Review Kinyoubi Izakaya - Fitzroy

Delicious authentic Japanese food. Feels like I’m right back in Japan. 10/10 thank you

Good quality food & nice seating, but far too overpriced in my opinion. The portions are pretty standard but the miso serving was particularly disappointing. Better Japanese restaurants nearby that charge less and are more flavourful.

This place is a bit of a hidden gem during the week - really fresh and affordable Japanese food. We had the gyoza and sushi + sashimi platter and would definitely recommend both!

The sashami plate was beautiful. The different fish so succulent and melted in my mouth. Would recommend this place highly! 🗾 ❤️

Not really a review We decide to try this restaurant for lunch, arrived, restaurant open, it looked nice, but the waiter informed us that the chef was not there to cook. Why did they open?

Their food taste really good!! All of them were great! I mean it, is not like those just reachibg the standard line but above the average.

Had the miso grilled black cod. The fish was amazing (as black cod always is), and sides were good. Just disappointing that a Japanese restaurant like this would serve long grain rice.

Eating here right now! Nearly full house! Very fast service - got in 5 mins ago and just got served warm sake in this very cold night! We have ordered deluxe sashimi and sushi set, soft shell crab salad, and soy beans marinated! Everything is super yum！

What a great find!! I really enjoyed my meal here. The staff were very attentive and I liked that. This place also does a pretty top seared salmon and seared scallop nigiri.

Had few dishes to share between 5 people. They have 1/2 dish for each day which during our visit we got the karaage! The chicken karaage is lovely definitely need to be order.<br/>The baked mushroom is tasty! <br/>However the service, the overall dish and the price are not balance! Considering the quality of the food and the portion just ok. <br/>Overall experience.. not bad :)

Wonderful experience! The food is amazing. I have been looking for a Japanese restaurant in Melbourne with an excellent sashimi and just found it! Service is very attentive too! I highly recommend this place.

I love Groupon, but I’ll be the first to admit their dining experiences can be hit or miss. This spot, however, was a massive hit. I visited with my partner and enjoyed a feast of miso, edamame, agedashi tofu, some incredible nasa degaku, veg sushi rolls and even vegan fried chicken (!!) It’s not really like chicken as it’s more crispy than tender, but delicious nonetheless. We also enjoyed a generous amount of hot sake and some green tea ice cream for dessert. The ice cream was just alright but the sake was nice and warming on a cold night. I would definitely revisit this veg-friendly spot, Groupon or not.

Charming izakaya with authentic Japanese aesthetic. Staff were really friendly. Got the tofu don lunch special which came with genmaicha. Good value, the tofu was expertly cooked with a crispy outside and silky inside. The sauce was delicious and the dish was presented beautifully. I recommend this place for a calming break in a busy day. I also noticed a poster in the window advertising half-price specials on specific weekdays including beer (Fridays), sake (Wednesdays), and chicken karaage (Mondays).

This is definitely not worth $32. Ordered through deliveroo and this small amount of sashimi cost me $32. Not recommended to order here. The picture on the app did not show the amount of food to be this amount.

We go every Tuesday and the staff are delightful. Our favourite dishes are the rainbow sushi and the miso hot pot _ soooo good. Highly recommend for a beautiful experience from the minute you walk in the door. Nice music, I care about that a to in a restaurant, and very calm and charming atmosphere. Wilson and Winky are a total delight!

Staff was very friendly<br/>But the rice and curry was served cold, which was disappointing<br/>Only thing that was fresh was the fried chicken<br/>Was not worth $22<br/>

My partner and I had dinner at the Japanese restaurant and the food and the service was excellent! <br/><br/>We ordered a number of dishes too numerous to mention ,but I took pics lol) and they were all delicious. <br/><br/>The Japanese curry was some of the best I’ve had in Melbourne. The pork was thin and crispy, just perfect! <br/><br/>The Unagi sushi rolls and the Unagi w rice was absolutely delicious too. <br/><br/>We tried some sake which was light and it had s nice almost cooked rice flavour, not surprisingly hahaha <br/><br/>Overall this was a really good experience.

We came here as a party of four for dinner on a Friday night. I have mixed feelings about this place.<br/><br/>Firstly the positive. Very friendly service, both when I made the reservation over the phone and when entering the restaurant. Love the warm and inviting ambience. It felt very inviting the moment we walked through the door. The staff were very attentive (wasn't overly busy then) so our order was underway pretty fast. The izakaya / tapas dishes came out in no time, as you'd expect. Taste-wise it ticked all the boxes, especially some of the non-traditional ones like the sake clams. In fact the thought of something non-traditional really excited.<br/><br/>However the underwhelming experience was the serving size didn't seem to reflect the price, e.g. $12 for 5 takoyaki balls. I think there were general consensus around the table that we may need to order more and this was right when the first dishes arrived. Normally we'd make that call halfway through but perhaps we were a hungry lot that night. The rest of our orders were the mains and sushi rolls. Those took a while to get there, but nonetheless to me it was a non-issue. We still enjoyed the night.<br/><br/>All in all, service, taste and ambience it was really good. Was it expensive? That's all relative - I believe the ultimate satisfaction test is you know you've gotten what you paid for and in this instance, Kinyoubi didn't deliver.

