Chayo, Clayton by Bureaucrat

The last time I was in Clayton, I wasn't too thrilled with Ping's Dumpling Kitchen.  However, this time around, I spotted Chayo, a Japanese eatery, which turned out to be an unexpected delight.  A small cafe, Chayo offers a semi Japanese fusion cafe menu (think brunch with some Japanese elements).  It's arguable whether it's located in a prime spot (right in front of a busy bus stop on a main road) - the noise from the buses and the crowds of people waiting for buses don't really add much to the atmosphere.  However, the food and service is what matters and Chayo did excellently on those fronts.

A rare solo lunch meant that I could choose whatever I wanted to eat!  I went with the karaage chicken teishoku.  This was delicious and an absolute steal at $13! This generous serve of crunchy tasty chicken (about seven good sized chunks of chicken breast and thigh) was amazing.  With a thin batter it was hardly oily at all.  There was just so much chicken for the price - any other eatery would probably serve half the amount of chicken and charge you a few dollars more, too.  I was only able to eat two pieces and took the rest home for a lovely afternoon snack.  

The chicken came with a big mound of rice, squeaky fresh salad, lotus root chips, pickles, a seasoned powder for the chicken and a generous bowl of miso soup.  All of that was wonderfully made.  The only exception was the green seasoned powder - this was an MSG bomb.  I only used a little bit of it but I was incredibly thirsty for the rest of the day - I just couldn't wash away that MSG off my palate.

The dish came with miso soup.  Usually I don't drink miso soup as I'm not a fan of it.  However, I couldn't but resist to have a few mouthfuls here.  This was a generous serve of piping hot soup that was loaded with lots of wakame - you can see how much green stuff there was in the soup!  This ain't some pitiful strands of wakame floating around a bowl of tepid soup that I seem to find in most Japanese places.

Chayo has an extensive range of drinks on offer - both hot and cold.  There are some very interesting combinations on offer.  I just had to try one of them.  I went for this matcha yuzu drink, which was served luke warm.  Chayo seems to specialise in matcha and you can see the staff making it to order behind the counter with a wooden whisk.  This drink was blended with yuzu - a tart yet aromatic citrus.  As with the miso soup, Chayo was very generous with the yuzu.  The bottom of the drink was filled with lots and lots and lots of yuzu peel.  This was a very nice drink - thirst quenching and gorgeous to look at.

Verdict

We loved it.

Cheap eats.

Overall

A wonderful find!  Definitely will be coming here again when I'm in Clayton.  Next time, I would like to try a few more of their creative drinks, some of their house-made ice cream (they even run ice-cream making classes) and, of course, some of the Japanese brunch menu items!

Service is friendly and with a smile.

Find it at

Chayo
351 Clayton Road
Clayton VIC 3168
Phone: (03) 9562 9179