Kobe Jones, King Street Wharf Sydney

Posted by kogepanman on Friday, May 22, 2009

Sunset Dinner at Kobe Jones, KSW

After a long week at work, it was finally Friday. I had looked forward to tonight for a while as it marked a special occasion. A special occasion deserves a special place to eat, and what more special place than chowing down on some Japanese-western fusion cuisine on the waterfront on King Street Wharf?


A short stroll from Wynyard and just past the newly constructed Macquarie Bank Building, we arrived at Kobe Jones.

Sunset view =)

Starting with cocktails, we had the Tokyo Blue which is a mix of vodka and sake - a bit strong for chicks maybe, but quite nice. We also got the Kobe Jones Sunset which is a fruity concoction of mango liqeur, strawberry liquer and other fruit juices- a sweet chick drink :P

Tokyo Blue-Grey Goose orange vodka, sake, Suntory blue curacao shaken with fresh lime
 $17


Kobe Jones Sunset- Suntory strawberry liqueur, Suntory mango liqueur built with cranberry juice,
Absolut mandarin and pineapple juice
$17

We ordered a number of dishes from the ala carte menu because everything looked soooo good....however they recommend that the dishes be shared and that you order 5-6 dishes....so with just 2 people and ordering the number of dishes it was a bit much....but still yum. In hindsight, we should have ordered the set menu for 2 people which is $95 pp excl. drinks. A bit pricey but it would have meant we got to sample pretty much all the good dishes.

Anyways, we started off with the Number one special- which is crab salad with avocado wrapped in snapper and baked with Kobe Jones secret sauce. This was soooo delicious and a must try for anyone going to Kobe Jones- you can really taste the crab meat. Unfortunately we were too eager to start eating and finished it off before I could take a photo :(.

Next up was Anago Scallops which was also nice, but I found the scallop a little dry.

Anago Scallops - tempura hokkaido scallops stuffed with crab
salad and asparagus drizzled with anago sauce
$22
My companion is a big fan of sushi and sashimi, so we could not got pass the sushi platter which had both a selection of delicous sushi and some of the Kobe California Roll. Sushi was fresh and the rolls- a delicious combination of flavours.

Sushi Platter
$55

For mains, we ordered the Green tea smoked Salmon which had a delectable green tea flavour and the Salmon beautifully smoked. My only gripe would be that the it was tad salty. So we ordered a side of Wasabi Mash which was the perfect accompanyment to the Salmon. The Mash could also be eaten on its own. Fantastic Mash!!


Green Tea Salmon- 6-hour cold smoked seared smoked salmon
marinated in green tea with nori cream and wasabi mash
$28

Wasabi Mash
$8

Last dish was the Volcano roll. A very generous topping of baked scallops on the already delicous crab salad and avocado roll. One word of warning, the special cream sauce is very creamy :P

Volcano Roll - oven baked scallops layered on a crab salad and avocado roll with Kobe’s special
cream sauce and a sesame seed and shallot sprinkle
$28
Kobe Jones

29 Lime Street
King Street Wharf, Sydney
NSW 2000, Australia
Phone: 9299 5290

Hours: 7 days a week

No Comments

Madono, Sydney Chinatown

Posted by kogepanman in , , , , , , on Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dinner at Madono

After a long drive back from a 1 day trip to the Hunter Valley, we decided to eat in the city before heading home. I suggested Madono as I knew someone loved eating Jap and I wanted to try something different. My friend recommended Madono in Chinatown as a new choice and it was decided. The entrance of Madono is very understated with a few steps and some stone steps leading down to the restaurant. Some of us were a little hesitant in trying this place as upon entering, the premises did not present too well with minimal design apart from a few ornaments it was jus tables and chairs. It wasn't too big either and only had 1-2 tables when we arrived. However, as the night progressed, it slowly began to fill up.

Nicely presented Menu :P

Looking through the menu, and given that we had varying budgets and tastes, we opted to order our own dishes. The majority of us ordered Dinner sets which were exceptional value given that they included a bowl of miso soup, a small bowl of udon and a side dish of sashimi. Sushi set had: Salmon Sashimi, Kingfish Sashimi, Scallop, Salmon Sushi, Eel Sushi, California rolls, Battleship sushi with salmon roe + Miso Soup + Udon + fruit.
Sushi Set

Beef set had: Beef Marinated with vegetables + salmon Sashimi + Udon + Miso Soup + Fruit + Rice. I had this set and couldn't finish all the rice and beed >_<

Beef Set

Pork Cutlex set had: Pork Schnitzel and roasted vegetables + rice + Udon + Miso soup + Salmon Sashimi + Fruit
Pork Cutlet Set

