Living and Loving Hobart:: More on Japanese food in Hobart

One Girl finally made it to Rin for a lunch date with Yoga-Woman. She's a Japanese food connoisseur and this time she took me to Hobart's most recent Japanese offering, Rin. She's also long suffering, waiting an extra 20 minutes for me to get there and patiently catching me up on her life in between my work calls and emails.

Tucked away on Harrington Street half way between the CBD and North Hobart is Rin. It's lovely and unassuming, seating around 20 people across two rooms. This eating experience is gentle, and uncluttered. The service and food is like the aesthetic. It's mostly lunch focused but it's recently extended its hours and is doing Saturday night dinner and they also do takeaway. Yoga-Woman's little one is unsurprisingly deft at eating sushi, she tells me they also make a children's Bento box.

The menu has a number of parts: sushi roll; sushi and sashimi; teishoku; noodles; don; salads; the bits that don't fit neatly into any other category than other; and a couple of green tea inspired desserts. There's also a menu of extras with a special dish available for a limited time.

Syoyu Ramen, a ramen noodle soup with soy flavoured soft boiled egg, seaweed, spring onion, butter flavoured corn and marinated roast pork, $13.90. It was the current special.

A piece of Inari, sushi rice wrapped in fried bean curd, $1.90.

Kakiage Tempura, a mixed vegetable tempura with tempura dipping sauce, $3.90 for one piece.

Katsu Don, a bowl of rice with crumbed and deep fried chicken cutlet bound together with egg and teriyaki sauce on top, $15.90.

Facts: A ‘Don’ refers to a Japanese rice dish bowl. A ‘Teishoku’ is a meal set usually serviced with rice and miso.

The meals were all exquisite in their presentation and beautiful to eat. The pick of the lunch was the Katsu Don for taste and sustenance.

There's obviously a lot more in the menu for trying but Yoga-Woman told me about the Salmon Miso-Yaki Teishoku she had last time. Another delicious plate but served with three small thin slices of salmon that left her hungry a short time after. It's clear you'll need to choose a number of plates to be sated if you have an appetite like ours, which could make for an expensive lunch.

We pondered briefly over value for money. You could easily pay $30 for lunch if you're hungry which is pretty close to what Yoga-Woman paid given she had to start eating whilst waiting for me. I got out of it for less than $20. There's no doubt Rin is producing some great food but it's good to be aware of the impact on the pocket before you throw yourself into the menu.
You can find the menu here.

The verdict is that it's worth going back. We both would. But next time, I might choose to take my fill of sushi roll. It appears to be the best value and I'm keen to test that assumption.

On first try, Rin's quality surpasses Moonah's Kawasemi, although not its prices. It's easier to compare Rin's quality with Orizuru. And whist there is none of the theatre of Myabi, it's definitely a better choice.

We're going to give it another go and recommend you try it too.

If you like Japanese food, find out post about North Hobart's Myabi here and the last time Yoga-Woman and I went Japanese at Orizuru down at Victoria Dock here.