Nobu

[Adam Balic]

A Nobu chain has opened locally in the basement of the casino. This means that actually getting to the restuarant is a less then impressive stroll through food courts and corridors filled with sweating gamblers. The restaurant has received very mixed reviews, the usual comments seem to be that "the food is about the standard of a good local restaurant, the price is much higher, but it is a "scene"".

On entering were given the usual greeting an shown to our seats, restaurant was packed, who looked happy enough and were all furiously taking flash photographs of the food, each other and extreme close up profiles of my face. Good energy level in other words.

First problem: Returning from the toilet my wife having had to tell the staff that there was piss all over the toilet and floor in two of the three unisex toilets.

Meal: Round of cocktails, something girly for the wife, a manly Pisco Sour for me. Not bad. Waitress pleasant and spiel on the great man and his restaurant, menu structure useful and interesting.

Ended up ordering Otoro, tempura king grab legs, house sushi, Black Cod, Moreton Bay bugs, Tea smoked lamb, endame.

Otoro was listed as "Japanese" or "Australia", I asked what this ment, waitress had no idea, but was happy to find out. Japanese = Blackfin tuna, Australian = Big eyed tuna. Both delicious.

King Crab legs with amazu ponzu. Excellent, best dish of the evening.

Black cod. Lovely, will have to try at home with a local replacement for Sablefish.

Moreton bay bugs, very boring, flavour lost amoungst the shitake mushrooms

Lamb was delicious, but had such a distinct flavour of hickory smoke that I kept on thinking of the liquid smoke I have in the pantry.

I asked the waitress plenty of questions, which were all answered for me, and a sample of Yuzu juice was brought out for me (never had it before, wanted to work out the flavour profile). Her service was very good, but they seemed quite understaffed in general.

Second problem: After paying for the bill nobody noticed us leaving and we ended up waving our arms about to get attention and our coats.

We offered feedback on the meal and problems. Offered free drinks, but we declined explaining that we had a great time, but they needed to hear feedback on toilets and staffing for there own benefit, not ours. Seemed happy enough with this.

I actually had great fun and enjoyed the meal, but it was more to do with the great company then the meal. Meal was good, not great and given the vibe of the place I would have to say that for me this was expensive, fun, casual dining, rather then fine dining. Grown up Wagamamas, rather then something amazing or special.

Cost for the meal, including 4 cocktails an a bottle of Sav. Blanc was A$390 for two. Which is expensive locally and somewhat over-priced in my view.

[Shinboners]

A Nobu chain has opened locally in the basement of the casino. This means that actually getting to the restuarant is a less then impressive stroll through food courts and corridors filled with sweating gamblers.

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For me, that's the major downside about having to trek to the Crown for dinner. A couple of years ago, we had a pretty nice dinner at the Brasserie, but the evening had its gloss taken off by having to walk through those corridors after dinner.

Still, the missus and I have hatched a plot for the middle of next year. The kids will be sent off to the grandparents while we spend a long weekend at the Crown, and indulge in eating at Rockpool, Giuseppe Arnaldo and Sons, Bistro Guillaume etc.

[sandra]

We actually used the side door into the complex, and walked in directly from the bankside - then all you see is Rockpool to your left and Nobu to your right, not such bad sights, I thought! We really enjoyed it - I'm a big fan of Ubon in London and I thought this came quite close, can't wait to go back

[Shinboners]

It was reported in Epicure yesterday that the Crown Casino has effectively taken over ownership and management of Nobu at Crown.