The Dinner Bento box had: Assorted Temura, Assorted Sushi, Assorted Sashimi, Teriyaki Chicken, Agadeshi Tofu + Miso Soup.
Dinner Bento Box

The other dishes were both Udon. The first being Seafood Udon which looked delicious but wasn't very filling. The blue swimmer crab was also fiddly to eat. Flavours were nice though.
Seafood Udon

The other Udon dish was Beef and Prawn Tempura with Udon.
Beef and Prawn Tempura Udon

As expected, these udon dishes were the cheapest of the lot, however were not quite that filling. My recommendation would be to order the sets or share 2 Udon dishes in order to be full :)

Madono Progressive Japanese Cuisine

Lower ground, 398-402 Sussx Street

Haymarket Chinatown Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 3534

No Comments

Masuya, Sydney CBD

Posted by kogepanman in , , , , on Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Light Dinner at Masuya

Having strolled around the city after work we were a little peckish and decided to go to the Japanese restaurant designed for white collar workers. Located on O'Connell St., Masuya is situated down a flight of stairs and is nicely decorated with a classy ambiance. When we arrived, there were no tables free as reservations are usually required (being a Friday night). However, there was still room at the sushi bar so we snapped up those spots asap! Although there isn't much room at the sushi bar and not being able to order hotpot, there is the bonus of being able to watch the sushi chefs do their work.

We started with a Tsunami which is like an Japanese alcoholic lemonade mix, and a mango mocktail- both very nice.

Tsunami

Mango Mocktail

As we were only peckish and not starving we opted to have a selection of sushi from the sushi bar and also the sample selection platter for the day which had Grilled Scampi, smoked trout, Oyster with vinaigrette dressing, soft shell crab, duck breast with plum sauce as well as two other fishy items that I couldn't quite hear what they were from the waitress. Standouts from that selection would have been the duck breast and the Scampi.

Selection platter

Our sushi selection was the standard with the likes of Sea Urchin and Scampi but also Mackeral which is really fishy and seared scallops. Sushi was prepared beautifully and fresh.

Sushi Selection

Last dish for the night to fill our protein quote for the meal was Wagyu beef with ginger and mash. It's hard to go wrong with Wagyu- especially at a place like Masuya :P

Wagyu beef with Ginger

Masuya

Basement Level
12-14 O'Connell Street
Sydney 2000

Phone: (02) 9235-2717, (02)9231-0038

Monday to Friday (Lunch ) : 12:00 - 14:30 (Last Order)
Monday to Sunday (Dinner) : 18:00 - 22:00 (Last Order)
Sunday : CLOSED

No Comments

Nobu, Melbourne Crown

Posted by kogepanman in , , , , , , on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Trip down to Melbourne to visit De Niro's Nobu

Recently, I went down to Melbourne and organised to splurge a little by going to Nobu at the Crown Complex. Part owned by Robert De Niro and having read good things about it's parent restaurant in Manhattan, I had high expectations. Nobu is renowned for serving fine modern Japanese food in designer surroundings.

Walking down Southbank, it wasn't too hard to find the Restaurant as it by the water. Upstairs is Nobu bar which has drinks and a selection of light foods, whilst downstairs is Nobu the restaurant. We made our booking a month or so in advance so there was no need to wait - not that there was a queue as there were plenty of empty tables when we arrived (approximately 6:30 p.m)

The waiter assigned to us had a heavy accent and it was a bit difficult to understand at times, however he was quite helpful. We browsed the menu but as it was quite expansive we asked for suggestions from our waiter and chose 1 or 2 dishes ourselves.

First we started with drinks, Shira Ume and Matsuhisa Martini. The Ume (plum wine) was nice and not too sweet, whilst the Cucumber Martini wasn't too pleasant as the cucumber flavour didn't mix too well.


Shira Ume and Matsuhisa Martini

Our first dish was tacos with lobster and crab meat. These normally also have salmon and tuna sashimi in them, however we opted to just have the lobster and crab meat. They were fantastic! It came with a kind of sweet and sour type sauce and I could have eaten them all day...


Taco with Crab and lobster meat

Next was the Beef Tataki with fried onions and shallots, beautifully cooked and delicious.

Beef Tataki


We also ordered a side salad of kelp thinking that it was the usual ones from Japanese restaurants but it was something totally different- 3 different kinds of seaweed- each tasting as though it had just been dredged up from the bottom of the ocean. Not exactly what I expected and was a bit hard to swallow, but interesting.

Kelp salad


Black Cod Miso was the next dish and was a stand out with the soft flaky cod and the sweet miso flavour providing a delicate balance of flavours and textures.

