Mixed skewer plate! The ones at the back are the pork-belly wrapped enoki mushrooms. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
Yakitori 38 has unveiled its new menu, and I’m eager to try it!
Yakitori 38 has cemented its place as a standout destination for Japanese-style dining in Canberra. Inspired by the laid-back charm of Osaka’s izakayas – casual spots where people linger over drinks and bites – this relaxed, mood-lit Japanese tapas bar invites patrons to unwind and connect. With managing director Jun Jang and chef Guno Chung at the helm, along with the exciting addition of chef Sion Park, who brings all his experience from Raku, our taste buds are in good hands!
Tonight, with our table laden with flavour-packed share plates and artisanal cocktails, it’s the perfect setting for catching up with old mates and meeting new friends.
As well as trying some of the fresh new dishes, we dive into a yakitori classic: a plate of mixed skewers that is simple, iconic, and flavour-packed. The charcoal grill imbues its smoky notes into the tender cubes of meat. We enjoy skewers topped with green dollops of zingy citrus shiso pesto, and chicken thigh skewers flush with spring onions that have caramelised, bringing sweetness to the umami char.
Tebanaka, fried chicken middle wings, look deceivingly humble, but they are a flavour highlight tonight. The perfectly seasoned peppery crust gives way to delectable mouthfuls of juicy chicken. House-made teriyaki sauce is available but not required.
Oversized Futomaki sushi is plump discs with colourful wedges of tuna, kingfish, salmon, Japanese egg omelette, chives, cucumber, and radish fitted together like an edible Trivial Pursuit game piece.
You are supposed to take the whole sushi in one bite. I don’t manage it, not even close. Plus, I want to savour all that is going on in this sushi: smooth umami, crunch, sweetness and pops of caviar.
Another new menu item is temaki, which is fun and hands-on. It’s basically DIY sushi that you roll into a cone and eat with your hands. I am relieved to be using my hands because I have not yet managed to place anything into my mouth with chopsticks at this dinner. Miniature nori sheets flank a bowl of steamed rice and creamy blue swimmer crab meat that tastes a little chowder-like. The little tacos are creamy, tender, and comforting.
Oversized Futomaki sushi is plump discs with colourful wedges. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
The pork belly-wrapped enoki mushrooms bring a flame-kissed umami to the tender, fleshy mushrooms. It is one of my picks of the night.
The Mt. Fuji of a dish comes out – a larger plate that, to my mind, is like an Asian twist on the game-day combo of fried chicken and potato salad. The batter on the karaage fried chicken is light, crisp, and delicately seasoned. Impossibly crunchy strands of fried potato top the chicken, and creamy egg salad sits alongside. A generous dusting of finely grated Parmesan tops the entirety.
The sashimi is effortlessly melt-in-the-mouth. The slices of Tasmanian salmon, bluefin tuna, and Hiromasa kingfish are unapologetically chunky, but the texture and sweetness delight our taste buds.
I have never tasted Wagyu beef gyoza. Think silken pouches of Wagyu scotch fillet, cabbage, and caramelised onion, accompanied by a citrus-soy dipping sauce that is both colourful and robust.
Our bellies are filling up, but there is a hotpot dish to gather around. The kimchi pork katsu nabe. A nabe is a clay pot. This Japanese clay pot dish has a Korean twist. It’s a kimchi-based broth. A cheese-draped pork katsu (panko crumbed and fried pork cutlet) and burnt tofu cubes, silken with a blackened crust like a savoury toasted marshmallow, sit atop the broth. We turn on the small stovetop to bring the dish to a boil and then taste it.
I am not a kimchi person, but the broth’s fragrance is layered and complex; more subtle than the punch-in-the-face acerbic heat I expected.
Lifting the hotpot lid and inhaling the fragrance. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
I enjoy every sip of my exotic Hidden Leaf lychee cocktail. Laced with lime leaf, it is mouthfuls of spring’s floral brightness.
If you order a Miso Butter Blazer, the bar’s headliner, then you are in for some theatre watching it being made. Chefs make the miso butter in-house. It is their twist on a salted butter caramel beverage.
There is more on the menu and on our table that is absolutely delicious. What would you choose?
Yakitori 38 is located at Shop 19/21 East Row in the Sydney Building. It is open from 5 pm until late Tuesday to Saturday. Follow Yakitori 38 on Facebook and Instagram, and check out the menus.
