Anzero, Glen Waverley

When I think of Valentine's Day, several things come to mind. There was a year on Valentine's Day when we got accidentally locked out of our house. It was the only Valentine's Day where we had a threesome - ourselves and the locksmith. It was a very expensive date. 

There was another year where we spent 3 hours at a restaurant. The act of eating food took less than an hour, but the rest of time we were waiting for harried servers and kitchen staff churning out meals to all the customers. We had plenty of time to stare into each other's eyes which was the only advantage of the date. 

This Valentine's, we celebrated ahead of time. We went to a neighbourhood Japanese restaurant Anzero. Gaz had heard good reviews of the place and wanted to try it out. It is a small, neat and tidy place. We were ushered to a 'display table' - a table at the front of the restaurant beside the glass windows so passers-by can see us as though we were on display. 

There is a small selection of items on the menu and each item can be made into a set meal for an additional $5. The additional items in the set meal is a fried beef dumpling, an onsen egg, and some cucumber slices. Both single and set meals came with a salad and miso soup. We ordered the 150g scotch steak yakiniku ($27.50). The beef was cooked medium rare and was tender but there were some chewy parts that really tested my teeth strength. It was basically pan fried beef on rice, and while I really liked that I was eating a hearty portion of beef, the dish would benefit from some kind of sauce. The miso soup on the side helped, because it was much too salty on its own. 

The spicy beef karubi ($29.50) was good. The chilli oil sauce gave the whole dish a nice kick, but it is not spicy. The raw egg added some richness to the dish. A second egg came in the form of the onsen egg which was part of the set, so we set that aside to eat with the beef yakiniku. I think upgrading the meal to a set is not really needed because the three additional items are not substantial and are not must have's in term of flavour profile. They are good to have to add variety to the meal though. 

 The portions were on the small side, but we both agreed that we should not be eating too much anyway. The flavours are a bit inconsistent and a bit of a hit and miss - the miso soup was too salty, the beef karubi and dumpling was oily. The restaurant had only recently opened for dinner service so perhaps a refinement of the menu is in order.