J Cafe

I discovered this cute Japanese cafe on Exhibition St and went back to try their "Sushi Burger". Apparently it's a "concept" only available at J's - which incidentally has a mouthful of a restaurant name! The burger in the picture is the Kani Croquet burger which is a creamy crab croquet, lettuce and mayonaise based sauce, sandwiched between 2 "buns" made of rice with a sheet of seaweed wrapped around the whole structure. It even came in a polystyrene burger box.

It doesn't matter that you can pick up a piece or roll of sushi, it was weird picking up this rice block - but it tasted really good! There was a nice balance between the croquet's crunchy outer shell and the fluffy, creamy filling, the sauce was tasty and the rice didn't fall apart! I'm keen to go back to try the other varieties and there were some interesting sounding changing burger specials - although octopus was on offer the other day and all I could think of was tendrils poking out of a burger!

I've tried their lunch bento boxes and this place puts a lot of care into ensuring even the little accompanying dish isn't the usual carelessly tossed piece of lettuce sprinkled with beansprouts. The staff are friendly and although not cheap compared to a city deli sandwich, this place is worth going to.

Question that comes to mind: according to Wikipedia, "a cafe is a type of restaurant" and "cafes usually serve coffee and snacks", whereas "a restaurant is a place where prepared food is sold to the public". So what's a cafe restaurant?


Japanese Cafe Restaurant J
167 Exhibition Street
Melbourne