Nobu

Nobu and I have a bit of a long standing history.

I went with my family in early March 2008, so Nobu was probably only just a tiny bit shy of it's 6 month birthday. Still quite fresh, and certainly hot and popping at the time with Robert De Niro's name being flashed around everywhere at every mention.

The occasion for us, was our last family dinner before I was to fly off to Germany for 6 months. My first time living away from home.

We had a terrible time. The food on a whole was okay, Dad wasn't particularly impressed, but the service was also frankly, quite miserable that night. Staff were unapologetic, a little bit in your face (in the wrong way) and not particularly gracious which ruined the night for all of us. I remember nearly leaving the restaurant in tears because everyone was so irate.

For years after, I would continue to badmouth Nobu and refuse to go back.

However, I suppose I really cannot let one bad experience years ago, stop me from trying it again, years later. Especially with the fast moving restaurant landscape that is the Crown precinct, if they've managed to stay around, it's got to mean they're doing something right...right?

That and I noticed they had updated their website with their menu and well...it looked good. I'm easy to persuade, what can I say?

So Brad's birthday came up and I decided we needed to go out, of course. He on the other hand, wasn't so fussed and left it completely in my hands to decide where and when. He's useless, honestly.

After tossing up my many options, narrowing it down to two options, surveying friends, twitter and facebook, we inevitably ended up at Nobu.

Nobu is on the Southgate side of Crown and like many of it's neighbours, is dimly lit and quietly cool. When you walk through the doors, you are faced with the bar and have to descend stairs to enter the dining area, to a chorus of cheery 'Irashaimase'. Although I had to cringe slightly at the pronunciation!

The basement dining area is slick, with a myriad of textures adorning the walls and quite ornate upholstery and carpet. I'm not sure how I feel about dining rooms with no windows or sources of natural light though. I suppose at night, especially in winter it's not such a big thing, but if you were to visit at lunch time? Just doesn't seem as appealing personally...

One thing you couldn't help but notice was the huge variety of crowd that Nobu managed to pull, on a Tuesday night. The staff turned some tables over twice! You had families, couples, tables of men (mostly American, you could hear them from a mile away...Brad and I speculated that they were probably hotel guests), and girlfriends on a girls night out. It's quite impressive really that they are able to cater to so many age groups and demographics...or is this just the power of the Nobu name pulling people in?

I started with a glass of umeshu, and Brad and I decided to also share a sake, the Hokusetsu Onigoroshi 'Devil Killer', served cold, which came in a tumbler made of bamboo. It was more than enough alcohol that night for the two of us...

Nobu's menu is quite different to a lot of Japanese restaurants. On top of being Japanese with a South American influence, I can't remember exactly what the word for it was, but it was a certain way of eating. I liked the explanation of the menu and how it worked. The idea was to have protein filled appetisers and mains first, accompanied with some vegetables and to have sushi later on in the night, to make sure more carbohydrates would be consumed afterwards.

When you think about it, it's a very logical diet and I'm quite surprised it hasn't been extremely commercialised yet....

I'm all for a little bit of novelty, so my novelty bone was certainly tickled when I saw the Sashimi Tacos with yellowtail, salmon, lobster and snow crab. With a touch of salsa on the side.

This was a fun dish to start the night with, a little hard to share, but cool and refreshing, with generous portions of crab and lobster in particular. I found the crab a tad lacking in flavour, but the lobster was still quite tasty. And the salmon taco completely knocked it out of the park, especially with a little bit of salsa dropped over the top. Mmhmmm.

From crunchy 'taco' shells, we then progressed to crispy rice with spicy tuna, which had been recommended by a few friends. Again, a fun little interactive dish! Whilst wielding a little bamboo stake, which had a perfectly shaped cube of rice stabbed at the end, the diner lops on spicy raw tuna (lovingly covered in Japanese mayonaise too...) and dips the lot in some soya sauce!

I found the rice a little more chewy, but the exterior had a nice fried crisp to it. I felt like it was a slightly...cheap route to have so much mayonaise on the tuna, as it is just an easy pairing and is instantly delicious. So the combination is a bit of an easy expected route, but yummy. Maybe a tiny bit overpriced? But I suppose that is why you have the fun factor lopped in then no?

Taking a break from seafood, our next dish was the beef tataki with ponzu and garlic chips, again another recommendation from many who have already visited. It certainly didn't disappoint with it's paper thin slices of rare beef, just look at that colour, how on earth can they be so consistent with slicing it?! The beef had a nice tanginess and I loved the, also, extremely paper thin and crisp garlic chips on top. It was a very delicate and subtle combination of flavours and textures that just worked a treat.