Satisfying and filling lunch.<br/>Ordered the Udon with chicken karaage. Portion sizes were good for the price ($15). Friends had the Udon with katsu don, and the katsu don curry. While I wouldn't say the taste is typical Japanese that you get at other restaurants, it tasted like a hearty home cooked style kind of Japanese that I would happily return to.

Fair price and fairly good food as well. Good place to have a taste of Japanese restaurant. Pretty much nice dinning experience. Really appreciated everything here. And also is really nice to have a drink with, recommended sake and plum wine. If I had ever have the chance, would came here earlier to try it.

Excellent experience, especially for the fresh sushi. The dishes here are fitted our tastes. We feel the restaurant is comfortable to sit down and have a talk .

Best sushi and sashimi ever!<br/>Fantastic food and the service was so wonderful. Choosing your individual sake cup is a lovely and thoughtful moment that really epitomises how warm the experience is.<br/><br/>

We came here for dinner on a weeknight and were disappointed. The place was not busy but we still had to wait quite a while for our food. We ordered the Apple Scotch Fillet and Beef Udon and they were both unappetizing. The soup was coated in chilli oil which made it cloying. I did not enjoy the food at all. To make things worse, we ordered whiskey and plum wine as they were half price but the amount of alcohol that was poured into the glasses was miserable. We will not be returning. The prices did not match the food quality.

Got the Groupon for two so I thought we would try it out. I see someone else on here had done it as well. The Groupon is actually way too much food for two people and could have done with 2 less courses and we actually had to get them to slow down. Other than that they were quite attentive with the service without being overly intrusive.<br/><br/>A few other people had already reviewed this 8 course menu so I don't have a lot to add. The eggplant was great. The sashimi was nice and fresh. However, I thought there were too many deep fried items. They did taste nice; looking at the other reviews the vegetarian degustation might be a better and healthier option!<br/><br/>I will most likely come back, but ordering off the regular menu.

Very delicious food. Every dish was cooked with love. Ingredients are fresh and tasty. When u learn a bit more about the place and the chef, u know u will never be disappointed.

Not worth $22 sorry......... pork curry tasted good but very small serving and whats with small bowls. I couldnt mix my rice, chicken and curry 😕<br/>

We had a groupon deal for vegetarian set menu and it was amazing! We added in Takoyaki, and it was very well done! This place is a must try for everyone and vegetarians!

We were a group of 4 and were seated promptly. Service was amazing and food and drinks were great! I'd definitely recommend the Nasu Dengaku - the miso eggplant, even though I don't like eggplant this completely changed my opinion on it :)<br/>

I came here with my friends, and it was easy to get a table. Great atmosphere and food and drinks were amazing. I’ll definitely come here again with my friends (:

Got this deal from Groupon and it was great for $60 for 2 people for the following 8 course meal:<br/>1. 2 portions of miso soup - ok<br/>2. Edamame - good<br/>3. Nasu dengaku (steamed eggplant with miso paste) - yum <br/>4. Vege croquette - ok<br/>5. Vegan fried chicken - ok <br/>6. Tofu miso pot - highlight, so tasty!<br/>7. Vegan Lovers sushi roll - great<br/>8. Choice of two portions of ice cream: green tea | black sesame - ok (didn’t get a choice)<br/>9. 300ml of warm or cold house sake (you can opt for other drinks)

The vegan sushi and gyoza are the best I’ve ever had! The service is great it’s a little gem or a place, with a great menu and cosy vibe. The sake menu is also great

Really good seafood! Always left this place happy! Really good prices and good quality. <br/>Slowly became a regular of this place even coz my workplace is right across the street. Compliments to the chef!

Decided to check out Kinyoubi Izakaya for a no fuss, Sunday lunch. We kept things simple ordering the nigiri sushi and sashimi premium set and a Dragon (eel) and panko ebi sushi rolls. For the price points, I thought everything was great. The sushi rolls - very simple, fresh and great tasting. You find at many places now, everything is absolutely smothered with mayo, but there was great balance, focusing on the prawns and grilled eel.

