Pabu Grill & Sake

Pabu Grill & Sake located in the busy Collingwood area and it’s a casual Japanese restaurant by day, trendy hip Japanese Izakaya by night. Pabu it self means pub in Japanese. Khoa Nguyen the owner of Pabu often travel to Japan to find new inspirations for his restaurants, with the collaboration with Chef Anura they bring the vision alive in Melbourne.

Casual and easy walk-​in. Very good, but not amazing food. Nice staff. I go by myself sometimes and read and hang out

Cheap eats and swift service.
Pabu is a local lunchtime haunt for me during the working week, and I can’t overstate how much I wish more places were like this.
–Tasty food
–Great value
–Friendly enough
–Fast service
–Consistent
Dumplings are great, the curry is fantastic ($ 10), and the sushi range and price will please anyone. The rice paper rolls are not Smith Street’s best in my opinion, but the freely available Sriracha more than makes up for that.
Never been during the evening for for sake, but I feel I may be missing out.
The combination deals and catering packs are attractive.

The salmon and avocado rice paper rolls are hands-​down the best rice paper rolls I have ever had. I don’t even know what they put in them (sesame seeds? crispy shallots? crack?) but oh, they are so good.

Pabu is a seriously great Japanese restaurant. They have a gigantic menu so be ready to be overwhelmed by choice! They have all the classics you would expect plus a seasonal changing menu which usually has a little bit of flair on it.
For those who can’t handle the choice there’s a set menu which is well thought out and gives a great overview of the menu. There’s also a vegetarian version of the set menu which is very cool because few restaurants provide anything for the vegges among us.
The food itself has been near perfect each time I’ve been. The takoyaki, hamachi sashimi, chicken ribs & black sesame ice cream is probably some of the best I’ve ever had & each dish has a little bit of inventive difference to set it aside and make it just that extra bit special (eg the hamachi came with ginger and jalapeños — yum!!). The menu also has saki matching next to some dishes.
My only complaint is that some of the skewers on the mixed grill plate can be tiny bit dry but I’d be nitpicking to really complain.
The décor is very simple — I really like sitting at the bar where you can see all the action! They can get quite busy but turnover is usually pretty quick and the venue is big so it’s not too much of an issue.
So– definitely go & go soon because they currently have a phenomenal lobster roll on the seasonal menu which I will definitely be going back for!!!

Great value at $ 12 for a pork belly with spicy ramen soup and at lunch time chicken teriyaki with a miso soup also for $ 12. We both loved the flavours of the dishes and adequate portion sizes.
I’ll definitely be back here for lunch and have heard it’s great for dinner

Best asian fusion restaurant in Melbourne. The brothers have a creative menu that never ceases to surprise. One of the few restaurants that has a large share menu that invites us to try new dishes each time and every one is delicious. Sashimi is top, top notch. They do their own mayo recipes that accompany some of their dishes, and it’s to die for. Kudos guys.

Edamame, yasai tempura, yakitori, takoyaki, buta gyoza, lotus heart crisps — Pabu Grill & Sake does all the classic Japanese izakaya food with a modern Fitzroy flair. Traditional kitschy japanese wares (such as the constantly-​steaming crockpot on the counter) blend surprisingly well against a suitably smith-​street bartender complete with high apron and Grandpa Harrity cap.
We ordered a smattering of izakaya snacks — the stand-​out being the yakitori. The delicious salty-​sour-​sweet honey-​soy-​sesame crunch marinated chicken was grilled to absolute perfection and had all the smokeyness you’d find in the diveyest backstreet pubs of Japan. They were so good, our second round of food was simply all yakitori with steamed rice. I lost my dining partner, eating closed-​eyed in a moment of his own, to the sticks of sticky-​smokey goodness! Another plus — the steamed rice was the absolute PERFECT temperature — not the luke-​warm globules you usually find about town.
The service was very very attentive, although everyone still seemed a bit lost and no-​one seemed to QUITE know which patrons they were supposed to take care of. But considering we were eating on the grand opening night (though they’d been open 2 weeks) it was forgivable. As was the wait on our food…
… the first round came out staggeredly from about the 35 minute mark. Considering we were in for a late dinner (8pm), by the time our yasai tempura arrived I had already eaten half of one of my chopsicks and my partner had gnawed half his arm off. Round two of food was, unfortunately, much worse. 40 minutes for 5 yakitori chicken and rice (with no heads-​up on how long the wait would be). Which made the movie we were meant to be catching in Carlton a stress and a struggle, and we couldn’t enjoy the chicken and give it the time and savouring it deserved because we had to inhale it and dash out the door.
All in all, Pabu is great. Having lived in Japan for a while, I know good izakaya — and this is it. Besides some service and kitchen issues that I think will smooth themselves out over time, this place is great — though I think I’ll wait a month or two until my next visit. or have no post-​dinner plans to rush off to so I can enjoy the experience fully.
p. s. I’ll also be checking out their comprehensive sake/​sake cocktail menu next time!