Wabi Sabi Salon

Their vegan tan tan men is delicious! I have tried a lot of meat-free ramen broths and they always lack body and flavour compared to meat broths, but wabi sabi’s broth is an exception! The noodles are nice and springy, and the toppings include a soy-based mince which is amazing with the broth. If you are looking for a great meat-free ramen please check this place out

Spent a week in Melbourne and this was the best restaurant out of all of them. Interior is quirky and clean, staff are polite and service is quick. The food offerings are the best of all, and worth the trek out of the city. Still very much traditional Japanese flavours and offerings with their own signature twists.

Was most impressed by the tofu katsu curry, but the chicken karaage was great too! Highly recommend.

Collingwood's Smith Street has a variety of Japanese establisments but Wabi Sabi leads the way.

The menu leans heavily to Japanese classics with a slight twist and is mostly vegan and fish based.

Tomoya and his team are wonderful hosts and service always friendly and attentive. On my most recent vist we started with the vegan gyoza, a well sized and tasty dumpling with a delicious sesame sauce. We enjoyed the smoked tofu katsu curry and the vegan shoyu ramen. The curry sauce is exceptionally smooth and rich and house made. Forget your SB Curry, this is the real deal.

I am pretty particular about ramen and the shoyu broth is complex and tasty but for me the highlight is the noodles. Not too soft, not too firm. Do yourself a favour and order extra noodles.

The menu is rounded out by a good range of beers, sake and non-alcoholic drinks.

Highly recommended and I will keep coming here for my J food fix.

Cozy Japanese style diner in Collingwood!

The aesthetics and ambience of this eatery are just exquisite! Loved their authentic Japanese decos. They even have this enchanting beer garden at the back that's just perfect for warm summer nights.

Grabbed Pork Gyoza, Cauliflower Curry Tempura, Teriyaki Truffle Salmon Teishoku. I enjoyed the Teishoku the most which was basically a platter of main, rice, and veggies. Definitely big enough to be shared between 2-3. Highly recommend them all!

Special shoutout to their staff member Carlo. He was the service staff for both times I've visited here. He was fantastic and all his recommendations were golden.
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#melbfoodiemark #wabisabisalon

We had the gyoza and tuna sashimi here which were quite tasty. Bit of a fusion spin on the katsu curries but flavours were still good. Only negative is that the food is quite expensive for what it is and compared to other competitors. Katsu curries and mains around $25-32

Salmon sashimi teishoku
fish katsu burger
poke bowl
pumpkin stuffed mushroom

: @wabisabisalon
: Fitzroy

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: Always loved Wabi Sabi Salon and Neko Neko’s Japanese food. Didn’t get to dine in this time, but the food is still as consistently delicious as ever.

️: I ordered the Wasabi Salmon Sashimi Teishoku set which came with purple rice and a side salad. I’m not a big burger fan, but had to say that Wabi Sabi Salon’s crispy fish katsu burger with mayo was amazing.

Nice staff, average food and unexpected very expensively priced bottle of wine, $78 is too much for a quick lunchtime catchup. Make sure to ask for the price of the bottle before you order. My mistake

This place is fabulous - the food is top quality and delicious. You can tell they’re using good quality produce. Friendly staff and it’s just a lovely place to sit and have a meal. Will make this a regular for Japanese. Loved it?

The atmosphere is great, decor is awesome and service is lovely. The upstairs section is especially cool! You can tell there is pride taken in the food and it feels authentic.
My one complaint is that I have tried the food here twice and both times the broth has just been too salty for me to enjoy. I had the creamy sesame tan tan ramen the first time and the agadashi tofu and eggplant dish in broth the second time and it just would have been much more enjoyable if it was less salty!

Tasty food. Service was great the first time I came. This time our food took 40 min to come.

Update: third time - they got our order wrong after waiting half an hour. Prob won’t return anymore

Food appears to be a bit on the salty side otherwise interesting and innovative mixes. It would be helpful to have a separate wine list with prices rather than have to ask the staff every time

Really tasty assortments of pickles in the teishoku set! I'm no pickle fiend, but I think I've been converted.
Octopus (Tako) karaage was also super juicy and mind blowing! Delish!

They really do the little things well, the sauces are very unique and have an abundance of flavour to them, the fries are perfectly crispy and the music and styling throughout is very well done. Most of all though, the Katsu Sando is amazing, we come back all the time for the sandwich alone. The guy who runs it is also very friendly and always happy to chat.

My partner and I had dinner here. The service was friendly, but very slow. We had to wait almost 30 mins for our mains, and I had to chase the waiter up to see if they were coming. The restuarant wasn't that busy.

For starters we had some tuna sashimi which was nice.

My chicken karaage for $25 was ok, the pieces of chicken were big and dry. But I was hungry so I ate the lot lol. The pickled salad on the plate was ok I guess.

My partners dish looked the same as mine but it was a vegetarian option and once again, this dish was alright.

For $80 there is much better value on Smith St.

Previous review - April 2016
I went here tonight with my friend as I was keen for some good Japanese. This place was ok but it wasn't the best Japanese I've had, but In saying that the entree duck bun was excellent, and the miso soup was great.
The main thing that let this place down in my opinion was the Bento boxes. I had the seafood bento whilst my friend had the meat (pork) bento. Both bentos were fried with basic salad and rice.
Other than that the Japanese beer on tap was excellent, and the service was good.

Good vibe and service, but the food made these a gimmick. Ramen was absent in umami. Tataki was stale. Dengaku eggplant didn’t taste right. Gyoza was okay.

Was good food, except my friend promised near perfection. Instead, her panko fish was slightly overcooked, my wagyu was just okay, the chips were delicious but way over salted. A bit under-delivered, but given everyone is getting back into stride post lockdown, I'll give them the benefit and come back in a few months.

Decent Japanese restaurant with Asakusa vibes and retro vibes. Great food, nice atmosphere, bring you back to Japan in 90’s. They have function in the back and also mezzanine in upstairs.

I walked Smith Street looking for something satisfying to have for dinner after having eaten nothing all day. 'Japanese burger' the menu on the window read- swipe right, it's already somewhat of a match. I entered, asked the waitress, who was very kind and welcoming, which burger she recommended, she informed me that burgers are on the lunch menu, but will check if the kitchen can prepare it anyway.
Not only did they get out of their way to make it, but it was an absolute delight. The Swordfish Burger. Coupled with a 2 Brothers Kung Foo lager recommended by Tomoya, the very friendly and cool owner himself. Was lovely to have, especially with all the modern Japanese articles and designs around you to appreciate. I proceeded to the toilets for a wash (spoiler alert), and lo and behold a wonderful private Japanese garden setting that I'm definitely trying out next time. Thanks Wabi Sabi Salon. I highly recommend this place for food, service, and setting, alone or with friend (s).

Wow.
I specifically ordered a gluten free ramen on uber eats, that was an available option and something safe for me to eat, however what arrived wasn’t but I was trusting that it was.sometimes the gf options can be very similar to regular noodles these days but the repercussions I will have to face for eating something that I have to medically avoid isn’t even worth the refund.

Super disappointed. Please train your staff better in applying the appropriate measures to make food safe when requesting gf ‍️

Top quality ramen, friendly staff, relaxed vibes and interesting vegan options makes this place perfect for a quick, tasty and decently priced meal with mates. The only issue is the lack of space and slightly cramped sitting.