Last night I went to dine at Kobe Jones @ The Wharf. The restaurant serves Japanese cuisine and modern Australian cuisine, and I suppose a fusion of the two.
I wanted to go after my boyfriend mentioned that it was one of the best modern Japanese restaurants he knew. So when I saw some discount deals on Spreets.com, I bought them. It was $77 for 11 distinct food pieces. Apparently its full price would have been $155. Here are the set menu details. The set menu recommended that it would take 2hrs to finish all the items.
NUMBER ONE SPECIAL - Crab salad with avocado, wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and baked with Kobe Jones secret sauce
SEAFOOD POKE - Hawaiian-style sashimi cubes, marinated in poke sauce
ANAGO SCALLOPS - Tempura Hokkaido scallops, stuffed with crab salad and asparagus, and drizzled with a bittersweet soy sauce glaze
OYSTER SHOOTER - In mango-infused sake
LOLLIPOP SUSHI - Tuna, snapper, salmon, crab salad, asparagus and smelt roe, wrapped in thinly peeled cucumber with soy sauce vinaigrette
DYNAMITE TUNA HANDROL Seaweed cone filled with rice, raw tuna, tomago and a touch of chilli
BONDI ROLL - Oven-baked prawns, layered on a crab salad avocado roll, with special cream sauce and spicy rush with chilli
ALASKAN CRAB - Grilled to highlight the sweetness and served in the shell with fresh lime
WAGYU HOT ROCK - Self-cook your wagyu beef on the hot rock just the way you like it, served with dipping sauce
SUSHI ME 2 - Vanilla cheesecake, fresh fruits topping, served with almond sauce and our famous chocolate chopstick
ANKO - A flaming green tea crème brulee to share
We made the booking at 6:30pm. We were seated by one of the managers and told that a particular waitress would take care of us and deal with our orders. My boyfriend then explained to us that tables are all designated a waitress and that waitress would be the only one that serves the table. After 5 minutes of sitting there without seeing our waitress we realised that they were quite understaffed. There were only 4 or 5 waitresses for the entire restaurant, which actually looked like it could sit 200. So basically we were sharing our waitress with another 5 tables. When the waitress finally came 10 minutes later we gave our drinks orders and that came pretty quick. The mocktails we ordered looked pretty and tasted great.
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| Mangalo: fresh mangos blended with orange and crushed pineapple juice with a dash of grenadine |
After the drinks came we sat there patiently eager to get right into the good food that we were about to be served. Ten minutes later the first dish came. It was quite delicious, but in the poorly lit restaurant I was not fully able to appreciate it. It was only later in the photos that I took that I realised the food actually was not very visually appealing. But then again different people may have different views about this. You be the judge.
After the first dish it was about another 20 minutes until we got the next one. We originally thought that the 11 pieces in the set menu would be separate courses like the way it is in a degustation menu. I mean the full price of the set menu was a lot more than a degustation menu, so I figured that it would have just as much to offer as one. Unfortunately the menu was a little deceptive. The next 4 dishes came together on a plate. Each was one piece of food that looked more like a piece of canape than something that could be counted as an individual item in a set menu. The pieces tasted good, not fantastic, but good. Under the flash, I still thought the food did not scream delicious, they just look quite mysterious with the exception of the lollypop sushi (I don't know about you but I usually like to be able to make out what I am putting into my mouth). Again... I will let you be the Judge.
Just one more thing to say about that plate. The oyster shooter tasted horrible. I have never tasted something that bad before. The oyster was fine as long as you don't drink the rest of whatever that was in that shot glass. The lollypop sushi was cute but my favourite was the Hawaiian sashimi cubes marinated in Poke sauce.
By the time we were waiting for the next dish we were sort of hoping that things would get better. After 20 minutes the next dish came and I really thought it went full downhill. That dish was just the lowest point in the entire set menu because I had no idea why it had to look the way it looked. Perhaps they thought we would never be able to see what the food looked like given the dim lighting, but even then they could have at least tried to make it delicious right? The taste was actually nice minus the chilli sauce. The first one I had did not have chilli sauce so I was able to appreciate its full flavour. However the chilli sauce completely overwhelmed the dish because I could not taste anything after I tasted the chilli. In fact it took my boyfriend 10 minutes to get feeling back into his mouth again.
The next dish must have taken 30minutes to come out. That was just poor. It was just Alaskan crab legs. Emphasis on legs, it was definitely not an entire Alaskan crab, which was the impression given by the name of the dish. I must say that the Alaskan crab leg meat tasted nice and sweet, and that was very much to my surprise. Just a bit disappointed with the quantity. You only get 2 crab legs for 2 people. Definitely not even trying to make it value for money.
