OFF THE MENU: 

BEHIND THE SCENES AT YAKIMONO

Off The Menu Behind the Scenes at Yakimono
Off the Menu: Behind the Scenes at Yakimono

By 8am, before the doors open and the dining room still sitting in half-light, Head Chef Aaron of Yakimono and his team are already at work. Deliveries arrive, stock is put away, stations are set. It is the unglamorous foundation beneath one of 80 Collins most talked-about kitchens.

The Rhythm of the Day

 

Prep continues through the early hours of the morning until the team pauses briefly before service begins at midday. From there, momentum rarely slackens. "It's pretty much nonstop from 12:00pm until we close," Aaron says. Even the quieter mid-afternoon stretch is less a lull than more prep time. Whatever time remains is claimed by the less visible work of keeping a busy kitchen in order.

Cooking Over Fire

 

Ask Aaron what has shaped his cooking, and the answer starts with the grill. Gas is obedient, a simple twist of a dial, and you can control the heat. Fire is different and demands an attentiveness that can't be delegated to a switch. "There's an element of control, but there's an element of not being in control, which I really, really like," he says. Once the coals are lit, there's no adjusting course, only reading the grill and moving a dish across the surface as the heat shifts, "which makes things more exciting and more interactive throughout the day, rather than just turn it on high and leave it to go."

Yakimono Grill
Yakimono Grill

Earning a Place on the Menu

 

That same instinct governs what reaches the table. Aaron describes it as the "Yakimono-fication" of a dish, combining texture with bold flavours, then making sure the plate holds its own visual weight before it leaves the kitchen. A dish that tastes right but looks flat is, by his measure, unfinished. The dining room itself is colourful, loud and layered, and the food is composed with that in mind, "making sure that things are colourful as well to match the dining room." At Yakimono, the plate and the room are in conversation with each other.

Influences That Shaped the Kitchen

 

Two figures recur when Aaron reflects on his development: his father and Brendan, a former head chef from his time at Gingerboy. Brendan's influence had less to do with technique than temperament, shaping how Aaron now runs a team: "treating people as equals and trying to actually encourage growth within the staff and caring about them inside and outside of work." The same patience shows up in how he prepares his dishes - take the kingfish sashimi with tomato ponzu, for example, a dish that uses shiso oil, "cooked down in a pot and blended for a very long time.”

Japanese Food, Made Approachable

 

For a first-time guest, Aaron describes the food at Yakimono as fun and approachable, Japanese cooking without the formality it can sometimes carry. He's candid about where hesitation tends to come from: "Some diners might think that because they don't understand what things are or the ingredients that they can't eat it," he says, "but we try and remove that as much as we can, we just try and make it simpler for the guest to understand." The ingredients aren't simplified, only the way they're presented and explained.

What Guests Should Feel

 

The room does a lot of the convincing on its own. By day it's bright and easy-going, but at night the lights dim, the music cranks up, and the whole space shifts gears. "It's a very loud venue," Aaron says, and he means that as a compliment. "It should be an exciting dining experience." That's the feeling he's chasing; energy that hits you the second you walk through the door.

Yakimono Beef Tataki

Part of the 80 Collins Story

 

Situated within 80 Collins, Yakimono sits in one of Melbourne’s most popular precincts, a place that intensifies each winter as football crowds pass through en route to the MCG. The venue’s scale means it draws guests two ways: those with a booking and a plan, and those who simply wander through and grow curious. As Aaron puts it, "Having somewhere like this, that's so big and accessible to so many people, both from walking in off the street or driving into the city, and being so close to the train stations makes it the ideal spot to start or end your night."

 

Whether arriving with a reservation or wandering in on a whim, Yakimono is located within the 80 Collins precinct and is a dining experience that delivers refined Japanese-inspired flavours in a memorable setting.