Last night, a vegetarian friend (who eats fish as well) and I wanted to catch up for dinner. We had lots of gossip to share, so I knew our meal would need to be somewhere we could sit back on a Friday evening, and chill out for a girl’s gab-fest. She works in the city, has a car spot at her work, and ideally wanted to walk straight from work to dinner. Finishing work at 5.00, and wanting to eat immediately after that, is an issue in this circumstance as most places don’t serve dinner till 6.00, and as neither of us are big drinkers, the usual fill-in of a pre-dinner drink at Knoppies definitely doesn’t do it for us.
Having provided you with the parameters (above) of our planned dinner, it fell naturally to Rita to nominate the venue. I thought Orizuru (the Japanese restaurant attached to Mures Lower Deck) would fit the bill admirably in this instance.
I think to sum it up, I could refer you back to my review of 2 years ago on this site which I, just this minute, re-read to refresh myself as to what I had said about it then, and compare. My opinion and summation hasn’t altered one iota, interestingly.
We both decided on a Tempura platter for Mains, priced at exactly what it was 2 years ago - $29.50. I’ve eaten Tempura in all Japanese restaurants here in Hobart, and many on the mainland, for 40 years. I love Tempura, mostly for the fact that, as the very name infers, it uses a light tempura batter to coat all ingredients. Combine this with a beautiful dipping soy with additions, and to me it’s a recipe for gastronomic success. This wasn’t the case last night. If that meal wasn’t a straight ‘deep fried veges and prawns’ delight, I’ll eat my cold battered parsley!
The meal was made way more enjoyable having a table for 2, which 5 minutes before had been joined to ours (forming a table for 4) sitting in such close proximity as to make me feel I had actually formed a deep meaningful physical relationship with Hans, the guy nearly perched on my lap! Hans and Connie told us they were from Colorado, visiting Hobart, and staying, of all holiday destinations for overseas visitors, at Dunalley! That’s what you get when you book online and make assumptions about relative distances! They said if they returned to Hobart in the future, they’d prefer to stay in Hobart itself, instead of having to travel up and down for whatever sightseeing they wanted to do. I imagine their trip to the Airwalk at Tahune was an extremely long day!
Anyway, we felt thoroughly sluggish, and fatty-food-ish afterwards, so decided to cut our losses and hightail it home for Rita to cook a dessert to wash away those fried food blues. Popped into Woolies on the way home, bought 6 bananas and a small carton of orange juice, then whipped up Flambe Bananas at Rita’s – which cost only $4.90 total, was prepared and on the table in 5 minutes, and tasted way better than what we’d eaten for mains at Orizuru! Sweet, alcoholic, not light but MOST satisfying!
My parents eat at Orizuru at least once a week, and rave about it. I am probably a failure as a daughter, but I simply can’t endorse their opinion, given my experience last night, much as I’d love to.
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7 comments:
It's pretty bad. You are dead on with the tempura. It's horrible. The last time I went, I felt the food was a little clunky. I didn't think the fish was the best quality and thought it was out of season. It seemed late in the year for tuna. The pork dish I had was a little strange - seemed sinewy but not in the usual sense. It had a really strange texture, kind of like gristle that was tender. It may have been really low quality pork which seemed a little strange to me, as I though the Japanese were right on the ball with quality produce. The dishes weren't put together particularly well; the pork been sinewy and messy, bloodline still on the salmon and tuna, the bento box looking like it had been dropped. I felt like some of the food wasn't shown the care it deserves. The miso was lovely though, with the wind coming of the water that day been particularly cold. The one thing I do like though is their ice. It's kind of shaved, flat things and is really nice with an orange juice. Strange thing to be your favourite part of a restaurant...
It would seem to be another quality Mures production...
and don't bother with Mures upper deck what an over priced load of c*ap. $32.90 for to tiny bits of blue eye and 12 chips. First and last time I would ever! step foot in there.
Anonomouse FYI the sushi place is owned by the Japanese familly and they bought it from Mures quite some years ago. So apart from being in the same building it has nothing to do with Mures.
Thanks for that. Didn't realise they bought it. Doesn't change my opinion though, anything from Mures is crap and the sushi place is crap. Actually, I just checked the Mures sight. It's still listed on their site as being part of them...
Mures upper deck is really bad isn't it. We had a grilled bug dish there once. The top was grilled, but the middle was still frozen. WTF! We had a scallop dish there once. They were also still frozen. The breadcrumbs were wet and the bottom of the scallop was like eating a popsicle. They can't cook fish for the life of them, the seafood platter is horrible and the rest is lazy food. The grana padano custard is a Pier (Sydney) dish, I'm looking at the recipe for it right now! The Char Grilled Salmon was terrible - the fish being over cooked, a marinade from the 80's and despite being classic, it was unbalanced, served with overcooked mushy stir fried vegetables and.... potatoes? Since when do potatoes go with stir fried vegetables? Why do locals even recommend this place? The service is ordinary - 45 minutes for drinks, an hour for entree and 2 hours for mains at the same time being rude... Go to Henry Jones just down the road. It's 10 times better and cheaper.
Another thing... The restaurant supply division is the worst in
Hobart. Overpriced, low qualiy seafood supplied in the middle of service by rude delivery drivers who demand you to stop what you are doing. I thought most of the boats came in first thing in the morning? Get it there by 10am you a-holes! Stick with Mako or Wilson's.
Actually, I thought the sashimi pretty good, but that is after two weeks of eating fish and chips in Dunalley! Rita said nothing about how well my accent was coming along; I worked on it from the moment I hit 'owbart'!
Hans
There's not many Japanese restaurants in Hobart compared to cities on the "Northern Island" where they are plentiful and the quality is high.
I agree with Anonomouse about Mures Upper Deck, except the bit saying locals recommend it (since we don't)!
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