Polly (my wife) and I along with friends Matt & Bec all hit this Carlisle Street venue a couple of weeks ago and I have been raving about it ever since…
As a matter of introduction an Izakaya is a Japanese pub which also serves food (sort of like Japanese Tapas) to accompany the drinks. They are popular, casual and relatively cheap places for after-work drinking and depending on the izakaya, customers can either sit on tatami mats and dine from low tables in the traditional Japanese style, or sit on chairs and drink/dine from tables.
En Izakaya (277 Carlisle Street, Balaclava VIC 3183 - T: 03 9525 8886 Open Tue – Sun 18:00 – Late) is evidence of how Carlisle Street is maturing into one of Melbourne’s weekend locations when it comes to food and drink – particularly for us locals 
Proprietor Andy Gray and head chef Teruaki Sato have built a cracker menu (food & wine) which included such highlights as the oven-baked tofu and eggplant and deep fried prawns with yuzu.
Cost ranged from $4 – $16 subject to the dish and actually when the bill came the $157.00 the four of us managed to spend was made up of $60 in food and the rest was alcohol (which included a fantastic chilled Sake that I will have to go back to find out what the name is).
Make sure you book and do it a few days before hand. This place fills up and you want to make sure you can grab a seat and enjoy the food, the drink and talking rubbish with friends….Kampai !!!
