Izakaya Jiro Grill Sake

This is absolutely my new go-to Japanese restaurant in Hawthorn. First time was phenomenal, we booked AYCE Japanese BBQ for two, ended up with the whole second floor (yay! and our own waitress. Our waitress was the best I have ever met, she explained everything carefully and checked on us frequently. Wagyu beef was SO DAMN GOOD, and they definitely didn’t skim on the side dishes. We ordered sashimi twice, very happy with what we paid for. Two hours were enough to get full from all the delish food.<br/ <br/ Naturally we went back for lunch. Ordered chicken nanban teishoku and tempura teishoku. Everything tastes right (stressing this because apparently some restaurants don’t know how certain food are supposed to taste like *coughSamuraicough* and so delicious. Extremely good value for lunch. I’m so happy we found Izakaya Jiro :

The food is great, the service is lovely . I think they need to get one more staff to help. The place is chaos and noisy maybe that’s the downside of the place. No one clean the table need to be more organised.

6 people enjoyed all you can eat option for birthday celebration. Love quality food and thoughtful service provided. Wagyu beef is of premium quality, ox tongue and tiger prawn tastes really good with charcoal barbecue. Ordered matcha ice cream for several times. Overall, definitely very satisfied and will come back to try the normal menu dishes.

Good food and good service. The wagyu beef was on point.

Needed to have a quick meal nearby prior to watching a movie so decided to go to Izakaya Jiro for dinner in hope to utlise Zomato Gold Offer. <br/ <br/ However, upon viewing the menu and asking the waitress, we were advised Zomato Gold excludes: <br/ <br/ •Bento Boxes<br/ •Sashimi Platter<br/ •Sushi and Sashimi Platter<br/ •Stone –grilled plate<br/ <br/ After mulling for a while, we saw the notice on wall for all you can eat BBQ for $58.00 and decided to opt for that instead.<br/ <br/ LOCATION<br/ <br/ Izakaya Jiro is situated on Glenferrie Road, very near to Barkers Road intersection where MLC School is located.Downstairs is al la carte dining area, and upstairs is for BBQ dining.<br/ <br/ We were initially seated downstairs, but after we advised we wanted to have AYCE BBQ we were moved upstairs and allocated at the end of a long high table. <br/ <br/ SERVICE<br/ <br/ Reservation is a must especially on weekends. We made an online booking via Zomato. We advised upon arrival that we wanted to use Zomato Gold, however the waitress didn’t directly tell us what was excluded from the menu on the offer. It was when I prompted and asked her she then pointed it out. I think it would be good for staff to advise to customers straight away.<br/ <br/ When we had placed our orders for the items we wanted for the BBQ, I found the service was rather slow. It took a long while for them to bring out the BBQ stove and the coal had not exactly heated up properly so it took a very long time for all the meats we placed onto the BBQ to cook. But once the coal was fully burning, all the meats and vegetables were hard to control/manage. There was no way to adjust the heat and all our vegetables burnt fast (except for the corn cobs). Some of the meats were overcooked. It was a little difficult to manage as we trying to eat and cook the meat at the same time. So this is a bit of a downfall in terms of the BBQ stove they use.<br/ <br/ MENU/PRICE<br/ <br/ All you can eat BBQ Buffet<br/ Time Limit: 2 hours<br/ Adult: $58.00<br/ Children (4 12yo): $28.00<br/ Food waste over 200grams will be charged<br/ <br/ Food items includes: <br/ <br/ ENTRÉE<br/ Edamame<br/ Seaweed Salad<br/ Kimchi<br/ Takoyaki<br/ Agedashi Tofu<br/ Spring Roll<br/ Assorted Vegetable Tempura<br/ Miso Egglant (Nasu Dangaku)<br/ Gyoza<br/ Crab Cream Croquette (Kani Cream Korokke) <br/ Salads (Kaiso, Ocean)<br/ Soba/Udon Noodle Soup (Kitsune, Tempura, Niku)<br/ Miso Soup<br/ Rice<br/ <br/ MEATS<br/ Wagyu tripe, Wagyu Karubi plate, Wagyu beef skirt, Wagyu rib finger, Wagyu rump cap<br/ Ox Tongue, Tenderloin<br/ Cheese sausage, Pork Jowl, Pork Belly, Chicken Thigh, Chicken Breast<br/ Tiger Prawns, Squid, Salmon fillets<br/ <br/ SUSHI SASHIMI<br/ Sushi Sashimi Platter<br/ Sashimi California Roll<br/ Nigiri Sushi<br/ <br/ VEGETABLES<br/ Onion, Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, Button Mushrooms, Zucchini, Eggplant, Sweet Corn<br/ <br/ DESSERT<br/ Ice cream – Matcha, Black Sesame or Vanilla flavour<br/ <br/ VERDICT<br/ <br/ As my friend and I love eating sashimi and had intended to opt for Zomato Gold, we felt a bit disappointed but was lucky to find that in the All you can eat BBQ Buffet also includes sashimi which was brilliant.<br/ <br/ Definitely great value for money. As we really had only 1.5 hours to eat before we had to make a dash to go for our movie, I felt that a lot of time was wasted in waiting for the BBQ stove to come out as it really “ate” into our time limit of 2 hours dining time. If you have the intention to come here to have the BBQ Buffet, I suggest to be prepared and tell them ASAP that you want to have that upon making your online reservation, and once you arrive to quickly order your food items, as service is quite slow, even in bring out the food. They seem to bring out all the cooked entrée’s first, prior to bring out the meats (most are frozen) which took longer to cook. So do take note of this. <br/ <br/ Otherwise the food was delicious. The takoyaki, agedashi tofu, gyoza were all made fresh and very tasty, pretty good quality especially when its all you can eat. They do take time to cook these properly which is good to know.<br/ <br/ Besides the issue with our BBQ stove which the coal took ages to heat up, we didn’t get to eat the vegetables because they burnt too quickly but the sweet corn was very tasty! <br/ <br/ We ordered quite a number of the sashimi, sushi and sashimi and they were quite fresh too.<br/ For dessert I had one scoop of matcha and one scoop of black sesame. The matcha was very bland, I preferred the black sesame, it had a lot of flavour.<br/ We left feeling very full and satisfied.