Chiki Chiki Sakaba, Redfern: A little Japanese restaurant just off Cleveland St

Yakitori don.

The handwritten menu with photos of the food – so Japanese.

So saucy, so bad for you.

Crispy chicken skin. Give me this and a beer and I’ll be happy.

I ♥ karaage.

Chashu don – roasted pork on rice.

Chiki Chiki Sakaba is owned by the same guy who owns Jap’s Table, the yakitori restaurant, in Darlington. Like Jap’s Table, Chiki Chiki Sakaba it’s very Japanese – a dark wood interior with those low tables with sunken floors. Unlike Jap’s Table, Chiki’s name is long and kind of hard to remember. It’s also a pain to write lots of times so I think I’m just going to call it Chiki from here on.

The menu mainly consists of dons (丼 – on rice dishes) as well as yakitori and some larger classic dishes like una-jyu (eel on rice) and chicken katsu. Lunchtime offers cheaper bento options, which come in under $10… Nice if you work in the area.

We ordered the crispy chicken skin chips (hello heart attack) which would have gone perfectly with an icy cold beer. They were salty, saucy and all kinds of bad for you but what of it?

The chashu don came out in this cute little hexagonal box with a few pieces of roasted pork on a bed of white rice. Not a huge serving, but coupled with a selection of some other things on the menu it makes a good meal. We also tried the yakitori don, basically because Jap’s Table is known for their chargrilled yakitori you know that the yakitori here should be as good. It’s basically just chicken and rice, but it’s simple and good.

The best part of the meal? The karaage. It’s crispy, juicy and comes with 3 kinds of mayo. 3 KINDS!!! Wasabi mayo, Miso mayo and straight up regular mayo. Damn, I could put Japanese mayo on most things and it would make them better.

Chiki is cheap, cheerful and has BYO. I hope it sticks around because I love a well priced, home style Japanese place – especially one that I can walk to.

Chiki Chiki Sakaba’s details

Address: 654 Bourke Street Redfern, NSW 2016
Opening Hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays: lunch and dinner
Phone: 02 9698 6191

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