One of my fabulous friends in Perth took me out to Nobu for my birthday. Nobu, a Japanese fine-dining restaurant at the Perth Crown Casino, has been on my wishlist to try out for a couple of years. A few Perth foodie friends also rave about it so I was excited to try it out. We arrived early for our 6.15pm dinner reservation. The first thing you notice are all the bubbles hanging down from the ceiling inside the bar area.
We were shown to our table and were loudly greeted by the Japanese chefs and the wait staff inside. I always forget what the greeting is. Our waiter introduced himself, placed napkins on our laps, provided us with the wine menu and left us for a little bit. I don’t drink alcohol and my friend isn’t a big drinker either so we didn’t actually touch the wine menu and continued chatting. The waiter came back about 1 minute later and asked if we wanted any drinks. We weren’t interested and asked for the food menu. He brought this out for us and as this was our first time here, he proceeded to let us know the favourites on the menu and suggested how many dishes we could share from each category, e.g. hot dishes, cold dishes, sushi plates etc. We were then left to have a closer look.
Not two minutes later, he came back to ask if we were ready to order. I said we needed 5 minutes to go through everything and he nodded and walked away. We were interrupted 6 times by three different wait staff asking if we were ready to order in the space of 5 minutes. I found that extremely annoying and felt very rushed. My friend and I decided to pick two dishes each to share and provided our orders. We were asked about drinks again so my friend had a look at the wine menu. The waiter looked to me to ask if I wanted anything to drink and told him I was happy with water as I don’t drink. He mentioned two mocktails they could make as a substitute so I chose the ginger beer with berries, more so to stop being bugged about drinks. My friend chose a plum wine. These only took a few minutes to arrive at the table.
The yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos ($26) was mentioned as a popular dish so that was one of the dishes I chose. It was such fresh and delicious sashimi. The jalapenos weren’t too spicy and the vinegar drizzled on top provided a lovely contrast to the sashimi. Though I did thoroughly enjoy this, I would have liked a few more slices and I think I could get similar quality elsewhere for cheaper.
The tempura scallops ($10) were next. Two juicy large scallops fried in a crunchy thin batter accompanied by a light vinegar. Again, fresh and great quality seafood. The batter was excellent as well, not too thick and gluggy.
I chose the pork belly with rockmelon ponzu ($26) as it sounded unique. This was sitting in a pool of vinegar with finely chopped spanish onion, chilli, coriander and I think cucumber. I enjoyed the pork belly which wasn’t too fatty. I thought the sweetness of the rockmelon and the sweet and sour vinegar mix was such a great combination with the salty pork belly. Loved it! Hoping I can replicate this mix at home.
The half lobster with Yuzu truffle butter ($95) was my friend’s pick. Very steep for only half a lobster! But this was melt in your mouth delicious and the lobster meat easily glided off the shell. The simple combination of butter and truffle was perfect. The large shitaki and shimeji mushrooms underneath were also full of flavour and juicy. We were asked three times if we were finished with the dish even though there were still plenty of mushrooms left. The third time, a waitress picked up the plate to take it away and then asked if we were finished. There were clearly still mushrooms on the plate but by that stage, I just didn’t care. We nodded and she took it away.
I find most Japanese restaurants don’t have great desserts or just provide green tea ice cream. So I was surprised to see great options on Nobu’s dessert menu.
We asked what the favourite dessert was and were informed that the chocolate fondant (bento box) was the most popular. I didn’t feel like anything heavy and was informed of the lighter desserts such as the miso cappuccino. This sounded really nice and I was happy with my choice. Served in a cappuccino cup, the dessert is layered with coffee chocolate crumble or soil at the bottom, miso and milk chocolate creme, vanilla ice cream with a thick coffee foam on top. I loved the different coffee textures of this dessert – it was light, fresh and gave me a small coffee kick. I’d order this again.
My second choice dessert was the hot chocolate mousse which is what my friend ordered. Accompanying the mousse is gingerbread ice cream, hazelnut streusel, orange and Japanese pumpkin. The mousse was more like warm chocolate lava and encased in a chocolate ‘cup’. The sweet pumpkin puree sounds odd but worked very well with everything. I liked the subtlety of the ice cream and the syrupy sweet orange slices. The chocolate was bitter and rich, so my friend was quickly overwhelmed with the dish.
I couldn’t fault the food. It was fresh, simple and delicious. But it is extremely expensive ($26-for-6-slivers-of-sashimi-expensive). I found the service annoying and on the brink of rude. For the amount of money charged, I do not like to be constantly interrupted about ordering, nor rushed through my meals as plates are quickly taken away. I would have liked to enjoy the experience and atmosphere, and not feel like I was in a cheap Asian fast food cafe where they get you in and want you out as quickly as possible. Food was excellent but the service let Nobu down. I’m glad I was able to tick this off my list but I doubt I will return.
Foodgasm 7.5/10
