Dining experience

Venue highlights

Accessibility & convenience

Parking & transport

Good to know

• Reservations suggested for peak nights.

Reviews

• Jasmine (Jas.eats)

  ★★★☆☆

  “⭐ Aokuma stand outs: 1. Good selection of food. My friend ordered the aburi udon and I thought this was delicious. It made me jealous because this dish was so flavourful. I wish I ordered the Aburi udon instead! 🍜 2. Individual, personalised chopstick rests were so cute. 3. Hard for soba to stand out. I did notice the soba separated easily, tempura crispy and mentsuyu was a little sweet. There was even more than 5 individual pieces of tempura! Wasabi was KEY in adding some complexity so I was glad to see it. Overall, a refreshing dish for a hot day. 🥵 The not so greats: 1. I really dislike floral earl greys. Unfortunately, the earl grey matcha didn't suit my tastes here. I made a booking for 10.30am but you could easily get a table inside without booking - on a weekend. Maybe it's the 10% weekend surcharge. Overall, a good brunch joint that meets expectations. 👍 ORDERED: 🍝 Zaru soba: cold buckwheat noodles served with homemade mentsuyu and a selection of 5 crisp vegetable tempura pieces ($21.00) 🍵 Earl grey matcha latte: matcha, earl grey, milk ($8.50) + 10% weekend surcharge It was $32.45 for my portion here.”

• Isabella Hodgson

  ★★★★★

  “Literally the best matcha in Melbourne!!! My partner and I go here every weekend to order our iced matcha’s and a onigiri for the road! Their onigiri is always freshly made - nice and warm. We’ve tried 4 of their matcha’s and you literally can’t go wrong - their cloud matcha is my partner’s fav and for me the banana, strawberry and cheesecake matcha are my fav I just rotate depending on my mood. I crave their matcha so much!!!! Also the service is always the best - the staff are so lovely and kind. Definitely a must try!!”

• Em T

  ★★★★★

  “Came here this past week. So good!! A Japanese cafe with amazing speciality matcha drinks. Great atmosphere and chill vibes. I had the matcha cheesecake drink (iced matcha with cheese foam). Well balanced and flavourful, and way bigger than it looked! Also had a chicken karaage set. Staff very friendly. Recommend reservations, because it seemed reasonably busy when I went.”

• CC

  ★★★★☆

  “An authentic Japanese-style café that really feels like you’ve stepped into Japan. They are well known for their matcha latte. The cheesecake matcha latte was our favourite and tasted just like cheese foam on top. The onigiris were huge, but there was a lot of rice and not much filling, so we’d probably skip them next time. For mains, we had the gyudon and the butadon. The butadon was quite dry so we didn’t love it, but the gyudon was delicious and we’d definitely order it again.”

• Merrilee Rayner

  ★★★★★

  “We loved this cafe! It was our first time and it didn’t disappoint! The service was amazing and the food was deliciously authentic. The only sad thing is I don’t live nearby to visit more regularly. We also bought a packet of their black sesame cookies for home and they are delicious! They do charge 10% surcharge on the weekend which is something we didn’t realise but otherwise 100% recommend!!”