This sake bar aims for an authentic Japanese experience, taking guests on a unique journey through a vast range of varieties with delicate nuances in texture and flavour.
When we hear the word 'sake', most of us think of the dreary heated house blend rolled out at any Japanese restaurant, but Maedaya will almost certainly reignite your interest in the fermented rice beverage. The extensive selection of labels on offer here demonstrates that sake is truly akin to the Western wine tradition. There is something to please the palate almost everyone's palate; even beer and wine aficionados will be taken on an adventure with Reijo Premium Pilsner and the Japanese plum wine, Umeshu.
Owner Toshi Maeda, after whom the bar is named, developed an enthusiasm for sake during his young adulthood in North Kobe. After moving to Australia in 1996 where he was resident sake master at Albert Park's Misuzu, Toshi opened Maedaya to showcase his specialty imported sake blends of which more than 15 are available in house.
Maedaya is an izakaya venue (a Japanese bar which serves food and drink) rather than a traditional restaurant, meaning that sushi and sashimi are eschewed in favour of dishes cooked on a yakitori charcoal grill. The dramatic decor features black walls adorned with Hessian ropes and a bar that runs the length of the main room beside sake bottles, wall-framed in glass cases like exotic artefacts. Japanese pop music and otsumami selections such as edamame and gyoza are the perfect sake-snacking partners, while bottled Asahi, Corona and James Boags are on hand for those craving a more familiar flavour.
Toshi has also designed a more broadly palatable selection of sake cocktails for tentative tasters such as Samurai Rock (sake and lime), Powder Snow (sake and calpico) and Oriental Wave, a fragrant mix of sake, lychee, soda and lemon.
Maya Linden