Food was simply delicious! We ordered Takoyoki, fried chicken, gyoza, spider roll and spicy tuna roll. My favourite was the spicy tuna roll, the tuna melts as you eat it. Staff were lovely and atmosphere was cozy. Would definitely recommend!

Best Japanese on the north side. Outstanding sushi and sashimi. But every dish is worth trying. A few reviews have criticised Kinyoubi Izakaya for their limited vegan/vegetarian menu, but I applaud them for choosing to do a small range really well. Also, their service is excellent. Attentive without being overbearing.

There's an extremely limited range of vegetarian/vegan options here, and what there is feels like the base of the "real" meals before the meat has been added. But honestly, the ramen place down the street which is always packed, was packed. The ramen place around the corner which is always packed, was packed. And this was always a runner up.

Super yummy food !!! Very nice ~ excellent customer service~ 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I came here with a Groupon voucher for four people. I can't emphasis enough how much I loved this place. The staff were super friendly and the food was delicious. Small touches like being able to choose your own sake cup really made the experience (also the sake was delicious, I'd recommend it warm). Unlike many Japanese places, this restaurant has loads of great options for vegetarians and vegans. The tofu hot pot is amazing, as well as the sushi and vegan fried chicken. I will definitely be going back.

The perfect place to spend a Sunday afternoon in Fitzroy. Usually we go for brunch but today we decided to satisfy our Japanese food cravings and try out the newest izakaya on Smith Street. It was such a cosy restaurant with friendly staff.<br/><br/>For starters we had the Nasu Eggplant Dengkaku (White Miso glazed Eggplant). It was definitely the highlight of the afternoon. The white Miso perfectly balanced the flavours of the grilled eggplant.<br/><br/>For our mains we had spicy kaarage fried chicken which is always a must at any Japanese restaurant and The deluxe sushi and sashimi platter. The platter had a range of Fresh salmon, tuna, kingfish,scallops as well as nigiri. The fish was fresh and delicious and the nigiri was perfectly seared.<br/><br/>Not too forget,it was the first time I had apple jelly sake ! It was fruity and fun. <br/><br/>I will Definitely be back to try more!

We were very disappointed with the food that they served to us. The nigiri was far from average, the rice was undercooked, tasted bland and it is quite pricey too. The **takoyaki that we ordered was more like a fritter rather than the authentic one. Save yourself a trouble, go to a proper sushi joint or real Japanese restaurant nearby.<br/> <br/><br/>**correction: not okonomiyaki but takoyaki

Came here for a coupon mid week date night which was an eight course banquet. Food was great and good serving sizes , only feed back ...is slow the courses down a bit . The green tea ice cream was delicious as was the sake and Kirin. Good value give it a go!

Dined here with a 20% off Dimmi offer. The place is really cute and the staff were really nice. The food was far from authentic Japanese and quite below average. The fried burdock root chips was great, and was the only good dish we had. The special seared sushi platter was dry (from being out for too long, but was also over cooked from being over torched) and quite bland. The kingfish carpaccio was also surprisingly bland, whereas the soba noodle salad was completely dripping with dressing (the carpaccio could have used with some of this...). The biggest disappointment was the soft shell crab roll because it looked so gorgeous and actually the filling was fine, but the rice was barely seasoned and sooo bland. Even all that sauce was unable compensate how bland that sushi rice was. The prices here make it a mid-range Japanese restaurant, but the food is definitely not worth it.

Food was mostly good besides the extremely bland and tasteless quinoa dish in which we had to pour the miso sauce from our eggplant dish to kinda make it taste better. But overall wasn't worth it. Service was ok but slow as there was only one waitress on. Got the table water half way through our meals, dirty dishes sitting on table for a while. And the sake was horrible. We had a hot one and a cold one and they both tasted like pure methylated spirits. We didn't touch them after tasting. Also their music playlist on the night was hideous. Annoying and loud Asian pop music followed by even more annoying and loud Asian rock music. Didn't set the mood at all. Too many negatives to recommend or to go back too. Too bad.

Great food, well priced and a nice atmosphere. Definitely will go back - particularly good value at lunch time where we had a main and three decent sized sides for just $22!

My friend and I used a Groupon and got an 8 course banquet. Since Groupon had a sale it ended up being around $20 per person. There was so much food! They have a vegetarian banquet but because my friend is vegan they accommodated for us and organised a vegan Japanese banquet! I finally got to try vegan sushi!<br/><br/>Everything was so nice! Highlights for me were the spicy mushroom sushi, the eggplant and the tofu. <br/><br/>I would definitely return.

