Beloved long-running Melbourne Japanese restaurant Izakaya Den to shut its doors citing ‘a perfect storm’ of problems

Izakaya Den restaurant will close its doors next week after more than 15 years serving Japanese cuisine to Melbourne food lovers.

Owner Simon Denton said he and co-owners Miyukia Nakahara and Takashi Omi had been struggling to keep the business afloat since the middle of last year.

The trio said multiple issues had combined to hit the business, including customers becoming oversaturated with restaurants in the city and increasingly watching their spending while the cost of living remained stubbornly high.

“We were forced to do this, the option to continue (keeping the place open) was not an option,” Denton told the Herald of the sun.

“Heading into winter and with everything going on in the city, we were facing a perfect storm of problems.”

‘There are too many restaurants, we are one of them. The city goes through these cycles, it’s like pruning a tree. Pruning is necessary to allow new growth,” Mr Denton said.

In an email sent this week before closing its doors next Saturday, the restaurant informed customers it was the “end of the road” for the basement CBD venue that helped bring Izakaya culture to Melbourne when it opened in 2009.

“We are grateful to have been able to bring our vision of a slice of Japan to Melbourne and be part of the fabric of this wonderful city.”

“We came out the way we came in. Maybe a little old and tired, but we’re still a team, still together, still true to ourselves.”

Other restaurants to close recently in Melbourne include Crown’s Rosetta and Gingerboy in the CBD.

Gingerboy chef and owner Teage Ezard said a combination of low-spending diners and rising food and drink costs to supply the venue had given customers more choice about where to spend their limited money.

Similarly, Sydney Indian restaurant Raja announced it would close its doors on May 4 after just nine months in business, citing the same problems.