Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe

The curiously named Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe is on the western fringe of the Melbourne CBD, where there's not a single Purple Peanut in sight. What they do have in abundance is of course, good quality (usually) fresh food.

The first thing you notice about this cafe though are the fun decorations dotted around the place, from band posters, to retro artwork, to a nun-chuck wielding octopus. 

Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe

I told you. The food is very obviously fusion, but simpler than I expected - in a good way. There's a large range of sushi, plus curries, noodle dishes, salads and even soups. As I was feeling chilled from the Melbourne evening, I ordered a Kyoto Bean Minestrone soup.

Kyoto Bean Minestrone

Made with celery, carrot, potato, cabbage, zucchini, cannellini beans, kidney beans and chickpeas with nori and sesame seeds in a miso stock, served with Turkish break or white/brown rice, it was an interesting mix of Italian and Japanese flavours. The broth was very good with a strong but not overpowering miso flavour, but I was disappointed by the lack of beans in the dish. I counted 4. And there was no zucchini to be found. Shame because otherwise it would have made an amazing Autumn soup.

It was surprisingly filling nevertheless, so my second dish probably wasn't required.

Prawn Salad

The prawn salad with buckwheat noodles, tofu, shredded nori, avocado, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, Spanish onion and mixed salad, topped with a chilli sesame dressing was for the most part, beautifully executed. The food was fresh, the noodles and prawns were perfectly good, and the dressing accented the flavours without overpowering the dish. My only source of confusion? The fermented tofu sauce on the side. Was I supposed to eat it, or was it just for decoration. It is, in my head at least, a very strong Chinese that didn't belong in this dish, but it was undeniably pretty.

M started with a sushi roll, that actually seemed very dry. Admittedly, we were there late during the day so they were probably left over from lunch, but I wouldn't have expected they would serve food that wasn't fresh when everything else is made so well. He was happy with his main dish, the Chicken Curry.

Chicken Curry

The curry made of carrot, potato, onion, ginger, garlic and pickles was slightly flavourless for my taste buds. Perhaps my preferences are a throwback to the days where my housemate used to make curries packed full of flavour using the S&B Golden Curry sauce mix, M seemed happy enough with the meal and indeed, likes the cafe a great deal more than I do.

I've heard it's beyond busy during lunch as I've been told they serve brilliant sushi (when fresh at least), but the prospect of a long-ish walk and then an even longer wait during a work break isn't appealing to me. If you're down that end of town, by all means check out Purple Peanuts, but this is one case where the hype is justified because the food is good, but not good enough for me to brave the crowds.

Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe

620 Collins St, Melbourne

Mon-Sat 9am-830pm