3 Anderson Street, Yarraville | www.kawa-sake.com.au
I came to rate their food, but all I could do was rate their music. What I would’ve once loved, but now realise the folly of it all, is 90s pop music. We were assaulted by Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart blaring through the speakers – it was seriously loud. This was followed up by a bit of a Ricky Martin and Gloria Estafan duet and other non-sensical music (“non-sensical” my latest buzz word, courtesy of MKR).
After adjusting to Toni we were led to the high table and stools by the window. Cool, I thought. That was until I tried to get up onto the stool – man, it wobbled like jelly. I was scared I was going to fall off. So we spent the rest of the night perched on top of the wobbly stools listening to 20 year old music, that hasn’t quite aged enough to become cool.
Anyway, we ordered the Sakura boat (a boat containing an assortment of sushi and sashimi), the vegetable tempura and their crab rolls (can’t remember the full name of it). While we waited for the food we watched the procession of sushi boats float around the bar – yes, I said sushi boats! They’re kind of cool, bobbing along with their cargo of sushi.
But our own Sakura boat? Bit of a disappointment. It came quickly enough and the sashimi looked fresh and it was tasty, but that was about it. The boat was mostly full of salmon sushi rolls, just tarted up in different ways. Some of them were clearly pre-made and had been sitting in the kitchen for awhile – the rice was dry, starting to separate and starting to get hard. That’s a huge let down, considering that you can get heaps better sushi and sashimi in a takeaway box from a food court. Not only that, what was presented to us was different to what was pictured in the menu!! What’s with that?
The crab thingies were ok, quite tasty actually, although the filling was piping hot. But I’m not sure how “authentic” it was. I normally loathe to use that word, but it felt a bit like we were eating something from a freezer isle from the IGA across the road. Yummy, but not what I was expecting to have served up in a restaurant.
The tempura vegies were also ok. It wasn’t the best tempura I’ve ever had (the batter was kind of hard and crispy instead of being light and crispy), however the vegies were at least fresh and juicy.
Service was a put on friendliness and it felt like the waitress was trying to coerce us into ordering wine (um, not everyone drinks!), however, it wasn’t offensive or anything. Overall, it was an ok experience. It’s worth popping into to check out their sushi boats. But one try is enough. We won’t be going back.
Here’s some Toni:
Rating: One mochi
Agree with your hesitation about using the term “authentic” – it’s a slippery slope, especially when it comes to Japanese food, Japanese eateries in general and, I suspect, particularly Japanese eateries operating outside Japan.
Your blog comments are so ridiculous. In general, I respect blogs in their independent and honest opinion about different experience they have at food places. Yours appear to be very patronising and contradicting. I think you should re-read what you write!!!