Kimurakan Cafe

Well I didn’t really expect anything when going to Kimurakan. After having late night cravings for Japanese food and the place next to our hotel was packed with people we decided that we didn’t want to queue up. So this was the place! The waitress was just hilarious;) obviously she had problems understanding our order. we decided to go for the salmon Bentoh and we decided to order some extra drinks for «take away» as the minimum charge for eftpos is $ 30. The food was served promptly and also our drinks! All of them opened and served with a straw!;) The food was not the best I ate and the place itself is not the cleanest, but at least It was cheap;)

Unfortunately, after my last visit to Kimurakan I have to say that I’m slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong — I still love the place! However, the quality has dropped a bit over time.
Customer Service: The service at Kimurakan is still consistently and laughably bad. Still really inattentive — the waitresses were hiding away in the kitchens, which caused a bit of a wait. Also, I asked for red pepper and the waitress looked at me with a blank expression on her face.
Food: This is the category in which Kimurakan has changed. Some, it changed for the better. In another case it has changed for the worst.
~Positive: They really have expanded their menu. Now, there are loads more options rather than the basic bentos and donburis that they have on a double-​sided menu. There are now entrees and even ramen!
~Negative: They raised the prices by around 1 – 2 dollars. This fairly disappointed me because before, you were pressed to find a meal for over 10 dollars. Now, you’ll find it difficult to find something for under. They also now skimp a bit on the bentos — one entire section of the bento is dedicated to 2 weird-​tasting jellies. Wtf?
I ordered a Chicken Curry Bento, which came with Tofu Salad, Rice, Jello, and 1 Gyoza. Plus, you get an option of having green tea of Miso Soup (I picked the soup). Because of the new expansion on their menu, I wanted to try something else and settled on the Chicken Wings.
Chicken Wings: A bit of a disappointed. They properly DEEP FRY these wings and the batter used is thick and rough to bite through. The meat is succulent and juicy, but I felt so greasy and unhealthy just from eating them.
Chicken Curry Bento: The curry was made a bit amateur-​ish. It seemed really basic and lacked many flavours. I really enjoyed the Miso Soup! They don’t skimp on the miso paste, so instead of a watered down soup you get most places, you get a strong taste of delicious miso. I found the tofu salad pretty good, but easily made. The mayonnaise they used as the dressing was great. What I was most surprised with was the Gyoza piece — it made me want to order a plate of Gyoza because it was SO JUICY.
The only thing weird and unappetising about the bento was the 2 pieces of jelly. They were a bit too condensed and concentrated — I don’t even know what they’re doing in a Japanese bento box.
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I should note that Kimurakan is probably not that authentic. The restaurant is managed by a Chinese crowd instead of Japanese, but the food is still fairly tasty and cheaper than most Japanese spots in the CBD.
Check it out for some great and cheap food!

Small place but food was quite nice.
So we went to Kimurakan last night before heading to the movies. It is small, very small infact with only a couple of tables downstairs. The place is very busy, although we shouldn’t have expected otherwise after 8pm on a beautiful Saturday night, and due to the size of the restaurant; the noise is deafening and the only way for us to hear what’s coming out of our mouths is if we emulate the other diners by literally yelling at each other!
There is a picture of Adam Liaw (winner of the second series of MasterChef Australia) with the owner on the wall up the stairs which makes me think that this going to be a great dining experience for some reason.
We order the Kimurakan Bento with a complimentary lemon iced tea. Now I know that we have left it late by incorporating dinner in our schedule less than 1 hour before the start of the movie but somehow I believe that 45 minutes is a long wait no matter how busy the restaurant is and, let;s face it, we are not talking about fine dining here.
However, in all fairness, the food is quite nice when it finally arrives. The Kimurakan Bento has a well balanced assortment of items — fish, chicken, pork, prawns, mussels, salads and rice and the flavours work well together.
The staff did apologize for the wait time which was fair enough.
Overall, the food was good and I wouldn’t mind coming back but next time we’ll make sure we have plenty of time ahead of us!

Admittedly Kimurakan has about zero ambience. In fact it’s entirely sterile.
Sure, it isn’t perfect. The staff can be a little hopeless, but what they lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm. While the downstairs area is indeed small, there are plenty more tables upstairs (although sit up there and you do risk being completely forgotten).
Regardless, I absolutely adore this place. After all, you don’t come here expecting fine dining. The food is just so amazing that I’m prepared to overlook any other short comings. It’s also amazingly cheap. The majority of bento boxes come in at under $ 10, along with a free lemon ice tea or cola.
Kimurakan will always be one of my absolute favourites. So ignore the décor (or lack thereof), forgive the patchy service and simply enjoy the great Japanese food.