Yayoi is openings its second restaurant outside of Asia at Sydney’s Galeries Victoria.
Launching on 14 August, the new Yayoi will be a 67-seater and will allow diners to order from iPads. Fellow Galeries restaurants include the recently opened Lotus Dining, Mero Mero, and (as of 2016) The Grounds of Alexandria.
The first Yayoi to launch outside of Asia swung open its doors on Bridge Street in June 2014, offering authentic Japanese cuisine. As the Galeries opens, Yayoi in Bridge Street is undergoing a refresh and will reopen as Yayoi Garden on 1 September.
Yayoi is owned by one of Japan’s largest foodservice operators, Plenus Co Ltd, which serves more than 300 million meals in Japan alone through its Yayoi-Ken and Hotto Motto restaurants.
“We are so pleased to be able to bring such a popular and genuine Japanese dining experience to Sydney with now two establishments opening within just over a year,” said Plenus Australian director, David Coates.
Galeries diners will have an extensive food menu to choose from, including the famous Japanese home-cooked style meals called ‘teishoku’, which consist of rice as the centrepiece served with miso soup, a main dish of meat or fish, and a side dish of vegetables or Japanese pickles.
Another signature dishes is the Yayoi Gozen, a set ‘tasting plate’ style meal that comes in a traditional box. The menu has been put together by a team in Japan and also includes unique Japanese dishes such as Natto, a fermented soybean dish served with rice and Tororo, which can be described as a sticky potato also served with rice.
The rice served in Yayoi’s Sydney restaurants is ‘kimne’, a polished rice that retains the nutrition found in brown rice while still offering the sweet and rich taste found in white rice, and is exclusively available in Australia throughout Yayoi. Kinme rice does not need to be washed, saving enormous amounts of water – 10,000L of water is saved for every 1,000kg of rice processed.
Yayoi will also offer a broad range of authentic sakes, Japanese and Australian beers and international wines.
