Juan – Bowl and Tea, Redfern
On my last day of funemployment, Raff and I decided to check out Juan – Bowl and Rice. Originally our plan for the day was for a light snack followed by ice cream and hitting up a bunch of bakeries but one look at the menu and we knew we’d be ordering as much as humanly possible!
Juan offers a tea pairing with each rice bowl but because Raff and I were sharing a whole bunch of stuff I opt for the Hojicha by itself. Side note, how beautiful is the tea cup?! Each bowl, plate and even the wallpaper is so perfect for this space!
The Tonkatsu bowl ($21) blew my mind. I’m normally not the biggest fan of this classic Japanese dish but man this completely changed me! At first all I was interested in was the buttery, glossy omelette draped over the rice and then almost as an afterthought I popped the smallest piece in my mouth and woah. Just woah. The panko batter was golden, crispy and surprisingly not the least bit oily. And the pork! Oh that juicy bangalow pork! So tender and with a delicious edge of creamy fat! So fricken good!
The presentation of the Wagyu rice bowl ($22) was not quite as I expected, I think I was imagining thickly cut slices of beef? But the 2hr slow cooked Wagyu was still pretty damn tasty especially after stabbing the onsen egg and letting the golden river flow onto the garlic butter rice buried underneath.
I absolutely beamed with happiness at the sight of the blanket of buttery omelette over the Unagi hitsumabushi ($21). I freaking love eggs you guys!
Carefully break through and you’ll be rewarded by the sight of generous amounts of tender, grilled unagi eel buried like treasure within the rice along with slivers of okra. There’s also a lil pot of hojicha dashi to pour in but I honestly felt it didn’t need it.
Feast!
Aaaand for dessert we couldn’t resist the Sakura matcha tiramisu ($9), cutely presented in a sake box. It was the perfect end to a great meal, the tiramisu creamy but not too rich and just the right amount of sweetness to balance the bitterness of the matcha.
Update: Don’t even try to visit without making a booking!
Juan – Bowl and Tea
94A Pitt St,
Redfern
Trading Hours:
Wed – Sun: 12pm – 3pm
Tue – Sat: 6pm – 9.30pm
I’m having anxiety about that matcha tiramisu but the food and the place look great 🙂
Loved everything! But how amazing is that tonaktsu bowl though?!! Yes to the blankets of egg on that unagi hitsumabushi!
I’m in it for the wagyu rice bowl!!! *Drooling*
That tonkatsu bowl looks mouth watering good! Love the fit-out too.
Everything looks super amazing!
yarrrrrm, eggs are the best 😀 Need to come here asap
How good is Juan?! I went after seeing your post and Raff’s post and then Nick Jordan’s Broadsheet write-up. It’s such a nice way to pretend you’re in Japan.
Everything looks so good! Need to get here. Stat.