Grab your pals for a night of DIY charcoal grilling – smoke-free – at Shyun Sumibiyaki, specialising in Japanese yakiniku with cuts galore to choose from.
Every family has a Tony Soprano in its midst. Not a mobster with blood on his hands – I’m talking about the Tony you see at so many backyard barbecues during the HBO series The Sopranos, territorially working the grill and sharing his cooking “expertise”. No one else is getting near the Weber.
But bring a Tony to a barbecue restaurant – Korean, Japanese, Chinese, it doesn’t matter – and everyone’s equal around a screeching hot tabletop grill. Everyone gets to stake a claim.
Japanese barbecue – yakiniku – is a relatively new vein in Melbourne’s pulsing J-dining scene but if you’ve been to Korean barbecue, you’ll feel at home with the set-up and rituals.
For a long time, the name Shyun denoted one of the best spots outside the CBD for good, affordable sushi. Now, the original is across Koornang Road in bigger digs, there’s Shyun Ramen Bar further up the street and, last March, they went back to where it all began 17 years ago and installed this restaurant for all things grilled.
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A waiter seats you and asks if you want to do barbecue, so they can start preparing the tabletop grill. There are other ways to eat here – bowls of udon, chargrilled skewers – but it’s hard to resist the all-in fun of cooking together, hearing fat sizzle, watching smoke billow, and tasting your handiwork moments later.
But, let’s backtrack. A copper cauldron goes in the centre of your table. Peek through the mesh of the grill on top and you’ll see the winking orange of charcoal – yes, real charcoal. Unlike most DIY barbecue restaurants, this one is not run on butane gas grills, which are efficient and cheap, but have none of the delicious smokiness of hot coals. That’s what you want wreathing the wagyu striploin you’ve sprung for.
Sure, smoke is no fun indoors, especially if you’ve just washed your hair. But luckily Shyun’s set-up includes chimneys that hang from the ceiling like a Dyson stick vacuum crossed with Gumby’s bendy limbs, making short work of any fumes.
You can order standalone cuts of meat or go for a tasting plate (choose from five). Plates span the textural and the tender, the prime and the secondary, the fatty and the muscular, red meat and not.
On the assorted plate, chicken thigh submerged in lemon juice is like the ignored middle sibling who grew up to be the most popular. It was tender and gained a beautiful golden tan during cooking. Pork belly in a soy-based barbecue sauce called momidare proved that the kitchen’s recommendations on seasoning were worth following. We ordered a separate plate of pork belly seasoned only with salt and pepper, but the momidare-brushed belly caramelised better and was more tender.
If you want to follow the chef’s tips these are helpfully marked on the QR ordering system. (A hard copy menu with photos is there for browsing, handy when ordering with a group, and you pay the total at the end.)
The wagyu chuck tail (a shoulder cut) we grilled until its fat shimmered was pleasant and unmistakably rich, but not the all-out buttery decadence I was expecting for meat graded A5 and sourced from Kagoshima, a key centre for wagyu beef in Japan. I preferred the beef intercostal, juicy but with crisp edges.
Get some snacks and a round of Sapporo Premium Malts (on tap) while your barbecue heats up. Japan’s baseline yakitori, chicken thigh with spring onion, was well done and arrived hot. For a gear shift, there’s sashimi, fried chicken, and favourites like edamame.
Complement your grilled meat extravaganza with radish kimchi, seaweed salad or small versions of well-known Japanese rice dishes like teriyaki beef. Not sure what you’re doing? Get a banquet.
Clean, polished and well-oiled, Shyun has lots to like, although I’d love to see the atmosphere loosened a little with music or softer lighting. Barbecue is fun and can be really rowdy in Japan. But even if this place is not the number-one for vibe, I don’t think you’ll be mad for having gathered some pals for a night of grilling, shooting the breeze.
Three more spots best tackled with a group
Kobi-Q
This Korean spot also uses charcoal for its barbecue, and does an excellent job on banchan, the side dishes that span sesame-dressed bean sprouts, cabbage kimchi, marinated tofu and more. Bonus: the buzzy room and friendly service.
128 Lygon St, Brunswick East, instagram.com/kobi_q_koreanbbq
Nana Thai Style Hotpot and BBQ
The queues were as much a part of dining here as the domed metal grills brought to each table. But a second upstairs dining room has helped, without killing any of the night market atmosphere as groups chat, grill, dip into soups and repeat.
169 Bourke Street, Melbourne, nanathaistylehotpotandbbq.com
Dainty Hot Pot & BBQ Buffet
Towers of raw seafood, wagyu for the grill, dim sum and hot dishes sit on a buffet under a curving screen that displays an underwater scene. Take your haul back to your table, kitted out with dual hotpot-barbecue set, and embrace the more-is-more quality of the experience.
149 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/dainty_hotpot_bbq_buffet
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne eating out and restaurant editor and editor of The Age Good Food Guide.
