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

Lazy Sunday Yum Cha

Chinese tea

Prawn dumplings

Siu mai

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

Tripe

Sticky rice package

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!)

The ubiquitous bill

Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant
9-11 Crofts Avenue
Hurstville
(02) 9585 1633

Hours: Daily, 10am-3pm, 6-11pm