Bistro Cheers Japanese Family Restaurant

Tonight I had dinner at Bistro Cheers, a small Japanese family restaurant located in Nobby Beach. It's hidden away in a quiet street amongst a few other restaurants. I have been here many times in the past, always coming back for the delicious food and friendly service.

The menu is not the traditional Japanese food, but an array of creative, somewhat western style food with a Japanese twist. Items like bruschetta, pasta and sizzling grills can be ordered. If you like the more traditional Japanese items, you can still order the tempura and sashimi.

We were extra hungry today, so we ordered more than what we usually would.

First up was the agedashi tofu, which is quite different to the usual one. This agedashi tofu was still fried in a light batter, but instead of being served in a clear broth, it was served with vegetables like carrot, zucchini, mushrooms, celery and woodear (a type of fungus). The waitress even gave us some chilli powder for seasoning.

Agedashi Tofu - $12

Next we had the grilled oysters with masago (cod roe) & mayo sauce. I highly recommend this dish! It is absolutely delicious! You can order 1/2 or one dozen.

Grilled Oysters with Masago & Mayo Sauce - $19

There was a new 'Winter Special Menu', with Udon noodle in soup with a variety of toppings, like tempura, karage, vegetables just to name a few. I decided to get the Udon noodle soup with vegetable tempura. If you don't like udon, you can replace it with soba (buckwheat) noodles.

Udon Noodle Soup with Vegetable Tempura - $13

On the Winter Special Menu, there were also some grilled scallop dishes with sauteed vegetables and you can choose the sauce you want (eg. teriyaki, garlic butter, miso etc).

Grilled Salmon with Garlic Butter - $20

Grilled Salmon with Garlic Butter sauce is like the dish I order everytime I go to this restaurant! The salmon is always cooked perfectly, the vegetables are tasty because it has soaked up all the sauce!

And lastly, we got the Pasta with Calamari and Spicy Cod Roe. This is another one of my favourite dishes. The pasta is cooked to al dente, the cod roe sauce is not overly creamy and the calamari is not chewy! Just lovely!

Calamari & Spicy Cod Roe Pasta - $20

I just love eating at this place! The taste, quality and portions are always consistent. All the hot/cooked food are sensational! But if I was craving for sashimi or sushi, I wouldn't order it here, as it's not their strength or specialty. For the freshest sashimi & sushi, visit Itoshin