Bon Japanese Restaurant in Canterbury wins the B-Kyu award for best restaurant in the most unlikely location. It's a beautiful old school hole-in-the-wall resto, nestled between two massage parlours on traffic stained Canterbury Road.
In the last couple of weeks before the shutdown dining started feeling a little dicey. All of a sudden we had to consider Zombie germs on everything we touched: menus, cutlery, napkins, the works. We were pleased to see Bon Japanese was taking the zombie apocalypse seriously, it was the first resto we saw to insist on hand washing and spreading out of customers. This place is often booked out, so another upside was an easy walk-in.
This place is a two-man show, so things may take a little longer than usual to happen so be patient, all will be well.
The service and decor are so Japanese. There are a number of references to skulls in the decorations - is this reflecting the plague times, or just the owners taste?
We consider a bento box but decide on a shabu shabu, a bubbling hot pot filled with tofu, cabbage, noodles and mushrooms that you dip slices of raw beef into and cook in the hot broth. As Bob Harris says in Lost in Translation "what kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?"
The plate of beef for swishing and eating.
You wait until the broth is good and boiling, then dip each piece in one at a time, holding it in the broth. It only takes a few seconds to be done. Then dip into one of the two different sauces served, either a ponzu (citrus and soy) or sesame sauce.
There is an option to add extra noodles if you finish up all the goodness and still feel hungry.
Alas we returned for another feed but it looks like they may have closed down. Bon Japanese Restaurant is\was at 163 Canterbury Rd. Watch Friendface for any news.
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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)
Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).