The next venue from this two-hatted Japanese restaurant will be totally different
'Melbourne is perfect for oden because it's cold,' says Zhang. 'A warm, slow-cooked soup is very suitable.'
Just as Ishizuka kicked off a kaiseki craze, Zhang is hoping oden will seep into the Melbourne dining-scape. 'I enjoy introducing a cuisine and increasing people's understanding about food,' she says.
In comparison to kaiseki's multi-course seasonal progression, oden is a humble meal, often served in homes or dispensed from convenience stores. Oden will offer an elegant restaurant version to 38 diners at a time, with 21 seats around a kitchen counter and design details in beaten copper. The restaurant is in an ex-real estate office on Bourke Street in the city, upstairs from Ishizuka's subterranean city den.
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No commercial versions of the current fourth-generation Jimny are in production, though Suzuki New Zealand has offered an aftermarket ute conversion since 2020. Suzuki also has a long history of compact utes, including the 1990s Caribian Sporty from Thailand and the Mighty Boy sold in Japan and Australia in the 1980s, and prospective buyers have been kept interested by concepts like the Jimny Sierra Pick Up Style of 2019 (pictured above). CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. ABOVE: Second-generation 1981 Suzuki Jimny 1000 cab-chassis This is a far cry from the three preceding Jimny generations, which were populated by several different body styles, including the third-generation Canvas Top in Europe and the second-generation SJ40 pickup, which was also sold as the cab-chassis Holden Drover. Suzuki's tiny first-generation Jimny Soft Top, which resembled the utilitarian Willys Jeep, was also sold in Australia as the Suzuki Stockman. 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