Halu Japanese in Mount Hawthorn

I was stoked when our young friend, Robert (ex-Yahachi Management) invited us down to try out the offerings at Ha-Lu recently. In fact, we even sent some of our people down the following two nights we were that impressed with the place!

Tom and I headed down on the first night to test out as much of the menu as possible. For a place that prides itself on getting the freshest and best produce around, it is amazing how diverse their menu remains!

We had big plans to at least try out most of the menu, but didn’t quite make it that far. Everything we had (and we had a lot!) was perfectly balanced in flavour, lovely contrasts with the texture and arranged and presented pictured-perfect. It was hard to put any dishes ahead of the others if we had to rank, but after much deliberation, the 4 dishes below just had that extra wow-factor:

Wagyu Beef Tataki	Sashimi of the Day	Halu Japanese
Mixed Seafood Tartar	Duck & Aubergine w/ Madeira sauce	Halu in Mount Hawthorn

So that’s what we fell in love with on the first night; then the girls hit up the more well-known Japanese type dishes on a bit of a ‘girls night out’, in which they had an absolute blast (as you can see below)!

Crumbed Camembert Cheese w/ Blueberry Saucei	Pork belly Kaku-ni	Some EatingWA Expert Reviewers
Chicken Bento Box	Succulent "Teriyaki" Chicken	More Japanese Experts

Crumbed Camembert Cheese with blueberry sauce – Wow what a way to start a girly evening with this lovely indulgent morsel! Crumbed camembert can only be described as pure melted cheesy heaven especially when paired with a berry fruit sauce which matched the delicate flavor of the cheese and the crunchy texture of the crumbs so nicely in my mouth! All of the girls loved this one and it was a great starter for all cheese lovers – which would also do well as an end to a meal!

Succulent “Teriyaki” Chicken – My girlfriend Kate ordered this one as she wasn’t quite brave enough to try the duck (poor lass she didn’t know what she was missing! I will explain more about the duck later). However I must say that being a standard Teriyaki Chicken dish this was probably the nicest teriyaki chicken dish I have had in a very long time! You can become so used to the boring drones of lunchtime teriyaki chicken in the city – however this particular teriyaki chicken from Ha-Lu was really succulent, hardly fatty, and the sauce was lovely. Highly recommended for people who love a good teriyaki chicken dish or anyone not brave enough to expand their palette repertories whilst out with more exciting people at Japanese restaurants (haha sorry Kate I’m only being facetious!)

Chicken Bento Box – For a bento box this box was sure-fire value! I couldn’t believe how much meat was in this box and it was all cooked to perfection and tasted delicious. Refer to comments about Teriyaki chicken here also. [Note to future diners: When you come to visit Ha-Lu please eat more than bento boxes and teriyaki – the menu is amazing and so fresh! But if you aren’t used to different things then go the bento box as you’ll love it!]

Pork Belly Kaku-ni – Mmmmmmm pork belly! I must say that I order pork belly whenever I find it on a menu and Ha-Lu’s pork belly was divine! It was moist and so tasty and literally melted in my mouth! It came with a strange boiled egg and had a lovely teriyaki (style of) sauce. The egg was something I am not quite accustomed to, however found it very interesting and it seemed to go nicely with the pork belly. A highly recommended dish for any pork lover!

Duck and Aubergine – The delicately thin slices of duck, presented so beautifully with equal sized slices of lightly crispy aubergine, was absolutely amazing! The duck was so succulent and tasty and I never realised that aubergine could be so delicious! This was definitely my favourite dish for the night (apart from the wagyu tataki which was equally amazing).

Overall I was really impressed with Ha-Lu and will definitely be visiting again sometime soon for another catch up with my girlfriends. The service was friendly and attentive yet unobtrusive, the food was fresh and fantastic, like I mean really fantastic and really fresh, and oh so delicious! At first we thought we would be spending hundreds on dinner, eating so many small dishes, and still end up hungry! However the bill came up very reasonable indeed and therefore proved to be very affordable and not to mention we were all very full at the end! Thanks to Robert and the team for looking after us so well!

Now to sum up: The fish was of the best quality you will get anywhere in Western Australia, the traditional type meals such as the Teriyaki and Bento were gobbled down with gusto by the girls and the staff were very helpful and the timing of the meals was pretty much down to your own ordering. Don’t go expecting to order an entree, main and dessert like most places you'll visit; you just order dishes as you want to eat them, very simple!

Ultimate Favourites:

Emma - Duck and Aubergine
Joel - Mixed Seafood Tartar
Tom - Wagyu Beef Tataki

Halu Japanese in Mount Hawthorn (16 Reviews)