We did the 13-course Spring Renewal Degustation at Kobe Jones finally. Have been wanting to do that for a while now and went for it while we were at Melbourne. You’d ask why do a Kobe Jones degustation at Melbourne while we also have Kobe Jones at Sydney. Well, we were looking for something special for our anniversary dinner and remembered I still had that Best Restaurant gift card which is expiring really soon. Then hubby said why don’t we go to Kobe Jones, something we have already been want to do. And as it happens our anniversary was while we were at Melbourne, hence the Riverside Melbourne branch.
Booking was easy enough through their website or phone them. We booked for 6pm thinking we’d have lots of spare time after dinner to catch the Melbourne Star ferris wheel ride. Obviously 6 pm is early for dinner, the restaurant was pretty much empty when we got there. The restaurant is made up of two sections, a larger section (our guess is the main section) consists of their kitchen and teppanyaki style seating; then on a separate smaller section is the sleek riverside seating area for Kobe Jones dining.
One of the great thing about degustation is that we don’t need to make any decisions, no fuss over which menu to order etc. And on top of that, you’ll get to taste a little bit of many dishes, excellent! The original Spring Revival degustation is a 12-course, but we upgraded to include their famous lobster and glass of champagne. Without further ado, let’s get into our courses of the night:
Glass of Möet & Chandon Brut Impérial NV
Edamame
Number One Special – crab salad with avocado wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and nori, baked in a secret sauce and topped with bittersweet soy glaze. This tasted soooooo good…. My second favorite of all dishes that night.
Crab croquette – creamy crab and corn croquettes shallow-fried in soybean oil with jalapeno salsa and tonkatsu sauce. Love the crispy outside and creamy inside texture, not oily at all.
Wagyu Tataki – seared, chilled and topped with bush herbs and soy onion dressing. The wagyu are tender with delicate seasoning, a very refreshing dish.
Dragon Egg – tuna tartare sushi mixed with chipotle mayonnaise on a shiso leaf, topped with avocado and finished with ponzu sauce. This is hubby’s favorite dish of the night, actually this picture really didn’t do justice of the taste. It is very delicious.
Volcano Roll – oven-baked scallops layered on a crab salad avocado roll with special cream sauce and sesame seed and shallot sprinkle. Another pretty dish, but also delicately delicious!
Somen and tofu salad – somen noodles and crispy tofu with mixed leaves and soy dressing. Love the dressings and those crispy tofu. Up to this point, I started feeling full and yet we were only half way through.
Kobe’s Miso Soup – house made dashi with a blend of red and white miso to create the perfect umami flavour. We love that the miso soup is very well seasoned, not too salty as you might find it in many places.
Whiting Slider – tempura sand whiting served in a brioche bun with shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, Japanese pickle and egg. Honestly, I’d prefer to have it without the brioche 🙂
Yakitori – robata-grilled skewers of marinated chicken with baby leeks and teriyaki sauce. This is probably our least favorite dish, we both found it too bland and not enough sauce or not marinated enough. But, the chicken is well cooked and succulent.
Wagyu hot rock – self-cook your own wagyu sirloin AA5+ just the way you like it, with dipping sauces. This dish is a bit of fun dish where they were delivered raw sitting on top of the hot rock and you can cook them to your liking. Probably we left ours a tad too long, hence slightly chewy beef.
Miso Citrus Lobster Tail – baby lobster tail lightly cooked in a wafu thermidor sauce, drizzled with miso citrus sauce and served on a bed of steamed vegetables. My favorite dish for the night! I love everything about this dish, yummy lobster tail with yummy sauce.
Flaming Anko – green tea crème brûlée with red bean served flaming to the table for a caramelised finish. Now this one is definitely theatrical, it is served flaming – we were too amazed to take pictures and by the time we remembered, the flame has gone. This dessert is a great way to close the degustation, very creamy and has the earthy matcha flavour, not overly sweet. I would have eaten a lot of this, had I not been too full.
It was a superb experience for us, we enjoyed almost every single dish they have. And don’t be fooled by the size of each course. We left with super full and heavy stomach ლ(´ڡ`ლ) For me, I was already so full after course 8 and for the rest I just tasted a little, except the lobster tail. It is evident that they have used fresh and good quality of produce, not to mention the beautiful plating up. Definitely give this a try if you are into Japanese fusion meal, and lobster upgrade is absolutely a must!
Hihihihi itu salah satu yang namanya gambar menipu mba =D kayanya lebih ke fun aja masak/makan nya ya, atau pas kita lagi kurang beruntung dpt cut yg kurang ok heheh happy sunday yah mba xx lina
I’m interested to try Wagyu hot rock and Wagyu Tataki <3 Looks delicious
Wagyu Tataki nya mantap, beef nya empuk banget, mungkin karena tipis ya. Si Wagyu Hot Rock nya sih ga seenak poto mba Helma hehehe
Ahhh jadi ngebayangin mba 😛 Hahahha.. Oh ya? Ahh tapi gambar nya asik banget di atas batu gitu
Hihihihi itu salah satu yang namanya gambar menipu mba =D kayanya lebih ke fun aja masak/makan nya ya, atau pas kita lagi kurang beruntung dpt cut yg kurang ok heheh happy sunday yah mba xx lina
yummy food!
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