We always make an attempt to feel healthy and order vegetables, this was just a mix of seasonal vegetables. Oh my goodness. What a pleasant surprise. These were sinfully buttery and delicious, with a nice little topping of sesame seeds which gave a little toasted aroma. I also liked that the vegetables were slightly al dente and not mushy. More enjoyable than I expected it to be!

Well, we had to have it right? In the menu, the infamous signature dish is just listed as "Black Cod Miso". But what they don't tell you that it's Alaskan black cod, that has been marinated for 3 days before glazed with miso and cooked.

I didn't have particularly high expectations for some reason. But it's so good when you don't. This is really the stuff legends are made of. I'm not kidding. It was moist and absolutely buttery in texture. The flesh just absolutely melted away in your mouth and was gorgeously rich in flavour. I loved the shiny sheen the glaze gave to the fish, it also parted a sweetness to the fish which was very enjoyable.

Although all the dishes were good, this was fantastic and the absolute best memory of the night.

We weren't leaving without getting sushi and opted for a soft shell crab roll, two pieces of anago sushi and two pieces of mackerel sashimi.

I'm okay with the two pieces of anago sushi, but seriously, could they have been any more stingy with the sashimi?

It's so freaking tiny! I honestly can't remember how much I liked it, but I reckon Shira Nui did it much better in their omakase...

The anago was pretty good, but nowhere near as buttery and creamy in texture or as rich in flavour as I've had before, which is what I long for and dream of when I think of anago. Still fairly tasty though, but just not quite the same...

The soft shell crab roll on the other hand, did not disappoint at all, it held together gorgeously, the rice had a nice fluffy texture to it and the soft shell crab itself was warm and tasty. All really quite filling, as the rolls are quite big and well packed!

To finish up, since I had been drooling over the dinner menu online for a week or two leading up to dinner, we ordered Nobu's bento box with hot chocolate fondant and green tea ice-cream.

One word. Decadence. The chocolate was rich and oozed out lovingly from the centre of the cake. The green tea ice-cream? Some of the best I've had I think, the matcha flavours were so true and strong, it wasn't even really that sweet. Which seems weird for ice-cream, but when it's green tea, it really works very well. A fairly classic combination, but done exceptionally.

Oh and what about the service this time? Infinitely better. Maybe because they're more settled now, they're not as hot or crazy busy and instead of being trendy and cool, just do good, simple, friendly service. I felt a little bad since Brad and I got into some fairly deep conversation, even before we started ordering and the poor waitresses had to keep coming up and checking if we were ready to order. But every time we said we needed a bit longer, they left us with a smile and checked on us the whole night to make sure we were doing well.

I felt much more welcomed and comfortable this time and would now, happily recommend others to Nobu. It is an expensive affair, but well worth it for certain dishes.

Brad and I rounded up his birthday night by visiting Galactic Circus, the videogame arcade, where I proceeded to kick his butt at Time Crisis 4. Nerdy girlfriend for the win.

Nobu

8 Whiteman St

Southbank, 3006

Bistro Guillaume

After a gluttinous two nights, a Wednesday night at Circa and Thursday night for the truffle party at St Ali, there was only one thing to do on a Friday. Go to Bistro Guillaume!

Yes, that place with the name nobody can pronounce....I self admittedly used to pronounce it "Guah-lah-may"...until I learnt the French pronounce it something along the lines of "Gee-yom". Thank you French Food Safari!

Although I had never visited Bisto Guillaume in it's former spot, next door to Rockpool, I was looking forward to trying out the revamped, renovated new location.

I had fairly high expectations, as Mum would always talk about how much she and Dad liked the food at his restaurant in Sydney, and that's a big deal because Dad is very, very particular about 'Western' restaurants. Give him a hole in a wall and noodles any day.

It's kind of hard to miss Bistro Guillaume. It's entryway being a very refreshing bright green, which doesn't seem very French, but works all the same!

The decor inside is just gorgeous, indeed reminiscent of a typical bistro in France, it felt very Parisian, but also very neat and at the same time, refreshing and modern with the bursts of green from the menus laid across the tables.

And I love those lights! Adding a touch of softness and romance to the room with their delicate shape.

We were seated outside, and even though it was July and was winter, it was quite comfortable as the gas heaters really pack a punch.

One thing that's quite impressive on Guillaume's menu, is that all the wines can be had by the glass, which I think is great, especially if you're in the mood to try a few things. I can't really remember what this bottle was like though...didn't really stay in my mind personally.

Some bread to start us off on our night, the butter was divine. I loved the shape of the bread, but found the crust to be a little tougher than I thought. Made you work!

