lilotang japanese

very interesting modern japanese cuisine with molecular gastronomy, thedisheswas delicious and creative.

busy japanese restaurant just right for the discerning diner passing staying at the doma hotels or anyone living in canberra. i had the beautifully grilled cauliflower and hot steaming pot of assorted vegetable sukiyaki for dinner during my 6 weeks of vegan challenge. keen attentive waiting staff. only downside is that there aren’t too manydishesfor “plant pests”.

i was so incredibly impressed with lilotang. everything was perfect, the service, the food, the drinks, everything. a great atmosphere, beautiful large venue and extensive menu. ordered the edamame, the sushi platter, the chefs platter and fish, rice and greens. the timing of thedishesarriving was perfect and everything was delicious. 10/10 recommend

if a sophisticated, intimate night out filled with delicious, flavoursome food and top service is what you’re after then lilotang is the place for you. this fine-dining japanese restaurant is located in barton at the burbury hotel apartments. the atmosphere, decor, food and service combined guarantees a great night. with fresh flavours yummydisheson offer lilotang needs to go on your 'to eat' list while in canberra. we went with the tasting menu that included 8dishesfor $85. more photos and a few review can be found on eatcanberra.com.au

i adore lilotang, one of canberra’s modern japanese restaurants, and was very excited to see that they’re offering lobster rolls as part of the night noodle market. stationed right by the entrance, the staff were proudly claiming to have canberra’s best japanese as we approached the stall. i ordered the lobster roll ($11) and dad went for the pork belly bun ($10) beng offered by stall-partner chairman and yip. bothdisheswere served within 5 minutes of us ordering them, which i was super impressed by! the lobster roll looked small, but don’t let that deceive you – there’s plenty of delicious lobster filling packed within the two

i really did not expect to like lilotang this much. i always have doubts over restaurants that serve asian food in a "westernised" setting. especially japanese food, not everyone can get jap food right, and usually "modern japanese" food basically taste so over the top that all you taste is the soy/miso/mirin. well, you get my point.
but tonight i had a really really great dinner there. first of all the hospitality by the waiter named shawn was really friendly and attentive. he's genuinely nice and made us feel welcome. we didn't want to order any drinks so we ordered food right away. before the food came we were served edamame. it's not your regular edamame with salt, they put other spices or sauce on it, and it tasted really good.
our first entree was the kara age quail. it was really juicy with the right amount of sauce. they were right to use quail instead of chicken, because it made the best version of kara age dish.
our second entree was the pork belly robata. now, this is actually very tasty. but i'm the kind of person who just cannot get the taste of pork belly, but i'm always curious because everyone else seems to like pb. so i will definitely order other entree next time that doesn't contain pb in it.
our main is sukiyaki duck and kara age tempura rice, and umami roasted veggies as a side dish (those are 3 diffdishesbtw), and they are all amazing. we asked for a well done duck because i'm not in a condition to eat raw meat at the moment, so understandably it was a bit dry, but it's not their fault and it was still more enjoyable that other duckdishesi've ever tried in other places.
the desserts sounds interesting so we couldn't pass that up. at first i wanted to try the mochi with green tea ice cream, but after hearing shawn the waiter's explanation about the tea pudding, we were intrigued, so we had that. it was so good! the pudding is really soft and it taste like milk tea with a little bit of sugar, so it was the perfect palate cleanser. in fact, it was the better and dessert version of "drinking tea after a meal", which a lot of chinese people like me like to do. if you have to end your meal with something sweet, then this dessert is not for you.
we spent $92 for 2 people for all of thosedishesand we were definitely full (we're two women with decent appetite). i will definitely go back to lilotang again to try other dishes, and i can't wait to try the sashimis after i'm allowed to eat raw food again.

lilotang has got a winning formula to become a big hit in barton. from the deco, food, drink to the service. this just reminds of maedaya in richmond melbourne but much more sleek. i particularly love how they present their food on plates. it's just simply beautiful and also tastes great. our winningdisheswould be those two porkdishes(pork belly skewers and pork spare ribs) the service is impeccable, genuine and attentive. although the price range is a little bit on high side, i guarantee you it's well worth it. highly recommended. we will return when we touch down to act next time.

delicious food and some fun dishes. the eggplant for me was a bit smoky for me but the wagu beef was a must re-order. it was so tender and beautifully cooked! other highlights was the avocado and tuna fish (although a little more tuna wouldn't go astray!) and the chicken meatballs. the pork belly kebabs were a bit of a letdown. overall good service and prompt delivery. the only slight flaw was getting delivered the wrongdishes5 times! i really urge them to get some table numbers.

yes, canberra is inundated with new restaurants at the moment but there is definitely a place for lilo tang as the menu here is quite different to anything else in canberra. it may not be traditional japanese but the flavours are interesting and thedishesdo push creative boundaries in the right way. i found the prices and portion sizes to be quite reasonable. the service was friendly and welcoming even though it came with a few hiccups but that’s hardly worth mentioning as this was the first day of trade and some staff had very obvious training wheels on and some way to go in learning the menu. overall, lilo tang was a very positive experience and i’m very much looking forward to returning for round two of my favourite dishes.

the latest venture by the chairman group (chairman & yip, malamay , lanterne rooms) is lilotang in barton, offering modern japanese cuisine. headed by chef shunsuke ota (formerly of nobu melbourne), there was much anticipation of this restaurant opening. i have been teased by photos on social media and had my first taste of binchotan (charcoal) skewers at the inaugural night market canberra in december. now that it’s birthday month (wooh!), i booked in birthday party #1 at lilotang with a group of friends. lilotang is located opposite hotel realm and next door to malamay. there’s an array of patterns and shapes that catches the eye and i didn’t know what to look at first. the criss-crossed ropes hanging just under the ceiling gives more contrast to the area. art prints and what looks like recycled wooden items line the grey wall. the kitchen is separated from the dining area to keep noise levels down. a robata grill is installed in the kitchen bringing in a centuries-old japanese style of grilling over binchotan. light coloured natural wooden panels with cut out patterns decorate the restaurant, serving as privacy screens between some tables. a cool feature about these panels is that they slide along the length of the restaurant – giving the restaurant flexible options to provide privacy for diners. last but not least, i couldn’t miss the brightly coloured splashes of manga print throughout the restaurant. as well as on the menus on each table. the sake list is sure to impress with 24 different types of sake. there’s also beer, wine, cider and scotch for those not into sake. my friends ordered beers and a bottle of the plum sake yamada iyuro. no mocktails on the drinks menu but staff can easily put something together. i got a mocktail of orange juice, passion fruit, and lemonade. as we were a group of 16, our waiter provided options of what we could do. the easiest option was to let the chefs decide on a fewdishesto share, as long as there were plenty of various d

there were a few hiccups which is expected for the opening night but things ran seemingly smooth for most of the service. there were a few hit and misses between thedishesand between us there were mixed feelings about the restaurant. i personally thought there were enough ‘hits’ to warrant a return visit in the near future although it wouldn’t be cheap. at the end of the night it ended up being $70 pp without alcohol. that might sound expensive at first but i was reminded that we spent basically the same at akiba. i left content borderline full but i did enjoy the amount of variety that we got to experi