Kobe Jones $25 All You Can Eat Sushi Lunch, Darling Harbour, Sydney

All you can eat? ALL you can eat?? ALL you can EAT?!?! Sushi? $25??! You couldn't drag me away with wild horses!

Again, another opportunistic read over at NotQuiteNigella informed me of the existence of this super special uber limited time only umami fest at Kobe Jones, Darling Harbour. I'd often stumbled past this harbourside icon when browsing the eateries along King Street Wharf and wanted to give it a try - only the prices put me off. Well-heeled it-girls and business lunchers make up the majority of the clientele on a bustling Monday lunchtime - there's hardly a seat left in the place. Not being one to miss out, I made reservations, especially as the lunch dining session is only 12 - 2:30.

Sushi Platter.

Clockwise from top - Kingfish Nigiri, Salmon Nigiri, Tuna Nigiri, Prawn Tempura Roll, Salmon and Cucumber Roll, Crab and Eel Roll, Spider Roll, Volcano Roll (centre).

On that note, I'll have to first apologise for the lack of photos. We were seated at 1:30, as it was the only time B could get away from the office, so I was too busy stuffing my face to pose the food. The sushi is served platter style, with the day's variety in quantities according to how many diners there are. The selection varies from day to day, though there is always fresh Nigiri and Kobe Jones' famous Volcano Roll.

The Nigiri was merely passable, all of the fish slightly too dry and slightly too warm for my taste. It definitely could have been fresher and the rice ratio for each portion was a little too much.

Recommendation goes to the Tempura Prawn, which was crispy, warm and very fresh. The roll was fleshed out with a little crab salad as well, which created a nice creamy dressing for the prawn. However, the tempura crumbs sprinkled on top were a little stale.

Salmon in the Roll was a lot fresher than its Nigiri counterpart and married well with the crunchy cucumber sticks.

The Crab and Eel Roll contained crab salad and teriyaki eel pieces. The eel was warm and melt-in-the-mouth tender, with the sweet teriyaki sauce offset well by the salad dressing again.

Soft-Shell Crab in the Spider Roll was average, neither good nor bad. It was warm, but not particularly crunchy, and it lacked in the flavour department. Spices in the batter would have gone a long way here.

Volcano Roll.

The Volcano Roll consists of three pieces of crab-salad (are we beginning to see a trend here?) and avocado roll with baked scallops in cream sauce on top. The sauce is very creamy, thick and a little sour, almost like a bearnaise, and is topped off by crunchy spring onion slices. The combined textures of the sushi roll, the sweet, tender scallops, and the thick creamy sauce create a very comforting feeling in the mouth - almost like a homemade mac and cheese. We ended up ordering three more plates of this - aren't we pigs!


All up it was a very satisfying lunch. The Volcano Roll really hit the spot with its comfort-food mix of flavours and textures. I felt like I needed a nap afterwards! I was a little surprised that the sushi wasn't of better quality, especially after hearing how Kobe Jones made its name as a sushi icon when it first burst on to the Sydney eating scene. As one of the chic King Street Wharf bunch, it quickly gained popularity and, judging by the crowd today, that $25 deal still draws them in.

I was disconcerted by the poor service we received on this occasion. It took 20 minutes for a waitress to take our order after we had been seated and a further 20 for our food to be served. I understand that the lunchtime rush had to be catered to, but the restaurant was clearing as we received our first platter and we had to hurry to order after that before the 2.30 last-order call. Still, a restaurant of this standard and experience should be able to cope with a Monday lunch setting with a little more finesse.


Rating:

Food: 6.5/10
Service: 4/10
Value for Money: 7.5/10
Ambience: 6/10


Kobe Jones
29 Lime Street
King Street Wharf
Sydney
+61 2 9299 5290
http://kobejones.com.au/sydney 

McDonalds' Grand Angus Burger

So I was really REALLY excited when I saw on NotQuiteNigella that McDonalds was putting out these two new Angus Beef burgers. I was so excited, in fact, that I started raving to my friends almost immediately, and force-showing them what little evidence I could find online. The tension was only heightened when I saw a squashed Mighty Angus box on the ground. You see, NQN had mentioned only the Australian release date, so I was unsure if (or when) New Zealand would get them, so far behind the rest of the world are we. There was no fanfare when these dropped in Auckland, and naturally my friends thought I was bonkers. They even proposed that I had DREAMT about the box I saw as I was fantasising so much..

As it ends up, I didn't have a chance to try until I was in Sydney, where I first heard about it anyway. Here's my take on the Grand Angus burger, and a comparison with the Deluxe Cheeseburger (a regular cheeseburger with lettuce).

Grand Angus Burger and Deluxe Cheeseburger side-by-side.

Open Casket shots.

As you can see, the Grand Angus completely dwarfs the humble cheeseburger. That 'sourdough' bun is HUGE and there's salad poking out everywhere.

The autopsy shot.

This is where things really get interesting. As NQN explains, the Angus Patty (100% prime angus beef, apparently) is a 3-to-a-pound patty, approximately 150 grams. The Cheeseburger Patty, on the other hand is a 10-to-a-pound patty, or about 45 grams. The Angus Patty is, then, justifiably ENORMOUS. It really is about 3 times the thickness and about 1 and a half times the top-down area.

Grand Angus autopsy shot.

The Grand Angus also contains two slices of McDonalds classic cheese, red onion rings, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and the usual sauces - mayo, tomato sauce and mustard, packed into a sourdough bun. Now, this bun isn't really a sourdough as such... more like a slightly denser version of The Boss burger's kaiser bun. It has some pretty track marks over the top, but otherwise tastes pretty bland, and just does an adequate job of holding all the fillings in the burger.

The patty is a real let down. I expected a really beefy flavour with perhaps a bit more ground beef texture. What I got was a big version of the cheeseburger patty. To be fair, when I separated bits of the patty from each burger and tried the patty on its own, I could detect a whiff of something other than standard McDonalds cardboard in the Angus Patty, so it may well be a decent (not really) patty on its own. However, when chucked in with the overwhelmingly rich stickiness of the McDonalds cheese, and then with the salad and sauces on top, it really was indistinguishable from any other McDonalds burger. The fat juicy piece of tomato was the real highlight of this burger for me :D

Deluxe Cheeseburger autopsy shot.

Not much to say here, except that it was cheaper ($1.95 AUD) than a regular Cheesebuger ($2.10 AUD) and you get a bit of munched up lettuce, a bit of mayo, and I think they take out the tomato sauce, so there wasn't that zingy bite anywhere. Thumbs down boring.


So there you have it. I rate the Grand Angus burger a failure on all accounts. Unless you're looking for something to make you feel sick late at night, don't go for it. In fact, if you were looking for just that, I'd go for 4 regular Cheeseburgers instead, it'd probably taste better going down. To really get a rounded view on the Angus hype, I might have to go back and try the Mighty Angus burger - bacon, cheese, mayo, onion and caramelised onion relish - and see if all that lack of greens makes the difference.. Tempting?