Heirloom Restaurant

Terrible service and exceedingly long wait times for food to arrive. Apparently it’s Shoya’s sister restaurant but do yourself a favor and go to Shoya instead. The «Japanese» food here is more Australian fusion covered with too much sauce. Pricey for what it’s worth.

Is it the epitome of overpriced under delivered pretension. No! You will love it! If you want a forty dollar hamburger that seems like a McDonalds experiment, please, enjoy! Oh, did I mention the service? No? Well, come on in and regale your friends the next day with the waitresses full of dead stares and complete failure to understand your basic food request. You will delight at the slow, glacial pace, and when, an hour and a half later, you get your food? Ah, the under salted beef will come alive when your salty tears hit the stale bun. Enjoy!

This place has a huge space… the staff are a bit on the quiet side, they don’t actively come up to you to see if everything is fine.
I also have to ask for water 4 times.
The food didn’t disappoint tho. The sushi was fresh and taste great. We also ordered a few shares plates, mushroom skewers was simple but delicious, scallop tataki was good, I didn’t think I was blown away by it, taro chips was good to munch on, lamb shank was disappointing, i thougt it would have a japanese feel and taste to it, but its like shank and mash that you could get at the pub, the soy sauce duck was amazing but the highlight for me was the abalone and scallop claypot rice, it was fragrant, delicious, not over powering. I will come and dine here on my own just to have this rice.

Hierloom is an odd space; despite it’s commanding position on Bourke street, unless you’re on the lookout for it you’ll probably miss. This proves strongly for me, because although it being here for many years and probably walking past in hundreds of times, I’ve never noticed it until I was on the look out for it. The space inside is reminiscent of a early 90’s interior design and resembles part open karakoe lounge, part spacious $ 9.80 dinner special restaurant and part something else?
The design is a bit dated but sort of muted by modern touches. The bar is an odd 360 tower-​island type arrangement, but does have some excellent and extensive Japanese whiskeys to offer. Many great whiskeys are listed, and one can take a whisky flight. It’s a little peculiar sitting at the bar though. A night goes away quickly with cheap little bar snacks and whiskeys a plenty.

Strange food in a strange environment. The food was interesting but seemed a little lost. The ambience was odd too. I imagine this place would suit the after work drinks crowd, but on a Saturday night for a quiet evening together for 2 this place doesn’t hit the mark.

Since it’s Sunday and there were hardly any cafes open for breakfast we stumbled across this place, it’s got a lovely spacious interior.
Waiters are friendly, constantly topping up our water which was very appreciative since we were dehydrated.
I had the salmon with cream cheese on a bagel cause I didn’t want to fill up just before lunch!
Overall great find :).

I love this place … its big and spacious. I have been here twice this week and always happy to go back. The food is fresh and the staff helpful.
They have had a few «stuff ups» but the staff are eager to please so life goes on. The special of Barramundi is always a winner.

Not sure why the other reviews on here are so negative (too big to be great? Really?). Went out with a group of four for dinner on a Friday night and we were not disappointed.
We ended up sharing the meals, which is a good way to go, and tried a variety of menu items. Top marks for the dynamite roll and the trout marinated in miso special. These two were especially good. Dessert was decent though do be aware that tea ice cream isn’t for everyone. If that doesn’t sound appetizing then try one of the more French inspired choices.
The service staff were knowledgeable, courteous, prompt and attentive. All in all a fun way to spend a Friday evening before heading out.

It is a strange combo, Japanese and French… they make it work to an extent, duck and wasabe sauce anyone but the problem is the size of the venue… it’s just too big to be great.

To MoMo & Coco, fusion cuisine means fabulous or fatal, but because it is experimental, innovative and unique, usually and nonetheless, fun. In this case, Heirloom’s irresistible desserts were worthy heirlooms indeed… hmmmm…irresistible…
Come here for the desserts, rather than the savouries.

Dare I say it? Fusion seems to be the order of the day at this recently opened Bourke Street restaurant, where a collaboration between Shigeo Nonaka of Shoya and Kyle Doody (whose CV includes Gallic establishment Jacques Reymond) sees the birth of a French-​Japanese menu.
The vast dining space designed by Victor Isobe exhibits the concrete walls, mix of dramatic spot and subtle soft lighting, and black-​grey –silver colour scheme with the odd splash of red that have all become trademarks of the industrial-​chic theme that is sweeping the city at the moment. Anyway, make your way towards the back of the restaurant for a more intimate experience and the chance to get up close and personal to the masters at work without shelling out chef’s table prices. The sushi and sake bar seems to get overlooked in reviews (and on the website itself) but it is a really fun experience where you can order from the a la carte menu or a cool calligraphy-​written sheet of tissue paper.
Staff talk you through the sake menu, which runs from moderate to eye-​wateringly exy, and hot and cold offerings are decanted into a carafe before being poured into individual little glasses — all good scene-​setting theatrics.
We opted for super-​fresh and beautifully presented selection of sashimi — you can discuss which fish to go for with the chef working opposite you, making for a nice personal touch.
The main restaurant menu is spilt into three sections — tastes, larger and meat locker. Plus there is a pretty good selection of oysters served natural, with yuzu foam, beetroot caviar and wasabi tobiko, and traditional shallot and red wine vinegar.
Feeling thrifty we ordered from the tastes section, first up, Hokkaido crab croquette with smoked potato aiolo and toasted corn — too much potato and too little crab, but maybe that is what you get for $ 4 a pop. Next, seared Port Phillip Bay calamari with seven spices, warm roquette and cucumber vichyssoise. Again, great seafood ingredients. Again, no real flavour. Watery sauce and squid a little too charred.
Beautifully presented but nothing more than ‘nice’ was the whipped chevre and beetroot tuilles with black olive caramel, buttery walnuts and rye crostini. Even reading that back to myself I struggle to understand how those ingredients struggled to lift this dish.
Perhaps the most successful France-​meets-​Japan dish of our visit was the slow-​roast duck gyoza with sauce a la orange. Five dumplings bulging with tender duck, although perhaps the flavour of the meat was a little too delicate to stand up to the super-​citrus sauce due to the addition of julienned pieces of rind — a step too far me thinks.
The star of the hot offerings? Wagyu beef with truffled pomme purée offered up a rich, creamy combination that was spot on. Glazed shallots and mini radishes added a good sweet-​earthy hit, but (another one) the kipfler potatoes were slightly underdone. Little hard nuggets that refused to be speared by a fork.
We turned our attention back to the bar menu and get a selection of yakitori, which includes tender chicken thigh with spring inion and chewy but flavourful giblets and heart.
Overall, the service is slick and discreet. The food, hit and miss. Stick with the sushi and sashimi, with maybe the odd oyster thrown in for good measure. Looking forward to the promise of tempura, which will soon be gracing the menu, too.