THE AGE cheap eats guide 2007 
3 stars winner
February, 2007
"crafty japanese"
Passion and attention to detail lie at the heart of this cafe-pottery store.
The menu guides you through an authentically Japanese dining experience,
suggesting sake tasting (served chilled or warm) and an 'all-round kanpai(cheers!)'.
Follow up with several small dishes to share: tender lotus root buns or
agedashidofu in soy and mirin are delicately textured, steamed scallops
in plum butter sauce are conversation stoppers, and the sushi is silky
smooth. Savvy waitstaff are happy to take the lead with ordering, and all
food is served on pottery from Cocoro's collection, which is also for sale.
THE AGE February 16, 2007
You don't meet for just a drink at Cocoro; you meet for an experience.
First up is the Cocoro menu experience, with an insert sheet kindly instructing
on the Japanese way of ordering (drinks, then entrees and mains to share).
Then there's the Cocoro drink experience: an array of lightly flavoured
sake, served either warm or cold, tasting dry through sweet. Finally, there's
the Cocoro food experience: miso-soaked soybeans, lightly grilled king
fish or finely sliced salmon, with flavours so light they seem to dance
across your palate (but that could just be the sake).
THE AGE December 15, 2006
This one might seem like a bolt out of the blue as a bar, but for pre-drinks
the $10 sake tasting at Cocoro will have you happily fuzzy before you can
say sashimi. Perfect for the sake. novice, Cocoro's sampler comes either
warm or cold and includes bishonen, a dry sake that translates as "beauteous
youth". kubota, mildly flavoured but easy to drink; and otokoyama,
a dry taster for the adventurous, which translates as "men's mountain".
THE AGE EPICURE January 30, 2006
"Calm aesthetics, smooth jazz and a mix of well-priced Japanese titbits"
Nowhere is as far removed from the mood of the Templebar on its Monday and
Wednesday drag nights as the calm, cream Japanese pottery/cafe directly over the
road. Cocoro is full of restrained aesthetics such as calligraphy, little bushes
carefully clipped into bonsai trees, and a display wall of delicate mottled
ceramics in strange organic shapes. The soundtrack is velvet jazz. The food is an interesting mix. You won't find a gobo salad on many menus
around town, but here the lightly crunchy root of the burdock plant arrives
finely sliced. Its flavour is fleeting under a coating of cool mayonnaise,
with a late savage bite of chilli. The sushi and sashimi list is minimal
- usually based around salmon, kingfish or pretty little crab mayo nori
rolls. Instead there are delicate stews of, say, pork and potatoes in a
gravy, doused with sake, or perhaps lightly puffed dumplings of chewy minced
lotus root served with a sweet soy and mirin sauce. The servings are small
but then nothing on the menu is more than $10, making it a cheap night
out for the bird-like eater.
To drink there are plum wines, sakes and Japanese beers such as Asahi or the
darker maltier flavour of Yebisu.
