Izakaya Chouchou 酒² — Restaurant in Melbourne

What a fantastic addition to this area. The restau is tiny, but is gorgeously fitted out - clean, simple and beautiful, super stylish (including the great music!), but the service completely friendly and down-to-earth, all staff welcoming and kind and humorous with young children, and the food and drinks are excellent.

We tried a range of 'bar' snacks (teba gyoza, gyu tataki, fried prawns) as well as some more traditional sashimi and rolls, a few carby sides (excellent mash and nori chips!) and one "poke" bowl. Everything was delicious and better than expected. The setting and the food and bev are on par with some of the hatted Melbourne establishments, but the vibe is relaxed and chilled and service is as warm as if you were at your best friend's. A definite new favourite and so happy we discovered this gorgeous and delicious restaurant.

Great job to the owners and managers - it's not an easy year (!) to open a new restaurant and to open with all the venue restrictions, plus having to be hospitable while wearing masks but the service and welcome is truly excellent. Dining with young children is hardly a relaxing experience but the speed and friendliness of the service, along with the amazing food and drinks really put us at ease and I can imagine returning for a child-free date or with some girlfriends for a great night out, as well as with our own kids again.

Highly recommended - and we will be booking (frequently) in future now we know how lucky we were to walk in and...

We had an excellent dining experience at Izakaya Chouchou, where Yumiko explained the background of the restaurant, their style of Japanese cuisine with a French twist to it, and the different dishes we had today.

I loved the sashimi & teba gyoza, they were both highlights for me. The sashimi was fresh, had thick cuts, and 5 different varieties of fish. The kingfish and salmon were a good amount of fattiness.

If you haven’t had teba gyoza, you need to try it! It is a gyoza filling stuffed into a chicken wing, where the chicken wing acts as the wrapper and encapsulates all the juices, making it so so delicious!!

The tonkatsu & omurice were both hearty options. We devoured the omurice as soon as it came out, the sauce was almost mushroom-y and creamy, which went well with the fluffy egg on top. The tonkatsu came with an assortment of veggies/slaw, which complimented the tonkatsu.

We loved the dessert here too. The triple chocolate brownie at first looks overwhelmingly dense, but once you have a bite, it almost melts in your mouth like nama chocolate. It’s not too sweet, and the fresh fruit - strawberries, pineapples and grapes definitely helped with the sweetness.

They are a cosy, intimate Japanese Izakaya restaurant nestled in Glen Iris, with warm welcoming staff members whom are all Japanese. If you’re looking for an amazing Japanese Izakaya,...

Hidden gem of a Japanese restaurant with French influenced fusion dishes and an entirely Japanese team bringing the most authentic dining experience!

We tried: 🍛 Omurice 🍗 Teriyaki Chicken 🐟 Sashimi Platter 🍤 Fried Prawn 🍮 Yuzu Sticky Date Pudding 🍶 Jozen Indigo Junmai Daiginjo Sake 🍷 Barossa Valley Shiraz

We started with their fried prawn entree, which had fried crackers attached to the prawns, providing an insanely crunchy bite - textural perfection! The teriyaki chicken was incredibly tender and had a fragrant smokey flavour, glazed with a sweet teriyaki sauce. We tried their omurice off the specials menu and it was so delicious! The egg was fluffy and moist with flavourful curry sauce surrounding the dish. The curry also had thinly sliced wagyu, which was a great touch. Their sashimi was one of the freshest platters I’ve ever had! The selection included silver bream, gurnard, bluefin tuna, hamachi and salmon, and we had some shiraz to pair. We finished off with a yuzu sticky date pudding, drizzled in butterscotch sauce with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The pudding was so soft and spongey and the butterscotch was deliciously sweet and fragrant. If you’re a fan of sake, their jozen indigo is so smooth - highly recommend! The staff here were also so friendly and polite, a lovely...