Nana’s Green Tea

165A Bourke St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
https://global.nanasgreentea.com/

With the oversupply in the Asian dessert market, I normally wouldn’t even have looked twice at Nana’s Green Tea. But what sets it apart is that this is a real deal export from Japan, and that was enough to convince me. Not to mention, the menu has a blinding array of drinks and desserts, all tempting, that could easily render the indecisive into a jibbering wreck. And that’s before we even mention the savoury food options. After all that buildup however, the food ended up being something of a let-down. The mains were decent but grossly overpriced, and the desserts better but far from remarkable. I wouldn’t be upset if I ended up here for a post-dinner sweet or drink, but I would avoid having a full meal here, if for no other reason than to keep the wallet a little plumper.

Rating: 11.5/20 – still better than western chain restaurants.
Don’t order: more than one parfait between two. the amount of cream is no joke.

Aside from desserts, Nana’s also has some light Japanese meals. I really enjoyed the Salmon and Ikura Chazuke ($21.8), which had a light, clear broth that was readily soaked up by the plump rice. What I didn’t enjoy was the tiny portion; 3 thin slices of salmon and barely a serve of rice for this price? No thanks.

The Chicken Karaage Salad ($15.8) however was surprisingly good, the generous chunks of lightly-battered thigh fillets fried until they were hot, juicy, and tender.

I had such a hard time deciding what I was going drink. I felt like I was obliged to try the matcha, but even with that, there was the option of latte and frappe and straight-up and fizzy. And then they also have hojicha and black sesame and red bean drinks too. In the end I went with the Matcha Azuki Shiratama Latte ($9, cold), which had a bit of pizzaz, but would hopefully still allow me to assess the quality of the tea. Honestly, this was just ok. The quality of the matcha wasn’t bottom of the barrel – smooth and not too astringent – but it definitely didn’t taste high quality. There was also way too much cream on top (spoiler: this is pretty much a constant refrain going forward), though it became less overwhelming once mixed into the tea itself. I guess the moral of the story is, if you want a lighter drink, just go with the more basic choices. I did however love the snacky toppings of chewy mochi dumplings and red bean paste.

Having drank my matcha, I decided to eat my hojicha with the Hojicha Warabimochi Parfait ($18.5). Unlike the mains, this was very generously sized, and easily enough to share between two. I enjoyed the bits and bobs that topped this confection, especially the aromatic hojicha ice cream, and the contrast between wobbly warabimochi and crunchy cereal flakes. My main gripe however was the amount of cream in this, which made up about half the glass. Thankfully it was at least somewhat balanced out by the jelly on the bottom, which is more than that could be said for the next…

I was sucked into getting the seasonal Strawberry Daifuku Parfait ($21.5), because seriously, how gorgeous does this look?? Anyone keen on strawberries and cream will love this one. I was also tickled by the deconstructed daifuku – a sheet of mochi dough topped with cream, fresh berries, and red bean paste. It is cute take on the well-known Japanese sweet. Unfortunately this parfait was let down by the remainder, which was basically just lashings of cream and artificial strawberry syrup. It probably wouldn’t have been so overwhelming if we hadn’t preloaded this with another parfait but hey, live and learn.