Komeyui

I haven’t been this surprised by Japanese for a LONG time. It was still morning when I called up Mum and asked what it was we were going to do for dinner that night. Apparently my sister had laid down the law requested Japanese. So which Japanese restaurants in the inner South/East are on my hit list? Komeyui was certainly one.

It was relatively full for a Friday night, I made a booking earlier in the day and we were the only spare table at 8pm. It’s a very clean restaurant with a good sushi bar element down one wall, where you can spy the incredible chefs doing their thing.

As you can imagine, we ordered about 8 different dishes between the four of us (not including dessert) so it was a fairly lengthy sitting with a lot of different flavours; but what excited me the most was that everything we ordered was at least ‘good’ and sometimes amazing.

Of particular note, the service was impeccable. We requested to be moved to another table when it became vacant soon after we arrived and I counted no fewer than 4 waiters preparing the table for us – I honestly expected the head waitress woman to whip out a measuring tape to make sure all of the servingware was spot on. Really impossible to fault, they weren’t in your face or hovering, but things were cleared up swiftly and they were always available and happy for extra ordering or changes. Such a good experience.

The following are the dishes which are absolute standouts – the Wagyu Tataki, which is very briefly seared and had the most incredible soy sauce based mix (to the top right). Apologies for the dark photos, it’s a mood-lit restaurant.

The Sushi and Sashimi platter. Now compare this for $39 with its lovely presentation (very cute wasabi leaves) and the freshest of melt-in-your-mouth fish, to what we had at Kenzan for something like a similar price.

The Pumpkin Mochi Steak – we ordered this as  a bit of a joke, but we weren’t laughing once we’d each tried a bit ($22)

Komeyui Shumai, a steamed dumpling with chicken and rice. ($16)

This dessert – it’s a fruit compote with ‘yuzu citris sherbet’ and WOW. Just wow. It’s like a cold jelly fruit compote, which isn’t too sweet, with this ice-sherbet stuff which dissolves on the tongue. Incredible. Probably the most interesting and surprising things I’ve had for dessert all year ($17.50)

Well, I mean, it wasn’t the dessert I ordered. I couldn’t resist ordering the Sake creme brulee ($14). Yeah, you read it right. Instead of being sweet and custardy, this one was, well, sake flavoured. Not sweet, nothing alcoholic. It’s really difficult to explain, but because everybody was raving over the sherbet fruit compote, I had it all to myself, which was fantastic. Original and so up my alley. A decently creamy and warm brulee, to top it all off.

I can’t understand why we haven’t come here sooner and although it is a little expensive, it was well worth it. This post doesn’t even have any humour in it because I’m so serious about how good the food is. I’m really looking forward to coming back here!

Ambience: 7/10
Service: 10/10
Food: 9.5/10
Value for money: 9/10
Score (food is weighted double): 92%