Emilia reviews a trendy underground Japanese restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD!

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Meaning little brother in Japanese, Ototo is the underground, more rebellious, better sharer, more casual and more spirit based little brother to Akaiito.

Sound familiar? Every family has one. Full disclosure, I’m the youngest in my family so I may have a bias.

I’ve noticed a trend in Melbourne, a way to repurpose old banks. Restaurants like Reine & La Rue, Kumo, Prohibition, of course the Bank on Collins all use the bones of old banks, some keeping the vaults, others little heritage details.

Ototo has the exposed bluestone walls, heritage iron grating, large restored wooden columns and original ceiling beams against the perimeter of grey leather and velvet booths. Both upstairs and downstairs have this beautiful red river of light flowing through the roof – it’s a play on the Japanese legend that an invisible red thread that connects them to the people they are destined to meet and be connected to in their lives.

I actually struggled ordering because everything on the menu is what you’d normally pick on a bigger menu. They have taken all the favourites from Akaiito and all the crowd pleasers and put them on one menu.

Chef, Winston Zhang was born in China and although it’s a Japanese restaurant I loved seeing his heritage leak through in the dishes, like the drunken edamame. They used to pickle everything and he used to eat them as a kid on summer days as a snack.

The Wagyu Tataki is their all-time most popular dish, with flying fish roe and an egg yolk on top – I’m not the biggest fish roe fan but it’s easy to eat around and the flavours are fresh.

Kingfish Sashimi is topped with grapefruit, yuzu and truffle ponzo, similar to the wagyu tataki – it feels simple but only because they’ve nailed the balance.

The crowd favourite at our table was the Sichuan Bang Bang Noodle Salad which also is a fusion of a dish from Winston’s childhood from summer, they’ve just used slow poached chicken to bring it in the modern Melbourne food scene.

They have gorgeous coloured and flavoured dim sums to choose from, the easiest way to try them all was the dim sum platter. Be warned if you want the chicken dumplings – get them separately, they’re not in the platter.

The OFC (Ototo Fried Chicken) are the ultimate young gen crowd pleaser. Easy choice is the sweet and sour ribs, traditionally they’d use a double slow cooked pork rib but here they use a lamb short rib; still double cooked though.

On a trip to Malaysia, to Penang, Winston learned, on a wet weather timetable, to make the yellow prawn curry traditionally in a cooking class. It’s a lighter, fresher flavour – the sauce is not as thick – perfect as a summer curry.

You can choose between the wagyu fried rice or truffle fried rice which if you’re a meat eater I would definitely indulge in the wagyu fried rice.

I didn’t go this way but their set menus are great value at $55 or $75 per person.

Cocktails are pricey but if you’re interested in a specialty cocktail there are some really fun ones to try.

Ototo 

Downstairs 349-351 Flinders Lane

Melbourne