Dinner at Sushi Hotaru, Melbourne

Sushi Hotaru has long been a a firm favourite of ours or a while—our go to when we want cheap, fresh and most importantly, tasty sushi and Japanese. This sentiment seems to be shared by others in the city since nowadays if you want to eat at Hotaru you have to either a) go early e.g. at 5pm or b) be prepared to wait a long time, usually 30 minutes plus. A big factor behind its popularity is definitely its value for money; all sushi plates here are $3 and their sides and sashimi dishes are very reasonably priced too. However, some plates are definitely better value than others and after having being here a several times, we've learned which dishes are worth getting and which aren't.

At the very top of my list for me is their plain udon noodle soup. At $3.50 it's not necessarily extraordinarily cheap for what it is but it is ridiculously delicious—the dashi based stock is sweet and umami while the noodles have the perfect amount of chew. Importantly, the soup is also always piping hot—something of a prerequisite for soups in my eyes. I almost always get two bowls of this stuff every time I come.

The other top favourite for us are the scallop nigiris—both seared and non seared. The seared one is my fave with its lovely charry/smokey flavour and super soft flesh. Other dishes we consistently get are the inari parcels, the octopus nigiri and the scallop/salmon box nigiri. On this occasion we also got the $7.90 sashimi platter but there is definitely better sashimi to be had around Melbourne.

One thing we've noticed of late is that the service has been improving. While the waitstaff used to be rather standoffish, impatient and borderline rude—something very unusual for Japanese staff—nowadays they are perfectly welcoming and obliging. All in all definitely worth the extra effort to get a table here, especially considering you can easily eat very well for around $20-25 per person.