Izakaya Masuya

Oh, hello, mixed feelings. I haven’t seen you since we dated that really nice attractive guy that just had a bad odor and didn’t have two brain cells to rub together.
New things can be exciting, and I was really excited to see a bento that was so creative. I’ve never had a bento that came with a gyoza, a skewer of fried chicken, a deep fried prawn, and a shot glass of ramen. I loved that. They were all served cold though — which I didn’t love as much.
That warm potato/​beef soup was fantastic though. And who doesn’t love a cucumber salad?
The salmon shashimi was some of the thickest I’ve had. And also some of the chewiest.
And the wagyu beef? There was a lot of a nicely flavoured sauce, but sadly not much beef to go with it.
The menu tells me that the bento sides change regularly, so maybe I just drew the short straw on this one.

Great tasting bento for reasonable prices! We had the chicken teriyaki and the fried chicken both of which we enjoyed. It is a lot of food so we could have gotten away with sharing one which seems to be a theme so far in most Australian restaurants…

Really the best takeaway Sushi in the vicinity. Usually packed with Japanese customers and assume this is a sign of authenticity. Hard to find decent Sushi but this place delivers outstanding quality at prices that are reasonable.

Tucked away on the otherwise deserted O’Connell Street is the bustling authentic Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Masuya.
This end of town is mostly office buildings and it is very quiet. So coming across a packed restaurant is a sign that it must be good.
Food was authentic and prices were okay. Seating is a bit cramped and during peak hour there may be a wait for a table to free up.
It’s an okay place if you’re in the area but it’s a little ordinary so I wouldn’t recommend coming into the city just to try this out.

The hotpot here is great and so are the yakitori. The staff are extremely friendly and they have a fine selection of sake to choose from. The price is fairly decent for what you’re getting!

I had the lady bento. It was just okay. The service acts like they are too busy for you; maybe this is because I am not a local.

Nice little izakaya place right next to its sister restaurant Masuya.
Gets busy after 7 and there is only one large table for a larger group. Other than that the ambiance is quite nice.
As usual, I go overboard in ordering food but everything we ordered aside from one dish we would order again.
The dish we would not order again would be the Sweet Prawn Karaage, in my opinion it was a waste of sweet prawns as they are small and the sweetness does not come through when deep fried in their batter, I wasn’t a fan of their batter either. Leave the sweet prawns for sashimi instead.
Now on to the delectable dishes…
Agedashi tofu– perfectly fried and perfectly smooth tofu, the broth/​sauce it came in was also perfect!
Chef’s sashimi– this was a portion for one person but when you’re ordering as much food as the two of us are this is more than enough, the plate comes with three slices of salmon, two scallops, two tuna, three what I think is saba/​mackerel with fresh grated ginger, and three slices of kingfish. All the fish was fresh, even the Saba which I always tend to think is fishy but this was not.
Oyster Gratin– very creamy, baked in a dish, not in the oyster shells. The burnt cheese on top was really good and the oysters did not overcook and were still plump and juicy.
Wagyu Snow Hot Pot– we added pork slices ($ 7) and ramen ($ 3) to this and it was so massive that we didn’t even get around to putting the ramen in so we took it home with some broth and had it for lunch the next day. I think you could skip the added pork slices as the hot pot has plenty of beef to begin with. The beef could have been sliced thinner to give that melt in your mouth feeling but I’m not complaining with the quantity they gave us. The pot was filled with 4 scallops (be careful not to loose them or they’ll overcook!), plenty of beef, cheese sausages, cuttlefish balls, napa cabbage, oyster mushrooms, two types of tofu and possibly some other things I don’t remember. The broth was really good, it’s soy milk based, I hoped for a stronger soy milk flavor, but it was still good. Remember to drink some after all the ingredients have boiled in! On the side they gave chili paste, mochi cubes, and cheese. Be careful not to loose the mochi cubes in the pot either or they’ll melt away and disappear.
Service was very attentive, no problems with water shortage here.
Verdict– can’t wait to go back!