According to their website, Dojo is Japanese for “Place of the Way”. If memory serves, a dojo is also Modesty Blaise’s weapon of choice – kind of like two door handles joined together, which can be applied with force to pressure points on your opponent’s body to inflict all kinds of harm & incapacitations. And Modesty Blaise, you may recall, was the book John Travolta was reading in the dunny in Pulp Fiction. But that’s irrelevant.

I don’t know what you call the cuisine at Dojo in Woodward Street (where Chow used to be – Chow is now in Tory Street), and neither did the waitress. Asian/French fusion perhaps? Perhaps we could just call it delicious. Dojo's logo.

The restaurant itself is at the top of Woodward Street, and up some stairs which bring you right to the well stocked bar. The eating area is small, but remarkably uncluttered.

Service is super prompt! And friendly. Three of us started with the “Dojo Remix”, which is a plate of entrees & appetisers: Seared salmon, prawn cakes, satay beef & chicken. Very tasty.

We followed with mains of satay chicken, braised pork hock with stir fried udon noodles, and steamed salmon with lime, galangal and lemon grass, with a shared dish of steamed asian vegetables. We all tried each others main & each dish was divine! I personally recommend the pork.

Somewhat unusually for us, we then all had desserts. My steamed date & ginger pudding was light & lovely. My wife’s ginger & basil creme brulee was too. Our daughter’s green tea icecream was… interesting to my palate… but she scoffed it no problem.

Since it was a birthday occasion, we also had cocktails – the waitress told us it was compulsory. The birthday girl had a yummy plum daiquiri, but my pear & elderflower martini was a little sweet for my taste. Maybe I should have let them go ahead & stir it.

The whole lot came to about $195, but that included a bottle of Huia Chardonnay & the cocktails.

Overall, the food was delicious & novel & we will definitely be going back.

They also do take-out. And will possibly do home deliveries in the future, if the barman is to be believed.