As I was suffering from a cold and a blocked nose, I decided to start with an onion soup. This was fantastic, although I think it only just barely makes it into the soup category as it was so thick! I could barely get my spoon in the first time, as the bowl was absolutely stuffed with fine strips of onion! It was like eating an onion stew, which was beautifully seasoned and quite enriching. I tend to think that French onion soups tend to be a bit cheesy at times, but this one was not so. Simple, but rich flavours.

After that, between the 5 ladies that were at dinner, ordered a couple of mains and sides to share. Which may not sound like a lot, but believe me, it is!

After reading about it on I-Hua's review of Bisto Guillaume, we decided to make sure that the half a roasted chicken with Paris Mash and Chicken Jus was one of our mains. And what a treat it was, every inch of it was tender and juicy and again, it was absolutely seasoned to perfection. It was one of the star dishes of the night quite easily!

One thing mum was incredibly keen on trying, and specifically why we visited on a Friday night, was the bouillabaisse (for those not in the know, a lovely French seafood soup). It is one of the 'Plat du Jour' (Dish of the Day), they have one special for every day of the week and the bouillabaisse is only served on Friday.

I'm not entirely sure how much I personally like this. I found it a little too thick for my tastes and not as aromatic as I would have imagined it. I'm used to having slightly more watery bouillabaisse's which is just essentially, delicious and tasty fish stock. I'm not so fond of it when there's bread to give it some substance. It was thick enough to just plop on a plate and then scoop up with a spoon, no bowl really needed. I didn't find it looked overly enticing for me.

Although to be fair, if you were to have this as a dish on it's own, the thickened soup would be more filling, more substantial and satisfying a meal, and I'm sure back in the day, somewhere along the French coastline, this would have been a variant for poor fishermen who wanted a more solid meal as well.

We were also fortunate enough to be able to try the Plat du Jour from Thursday (although looking at the menu now, it looks like they've changed it), the duck cassoulet.

After being indulged by the ginormous cassoulet at the Provincial for the duckfest, seeing it in a much smaller form was a tiny bit sad. Just a tiny bit.

It was very tasty though, seasoned well, but not quite as rich as the one I had at the Provincial. Which I suppose is a good thing, more of the duck came through. Again, nice, but not absolutely stellar to me.

Sigh, dark food, dark lighting, I wish it looked better. The first of our sides was a ratatouille, served in a cute little red pot. This was exactly what you would want it to be, nice, filled with tomatoes and comforting.

The gratin dauphinois, was just delicious. Fortunately it was a nice small serve, perfect for serving up between the 5 of us, so that we all got a taste, but didn't feel it all go to our hips! Buttery, a bit creamy, with perfectly soft, but not mushy potatoes, I could have probably just ordered this for myself as a dish and been quite satisfied...

And then of course, to lighten everything up, some salad greens, which were dressed in a nice vinaigrette. I really found it to be quite refreshing and better than most salad greens which are just lazily plonked next to you with no effort.

The view at night outside is just gorgeous. I love Melbourne!

To finish up, I was insistent on desserts. And since there were a number of us...a number of desserts it was!

The tarte tartin with cinnamon ice-cream was just delightful. I don't vividly remember it, but I do recall we all enjoyed it and it was quite tasty.

I was honestly quite surprised to find that the lemon tart was possibly my favourite dessert of the night. Ordered at mum's suggestion, I loved the tanginess, it was so lemony and not too sugary. The crust was also really nice, quite short, with a nice biscuity element to it.

Mum commented that the serve on it's own might be a bit overwhelming, because it is so tangy, but if you do really like your lemon tarts...tarty, then this is the lemon tart you've been waiting for.

Lastly, was the creme brulee. Past the perfect glacial crack of the crystallized sugar, I was a little bit underwhelmed. The custard itself didn't feel quite right. It was a bit too soft in texture, and with not enough vanilla in it in my opinion. There were also berries in the custard which were a nice touch, but I didn't feel were necessary. Unfortunately not a favourite for me.

What definitely made up for it though, was the little caramel macaron that came with my lovely Mariage Frères peppermint tea. Caramel-y goodness. That's all you need to know!

I think sometimes people underestimate how good and easy it is to do family style at a western restaurant, you get to try more things and don't always feel like a glutton afterwards (I was still pretty full though).

I found the dishes a bit hit and miss, the plat du jour's were good, but not amazing for me, although we absolutely loved the roasted duck and had similar thoughts with the desserts.

Overall though it was an enjoyable night, despite being incredibly busy and turning some tables 2 times over throughout the duration of our dinner, we were attended to well and staff were friendly. And there were some French accents there too. Mmmhmmm.

I might come back, as the atmosphere was pleasant, the service was good and the food on a whole is enjoyable. You just have to know what to get. Maybe it would be better off to have dishes that are served everyday rather than the specials...

Bistro Guillaume

8 Whiteman St, Crown Entertainment Complex

Melbourne, 3006