Kobe Jones

I love spontaneous get-togethers! On Monday Lisa asked for a girly catch up, and on Thursday Anne Lisa and I met up after our hectic day's activities just like old times. As it was a Thursday night we thought it'd be easy for a restaurant to fit three reasonably skinny girls in, so after 15 minutes of careful menu analyses along King St Wharf, we ended up at Kobe Jones.

Sushi. I love Sushi. Kobe Jones does sushi. We took out time, and ended up with a "dragon roll" (grilled eel and avacado on top, prawn tempura and nori wrapped in rice, smelt roe and bonito shavings on top), "dynamite roll" (spicy tuna with sesame seed sprinkle) and "salmon skin" (crispy BBQ salmon skin, cucumber, burdock root, with sesame and bonito shavings on top). The menu didn't tell us that the dragon roll contained prawn - just said "tempura" - so unfortunately Lisa couldn't have it, but luckily the eels were sitting on top of the rolls and not in contact with the prawns, so she managed to have a taste of the eel for the first time. I really like anything with eel on it, and this eel sushi was quite different from all the other standard eel-on-rice preparation so I loved it. The dynamite roll was lightly spicy (as we ordered a milder heat level), and was also very delicious, but I thought the chilli actually doesn't quite go with the delicate tuna, and it also robbed me of the pleasure of dabbing it in wasabi. The salmon skin roll was a pleasant surprise because of the crispy texture and just the right saltiness/sweetness without any more wasabi or soy sauce (to me).

After this light but satisfying meal we decided there is room to really appreciate dessert (unlike my previous over-indulgence at Napoli in Bocca) and ended up with Yokan (chocolate sabayon on a hazelnut biscuit with vanilla anglaise) and a Kanpai trifle (sake infused trifle with marinated cherries in jelly). Yum. My trifle was light and fragrant, not too rich so quite a perfect end of the meal. The chocolate sabayon was absolutely divine! It was chocolatey, and yet not too sweet and overly rich.

Highly recommend this place. The price seem a bit high at first for a sushi restaurant, but their sushi was different and delicious, and has a very relaxing atmosphere unlike the usual hectic Japanese restaurant. We also ordered a sauvignon blanc from Orange that went down well with the light meal too. I'd come back one day.....

Overindulgence at Napoli in Bocca

First time I visited Napoli in Bocca I thoroughly enjoyed their pizza and the desserts, and have been hooked on that restaurant since. But the second and third time I went, their famous and ever-so-popular tiramisu was sold out before I could order it. So this time I vowed to myself I WILL have a tiramisu at the end of my meal...

Our resident Italian colleague ordered on behalf of all of us, since he knows whats good, and saves us that decision making process and the possibility of double-up orders. Entree - herb and garlic pizza, and bruschetta pizza. Thin and crusty and very appetising, the bruschetta pizza was topped with piles of juicy ripe roman tomatoes. Then came our second course, two wood fired pizzas (both very simple) and three pastas (spaghetti marinara, gnocchi napolitana, fettucini carbonara). Then came a third course of one more pizza, one more pasta (penne with eggplant and tomatoes), and one that I wanted to try - calamari ripieni (stuffed calamari). All nice. The pizza had anchovy on top so it was a tad salty, but it's hard for me to explain how potent and tasty the salty fish was on the pizza!

Then I ordered the tiramisu I lust after but was unable to finish the creamy dessert simply because I had too much good food before that. Sigh...

I think everyone had a great time there and the food was, as always, up to scratch. But we were lucky to have had excellent attentive service because of our Italian friend (reading other people's reviews the service may not be consistent). The interior is now much more spacious and therefore more comfortable than it used to be before the renovation. I would not think twice about coming back here at all!