Ebi Fine Foods — Restaurant in Melbourne

This place is by far the most underrated Japanese Restaurants west of CBD!

You'd make a mistake of walking past this milk-bar looking frontage if you didn't know what's inside.

The Owner-Chef is Vietnamese, but she learned Japanese cuisine in Korea from an old school Japanese Chef.

She speaks little English but she makes up for it with the food she prepares.

The Chef is religiously obsessed about the authenticity and quality of the food she prepares.

Once I was 15 minutes late to pick up my take-away order and the Chef was truly refusing to let me go, insisting that that she re-makes the dish (for free) so that I get the chicken crispiness just right.

The Chicken Katsu dish in a Bento Box is to die for!

Outside of Sapporo, I have not tasted chicken cooked to soft and tender on the inside with just the right crispiness on top.

The side dishes in the Bento Box are picked with strategic precision and compliment each other perfectly.

Tiny details speak volumes, here is a short illustration of the level of care and attention invested into food preparation at Ebi: the little piece of tofu (which is a Bento Box side dish, seemingly a piece far from being important) is thrown on a grill for a few of seconds to get the crispiness right. Then they put a spot of sauce on the tofu and a touch of sesame seed. This makes tofu a work of art, which tastes absolutely remarkable -- and I don't even like tofu at all in the first place.

Just like all the great places in Melbournia, in order to find these great gems, one needs to make a bit of an effort to go off the beaten path, go down an alley way, then turn into another alley way, move a garbage bin and crawl down a set of stair...

Ebi is that kind of place!

A must visit for a true Melbournian, for true lovers of authentic Japanese cuisine and a must to support a local...

After reading such rave reviews, viewing the menu on Google & having a craving for miso I decided to give it a go. 1st bit of shock was the change in price for a takeaway miso being $7, not the $3 & $5 on the online menus...pretty sure inflation rate is not 100% ATM?!! Given I'd already ordered 2 I felt it was a bit late to walk out. I figured the portion will make up for it being THE most expensive miso I've had of dozens I buy a year. Sadly, it was not only the most expensive, but smallest portion I've ever had!! I literally had both portions to feel remotely satiated, so $14 for a miso proper portion is outlandish!!! The actual product was good, had a few pieces of tofu, seaweed & a slice or 2 of mushroom, but honestly, the price is ridiculous. To add insult to injury, the containers are terrible unsustainable plastic that leaked a lot of contents into the carry bag as they weren't packed properly, so I didn't even get all of the little I was given!! Overall a real let down & I won't be back 😔 I took photos of the tiny containers, 3/4 full next to the cutlery for proportion, but not sure how to attach. I think I've painted...

Ebi fine food is a weird mixture of Japanese food and a fish and chip store but they do both really well. Ebi has both inside seating which consist of a few tables inside, a bench and tables outside under cover.

The menu is short and sweet but has everything you expect plus a surprise which was the tofu cheesecake.

We got the chicken curry and a medium fish and chips. Each size up increases the fish you get so medium is two and large is three and it's a really nice surprise you can pick the fish you get. They have hoki, blue grenadier, barramundi and a grill type which is amazing choice. Curry is your stock standard however it's a big piece of chicken with a good crunch. The fish and chips has a really good crispy beer batter and the fish is flakey. Chips also come with chicken salt if you wish so extra points there. Tofu cheesecake was a nice surprise. Super smooth and creamy and no strong tofu taste so would have mistaken it for normal cheesecake if I wasn't informed.

Overall it is a very nice family restaurant and if you're a local this is one family run joint that you should add to your...