Highly recommended the sushi and sashimi, they are extremely good!! The dishes are great looking and taste very delicious. <br/>We ordered some dishes to shared.The sashimi platter is absolutely amazing, very fresh and tasty. I was quite impressed by the presentation, good job chef!! 👍 The dragon rolls and scallops nigiri are stunning, so yummy.<br/>Every dish is nice and enjoyable. The service was attentive and friendly. We had a delightful dinner at Kinyoubi. <br/>Good place for those who love Japanese sushi. Definitely will come more often.

What a surprise! I really enjoyed all dishes in kinyoubi today. I would say it's a new hidden gem in Fitzroy and I cannot help myself to add my review. <br/>We tried and < salmon bomb> sushi rolls. The salmon one was really like it's name! Covered by crab stick and mayo. so yum! I haven't seen such presentation before. Also ordered < fried tofu> < potato croquettes > , honestly all exceeded our expectation! This cozy izakaya makes ordinary Japanese tapas to the next level while keeps a very reasonable price. Of cause friendly chef and staffs. <br/>5/5.0 izakaya :))))

Great service, staff there were wonderfully polite, super cute and unique interior. They have very delicious vegetarian sushi and the best black sesame ice cream ever!

I have found this restaurant accidentally with my friends. The waitress recommends us to try out their sushi, so I order their premium sushi and sashimi platter and gyoza. <br/>The sushi platter looks so pretty and delicious and unbelievable and cheap price! <br/>The gyoza is very juice and the sauce is perfectly matching. <br/>Definitely will come back and looking forward to it! Keep it up!

Nice newly opened Japanese restaurant on Smith St., dinner with my friend there.<br/>Serving fresh and high-quality food, good service and clean and comfortable environment.<br/><br/>Highly recommend Kingfish carpaccio and Pumpkin Gold Bag<br/>>>Kingfish carpaccio<br/>Fresh Kingfish with special sour sauce, that is a lovely cold tapas and appetizer<br/><br/>>>Pumpkin Gold Bag<br/>Pumpkin with crispy bean curd, cannot eat in other place<br/><br/>Overall there's good and will be back again. And I will try more sashimi next time.

Convenient location, nice and clean environment.<br/>Raw beef, seafood soup, Kinyoubi dessert platter with 5 sweets, salmon belly sushi. Fired chicken.<br/>The raw beef is my favourite. <br/>Salmon belly are fresh.<br/>Great dinner<br/>

My fd recommeneded me to come here. Ordered a few tapas to share with my fd and it was absolutely stunning! <br/>Edamama - very special taste rather than plain salt <br/>Aji Fish - Loved its sour taste with hint of whisky <br/>Pickles - Best housemade pickles ever! <br/>Pumpkin Gold Bag - sweet & soft inside, crispy outside, nice texture，very special vegetarian dish

Renovation is pretty new and heard only opened for a month <br/>All dishes beautifully presented<br/>Taste very good <br/>Service very good and waiters have full knowledge of their menu <br/>Apple Rib eye is a must try here! <br/>

Portions were good, service was good. Taste wise was a little let down. Nasu dengaku was soupy? Cold smoked salmon tasted sour. Pork belly was chewy and overcooked. Soft shell crab salad was good though. I really hope the food improves as it does have a good selection and reasonable prices.

July 2017<br/>Happen again, my main serves before the entree. I think they need to improve the communication between the sushi bar and the back kitchen. <br/><br/>Salmon capacio, well balance flavour, fresh salmon sashimi.<br/><br/>The octopus takoyaki, quite nice, I like that inside isn't too gluey.<br/><br/>The dragon 18 I think, the eel on sushi roll, quite nice too.<br/><br/>The udon with the tonkatsu, udon soup quite flavoursome, but a little salty to my preference. The tonkatsu is very nice, especially they serve on the seperate plate, so will not soak in the soup. Thinly coat and crispy skin, the dipping sauce was tasty too, I think I taste the yuzu flavour.<br/><br/><br/><br/>April 2017<br/>Nice decor, simple & clean.<br/><br/>Chiriashi Sashimi on rice, fresh sashimi, nicely sliced and presented. <br/><br/>Flavoursome miso soup, have some sliced tofu as well.<br/><br/>Unagi don was nice too, love it with the shredded eggs.<br/><br/>We actually ordered the agedashi tofu as well, follow up with the waitress half way finishing our main course, been told that it was on its way, after approx 15 mins, not yet arrive after finishing the main, ended up cancelled the order. A little disappointed as the appetiser should be served before the main.<br/><br/>Overall meal was quite satisfying.

A nice new spot on Smith street. The food is not bad. Really good sushi! The fired chicken is okay, but the peach sauce come with the chicken is interesting. Seafood pot is too sweet to me. Might go back for some new sushi next time.

Clean white lines and passable food this far. Some way to go with service and eats, but not bad for very early on. Will see how it goes from here!