayu chilli oil. I'm fussy with onigiri: I often I find onigiri a bit too full of rice and I don't like when the rice is cold for sushi or onigiri and prefer it when it has some warmth to it. These are absolutely perfect for all of those concerns and the onigiri is made with warm rice, crisp nori wrap and perfect flavour dispersement. I love the warmth of the rayu chilli oil in the tuna mixture too.
I especially love warm fillings for onigiri and the ginger and pork mince with a soft yolked egg is a best seller and is perfect for when you want something a bit more meaty and substantial. Likewise mentaiko and chives is generously handed with a lot of mentaiko or cod roe so that the pink roe is spread throughout each bite.
Monica and I both love pork so the katsu don was our first choice. This bento has a bed of rice and a tender pork fillet that is crumbed and deep fried until crunchy and then cooked with onion and egg. The key is the tender pork and crunchy carapace of coating. All I need is a tiny dab of mayonnaise and this is a generously portioned and satisfying meal.
Sakana means fish in Japanese and this is a fisherman's basket bento with a deep fried tubular fish cake, salmon fillet, crumbed whiting, tamagoyaki or sweet egg omelette as well as a gorgeously luscious glazed eel that melts in the mouth. To pull this all together is an excellent Japanese tartare sauce made with finely diced boiled egg and pickles. It's hard to pick a favourite out of the two bentos as this one offers variety but the other one is just damn delicious.
There are two types of soft serve on offer today: matcha and strawberry. As I'm a strawberry fiend I go for that as it's made with pure, sweet strawberries and is vivid in colour. I recommend adding on some matcha powder for an additional $1 as it's a beautiful combination of flavours. I love nothing more than sweet strawberries and this is so refreshing. We also buy an Ezne chestnut cake to take away with us ($19). It's nice but if you're looking for a pure Mont Blanc chestnut cake flavour it does have Earl Grey tea added to it and it's quite a strong flavour in comparison to the subtle flavour of chestnuts. I prefer pure chestnut puree and cream.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like onigiri? Would you choose strawberry or matcha soft serve?
This meal was independently paid for.
Domo 39
5/2 May Ln, St Peters NSW 2044
Monday to Friday 7am-5:30pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am-4pm
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