OMI

About

Good quality Japanese food can be pretty expensive, with an omakase at a swanky Jap restaurant setting you back a couple of hundred dollars per person. However, OMI is bringing top notch Japanese food to key shopping centres across Melbourne that won’t break your bank.

Available in either donburi (rice bowls) or with udon noodle soup, you basically pick out the protein you want and match it with your favourite sauce. We love the melt-in-your-mouth MBS 9+ wagyu beef paired with their signature teriyaki sauce, specially grilled by blowtorch at OMI’s ‘brulee station’. Another terrific combo is the crispy karaage chicken with salted egg sauce, as well as the soft shell crab with spicy mayo. Also on offer are teriyaki chicken, tempura fish, pork scotch, salmon and tofu.

If you’re opting for rice, donburi are served with a super soft onsen egg, furikake, edamame and red pickled ginger. But if you’re more of a noodle fan, udon is the way to go. Developed by a good friend of ours, Chef Kinsan, the chewy udon noodles are served in a flavoursome dashi stock with an onsen egg, adding some extra creamy goodness.

To wrap things up, try out their desserts. Order a crepe cake, available in matcha or a special flavour of the day, or sample the creme brulee infused with either houjicha or matcha with a perfectly crisp toffee layer on top.

With stores all around Melbourne⁠—Chadstone, The Glen, Westfield Doncaster, with Eastland and Melbourne Central soon to arrive⁠—you have no excuses. Head to OMI for a budget Japanese feed that’s super rich in flavour.