Black Cod Miso

To try Nobu's take on a favourite of mine - bugs (the seafood variety) we ordered the Moreton bay Bugs with Asparagus, Mushrooms and Potatoes. Whilst yummy, the dish didn't have anything that made me go -WOW.


Moreton bay Bugs with Asparagus, Mushrooms and Potatoes

As an extra main- in case we weren't full by this time (which we were) we orderd the beef tenderloin. Again, whilst it was beautifully cooked, moist beefy goodness, it didn't have any wow factor.

Beef Tenderloin

Lastly, for dessert, we ordered the chocolate bento box, being a rich warm gooey mudcake and a scoop of green tea ice cream. A nice sweet finish to a very nice meal.

Choclate Bento Box


Nobu

Crown Entertainment Complex
Ground floor
8 Whiteman St
Southbank 3006 VIC
Phone: (03) 9696 6566

Hours: Mon-Fri noon-3pm, Mon-Sat 6pm-10.30pm


No Comments

Yum Cha @ Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Hurstville

Posted by kogepanman in , , , , , , on Monday, May 18, 2009

Lazy Sunday Yum Cha

Woke up before midday for once and so decided to make the most of it and go to Yum Cha!

We decided to go to Sunny Harbour seafood restaurant in Hurstville after a consideration of proximity vs. quality of food. Whilst Sunny's is the closest one, the dishes there aren't the best yum cha food I've tasted. However, it is not bad and is close by so we opted to compromise.

Chinese tea

First dish the standard dish for yumcha- prawn dumplings. Four juicy prawn dumplings with chilli dipping sauce- delicious!

Prawn dumplings

Next up is another yumcha favourite- siu ma (pork dumplings). Can't fault the dim sum chef for these beauties! Scoffed up in a minute!

Siu mai

Followed by glutinous rice rolls two ways - with prawn filling and with fried dough filling. The prawn rolls are impeccable, whilst the fried dough rolls are a bit tough on the inside and appears as though the dough wasn't freshly fried.

Prawn rolls

Fried dough rolls

Then against our normal yumcha tradition of only ordering steamed dishes, and despite the oily and deep-friedness of it all, we couldn't resist but order the freshly fried salt and pepper white bite. A smallish serving, but the crunchy texture of the batter was more than satisfying :)

Salt and Pepper white bait

Next dish was back to the chinese tradition of eating 'inside something'- tripe! Nice flavour but smallish serving considering the base was chinese radish and not all tripe. And sticky rice in lotus leaf.

Tripe

Sticky rice package

Last but not least, the sweet dim sims of lotus seed bun, custard bun and egg tart.

Lotus seed paste buns (spherical shape)

Custard buns (can differentiate from above as they have an elliptical shape)

Egg tart (comes in 2 but I ate one immediately- it was really fresh!)

Total damage- approximately $75 dollars incl. tip - Not bad for a lazy Sunday 'drink tea' session :P

The ubiquitous bill

Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant
9-11 Crofts Avenue
Hurstville
(02) 9585 1633
Hours: Daily, 10am-3pm, 6-11pm

No Comments

Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Hurstville

Posted by kogepanman in , , , , , on Friday, May 15, 2009

Lobster Dinner - Chinese style

Lobster- one of the more delicious and expensive of the seafood dishes available to us hungry humans. That is why when Sunny's chinese restaurant in Hurstville had discounted lobsters we had to be there! Lobsters are currently on special for approx $30 for 1/2 a kg between Monday and Fridays. (ours was 2.6kg costing us around $160)


Normally when I eat lobster, I order it with E fu noodle base to soak up the delicious lobster sauces and seasoning, however, this time we opted to order a few other dishes to supplement our lobster centrepiece instead. We place our order and almost immediately we receive the customary moist towels and bowl of lemon tea to clean our hands with (cos the only way to really enjoy lobster and crab dishes is to use 2 hands and 10 fingers ^_^)

Not long later, the star of the meal - the Lobster! Delicious in every sense of the word...

Lobster with Ginger and Shallots (2.6kg)


The other dishes were also nice, but were slightly overkill as just the lobster itself was enough to fill us up.

Marinated beef cubes with mushrooms and vegetables

Crispy Skin Chicken with prawn crackers

Fried Rice


As with almost every chinese restaurant, the perfect end to a great meal is the complimentary dessert and fruit selection.

Red bean dessert soup
Watermelon and orange slices


Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant
9-11 Crofts Avenue
Hurstville
(02) 9585 1633
Hours: Daily, 10am-3pm, 6-11pm

No Comments