So far, pretty much let down since the second dish came out. I was hoping that having waited 30 minutes for the wagyu dish it would be blow-your-mind delicious. But based on previous experience I was not holding my breath. When the wagyu dish finally came on, it was again very disappointing. It had only enough meat on the hot plate for one person. Nevertheless the experience was really interesting, I had never cooked wagyu cubes on a heated piece of marble before. The meat was not high grade wagyu. Having had grade 9 wagyu before, the grade they served was just a bit tough. If you blindfolded me, I would not have been able to identify it as wagyu. It looked and smelled great though. I guess that may be some consolation.
Next thing you know we have finished all the mains if they could be called that. It felt a lot like I just ate a few pieces of canapes or some taste testers. So on to dessert. It took about another 20 minutes for them to bring the cheesecake. We chose cheesecake as my boyfriend had had their creme brulee before. When it came he said that the cheesecake was clearly not as good as the creme brulee. Also we just could not get over how small they were. Each was about 2cm x 4cm x 2cm. Tiny. However I liked the chocolate chopsticks that came along. Then again I could not have anything else as I am lactose intolerant. But it was good knowing that I was not missing out on anything.
Overall the entire experience was a really really huge disappointment. I would never go back again to the restaurant even if there was another discount. I can't believe I will never get my $77 and 150minutes of my life back ( Yes the entire meal went beyond two and half hours).
Thank god I could rant about this. Haha.
xox
Z
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| NUMBER ONE SPECIAL: Crab salad with avocado, wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and baked with Kobe Jones secret sauce |
After the first dish it was about another 20 minutes until we got the next one. We originally thought that the 11 pieces in the set menu would be separate courses like the way it is in a degustation menu. I mean the full price of the set menu was a lot more than a degustation menu, so I figured that it would have just as much to offer as one. Unfortunately the menu was a little deceptive. The next 4 dishes came together on a plate. Each was one piece of food that looked more like a piece of canape than something that could be counted as an individual item in a set menu. The pieces tasted good, not fantastic, but good. Under the flash, I still thought the food did not scream delicious, they just look quite mysterious with the exception of the lollypop sushi (I don't know about you but I usually like to be able to make out what I am putting into my mouth). Again... I will let you be the Judge.
 |
| SEAFOOD POKE, ANAGO SCALLOPS, OYSTER SHOOTER, LOLLYPOP SUSHI, DYNAMITE TUNA HANDROL |
By the time we were waiting for the next dish we were sort of hoping that things would get better. After 20 minutes the next dish came and I really thought it went full downhill. That dish was just the lowest point in the entire set menu because I had no idea why it had to look the way it looked. Perhaps they thought we would never be able to see what the food looked like given the dim lighting, but even then they could have at least tried to make it delicious right? The taste was actually nice minus the chilli sauce. The first one I had did not have chilli sauce so I was able to appreciate its full flavour. However the chilli sauce completely overwhelmed the dish because I could not taste anything after I tasted the chilli. In fact it took my boyfriend 10 minutes to get feeling back into his mouth again.
 |
| BONDI ROLL - Oven-baked prawns, layered on a crab salad avocado roll, with special cream sauce and spicy rush with chilli (definitely an understatement) |
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| ALASKAN CRAB - Grilled to highlight the sweetness and served in the shell with fresh lime (Again... legs only, total misrepresentation) |
So far, pretty much let down since the second dish came out. I was hoping that having waited 30 minutes for the wagyu dish it would be blow-your-mind delicious. But based on previous experience I was not holding my breath. When the wagyu dish finally came on, it was again very disappointing. It had only enough meat on the hot plate for one person. Nevertheless the experience was really interesting, I had never cooked wagyu cubes on a heated piece of marble before. The meat was not high grade wagyu. Having had grade 9 wagyu before, the grade they served was just a bit tough. If you blindfolded me, I would not have been able to identify it as wagyu. It looked and smelled great though. I guess that may be some consolation.
 |
| WAGYU HOT ROCK - Never have been served only 12 small cubes of meat to eat between 2 |
Next thing you know we have finished all the mains if they could be called that. It felt a lot like I just ate a few pieces of canapes or some taste testers. So on to dessert. It took about another 20 minutes for them to bring the cheesecake. We chose cheesecake as my boyfriend had had their creme brulee before. When it came he said that the cheesecake was clearly not as good as the creme brulee. Also we just could not get over how small they were. Each was about 2cm x 4cm x 2cm. Tiny. However I liked the chocolate chopsticks that came along. Then again I could not have anything else as I am lactose intolerant. But it was good knowing that I was not missing out on anything.
 |
| SUSHI ME 2: Vanilla cheesecake, fresh fruits topping, served with almond sauce and our famous chocolate chopstick (TINY) |
Overall the entire experience was a really really huge disappointment. I would never go back again to the restaurant even if there was another discount. I can't believe I will never get my $77 and 150minutes of my life back ( Yes the entire meal went beyond two and half hours).
Thank god I could rant about this. Haha.
xox
Z
