Kawasemi, Moonah - dining in-house

Yes - last night I took up the challenge offered by some of my Commenters, returned to Kawasemi and had a sit-down meal in the restaurant, instead of just relying on the takeaway for an opinion.

I'll set the scene here for you. I went along there with a bunch of those beautiful Thai friends I described a few blog postings ago, as well as their husbands. We were celebrating the return to the fold, albeit just for a visit, of Dee - our beautiful friend who moved to Hong Kong with her husband Ted some months ago. We miss her so much, and she has a wicked sense of humour, so it is great to have her back, with her sense of the ridiculous.

We were a large and noisy table, but having lots of fun swapping food, husbands and colourful jokes most of the night! Just joking about the swapping husbands, eh Norman?

In typically Thai fashion, it was the norm for every morcel of food that came out of the kitchen to be placed in front of the person who'd ordered it, sampled by them, then passed right round the table. That way, we all got to taste everything!

Hence when I speak about all items here, it is with specific knowledge of having tasted it all.

So - we entreed on:
Tofu Dengaku $6 - deep fried bean curd (tofu) with sweet miso sauce
Agedashi Tofu $6 - lightly deep fried tofu served hot in tempura sauce with dried bonito flakes, sp onion and ginger
Abi Furai $7 - stuffed prawn cutlets filled with mushrooms, prawn meat & onion then breadcrumbed & deep fried, served with tomatsu (Japanese style worcestershire sauce)
Kaiso Salad $6.50 - fresh salmon, octopus & green seaweed tossed with sesame seed dressing
plus the usual sushi and tempura, which I won't describe here, as anyone who eats Japanese knows exactly what they are, and I don't really think you can go too wrong producing a standard sushi product or tempura, unless you're the Mikaku (see most recent review by HRB).

We mained on:
More of the above in the way of tempura ($16) and sushi, plus
Chicken Teriyaki $16 - simply cooked with rich creamy teriyaki sauce
Dinner Bento Box ($18) - as you'd expect, samples of everything
Teriyaki Steak ($18) - steak in teriyaki sauce
Avocado & Seafood ($18) - avocado, fish, scallops, prawns & mussels with japanese rice wine sauce.

We desserted on:
Azuki Custard Pancake ($4.50) - filled with red bean paste custard, served with azuki red bean icecream
Green Tea Pancake ($4.50) - green tea leaves pancake filled with custard, served with green tea icecream
Tempura Icecream ($4.80) - icecream battered with tempura batter and deep fried.
Plus something else which I omitted to take note of - sorry!

The food:
The highlights for me were the Tofu Dengaku, the Chicken Teriyaki and the Azuki Custard Pancake.
The pancake in particular was an absolute steal at $4.50. It was bloody beautiful, and worth every cent and double it.

The service was great and attentive. The staff friendly and helpful. The ambience was casual and pleasant.

The standard was fine. I wouldn't class it as the best Japanese restaurant I've ever been to, but for Moonah (or even for Hobart), for where they are situated (in Dickensons Arcade, which I reckon is a toughie for a starter - not much through-traffic in there to attract clientele), it's a great little suburban restaurant. No pretensions, no bullshit.

I think Orizuru's food is of a higher standard, but I'd prefer the atmosphere and lack of sophistication of Kawasemi to wanky Orizuru.

It's BYO, it's a small business trying its best in a tough restaurant market. If you haven't been there, why not give it a go?