Hanabishi

You know if I don't rave about something in the first sentence the story isn't going to be that exciting. Well, there goes the first sentence.
I remember Hanabishi, I remember how good the patagonian toothfish was as it came out with the cedarwood still searing in front of you. The magic that unfolded. Well, I thought magic would be recreated for our dinner last night. It wasn't. I think if I could describe the experience, it could be quite rightly summed up with "underwhelming".

When I placed my reservations, I was initially asked to pre-order given our party size so I decided I would call up once  I had finalised numbers. Well, I did call up, and told them that not everyone will eat sashimi. Fault. We had sashimi appetizers, with only repetition of that very fact that they changed the second course. Don't get me wrong, I FREAKEN LOVE sashimi, but I love to not listen to people complain more!


Well, the food was ok. Like my Rockpool experience, I can't pinpoint whether it is me that is spoilt and have ridiculously high expectations, or whether or not the fault was of the restaurant. We had the Miyabi set menu, which was meant to be a pretty good representation of what Hanabishi does. To be fair, it featured the patagonian toothfish, but given how much I love fish and how much I loved that dish, I think something was wrong with it. Maybe it was a Friday, and they don't open on Saturdays or Sundays....but I won't go there.

Basically, the Miyabi course was:

1. Japanese appetisers
2. Sashimi / California Rolls
3. Patagonian Toothfish in Cedarwood
4. Tempura soft-shell crab
5. Mango Sorbet Interlude
6. Duck (I dispute this!!)
7. Dessert


Now, note #6. I could have SWORN it was not duck, but I forgot what was on the menu until I checked it in preparation for this blog. It was not duck. I don't remember it being duck. I know what DUCK tastes like. It tasted like pork and it looked like pork, so it was pork. Funny how we weren't informed.






Overall, I think I will stick to lunch at Hanabishi. There are better japanese restaurants for dinner. The fact that the strip joint next door had a spruiker trying to drum up business from people walking by and leaving the restaurant left a bit of a dirty taste...we had window seats too. Classy.

Where?
Hanabishi, 187 King St, Melbourne