Kazukis

6.5/10 on Wednesday February 10, 2021. 

THE SCENE

The Walrus:  You cant really tell what’s going on inside the restaurant when standing out on Lygon Street. The set up inside was very reminiscent of the Italian eateries that were set up at the dawn of time in the area. A few coats of paint and a half attempt at some new seating configurations doesn’t really work. I think much of the charm of this set up that was originally in Daylesford may not be translating to the bustle of the tourist section of Lygon. I suspect one comes here for the food only….which is fair enough. 4/10

The Carpenter: A refurbished venue on Lygon St in Carlton serving modern Japanese Australiana - something like that. . If you think you’re going to park anywhere near here, think again. Kazukis now have the honour of grabbing my “worst seating ever” award for a sticky bench seat that kept coming away from the base. Extremely annoying. Shoddy workmanship. 2.5/10

POTATIONS

W: A very nice martini to start with a Japanese tilt - Roku gin and sake. A good side track but only good for a visit. 8/10

C: A Japanese martini - Roku gin and sake instead of vermouth. Surprisingly good.. 9/10

ENTREE

W: A raft of entrees was then presented to us. The food had been created with care and style. The stand-outs were the ox tongue (not something I would normally go for, but it was the most tender red meat I have had in a long time - excellent), and the chicken liver parfait in a choux bun - another absolute cracker. The rest of the entrees we very nice, but I could have just had a number of each of the Ox tongue and parfait……9/10.

C:  Seven dish entree. Ox tongue. Yum. Chicken liver parfait in choux pastry (exceptional). Mushroom croquette. (exceptional) Salmon spring roll (ok). Xavier on a seaweed crisp. Cucumber with something yummy. Quail egg with green stuff on it. All very tasty, really well presented. . 9/10

MAIN

W: We shared a few mains. The chicken ballantyne was filled with fois gras pate and was very nice. Morton bay bug dumplings were delicious (sake foam to offset the sweetness). The duck breast was presented well, had a tasty onion jam accompanying it, skin was nice and crisp but in the end it all comes down to how tender the meat is….and it was a little tough unfortunately. 7/10

C: A few mains on the list: a summer salad with chicken ballantyne wrapped around a fois gras pate plus delicious little rolls. Sadly the seaweed black butter didn’t tickle my fancy. 7/10. Bug dumplings though - sake foam. Lots of other little tasty bits. Really good. 9/10 Duck breast - tough. Onion jam. tasty green stuff. Ok. The skin was good and crispy. But why a big tough lump of duck breast. Come on people…4/10

DESSERT

W: The pear ice cream was quite nice. Not a really notable dessert selection. 5/10

C:  Pear ice-cream. with blue cheese. praline. extremely tasty. A really interesting dish. 9/10 Then rock melon with granita. extremely smooth ice-cream. tube jelly noodle great. Raspberry white chocolate clashed terribly and kind of ruined the rest of it. 5/10

STICKY

W: No sticky

C:. I’m not recalling one

SERVICE

W: Service was ok, nothing stand out and no major issues per se. 7/10

C: Pretty ordinary service compared to the other Japanese greats we’ve been to. Despite being told several times they kept trying to top up my wine glass. At the top of the tree it doesn’t take much to be noticed..6/10

OVERALL

W: For the accolades it gets, I cant make the connection to the actual experience. Feels like they have inherited the ambiance of previous tenants (ie old style Italian trattorias). When you get a good dish though, its amazing. But there is a fairly decent hit/miss ratio even in terms of food. Didn’t have a particularly bad time, but not very memorable and doubt I would go back. 6/10

C: Well a real mixed bag here - some outstanding dishes wrapped in an experience that really fell short. Highlights the importance of attention to detail with the space fit out. Just felt cheap. And that benchseat - I wanted to throw the top of that thing out on the street. If you’re lucky you’ll land just the good dishes, although as a set menu you get a few dishes worth missing. I won’t be going back. 6.5/10

THE CAP

W: Home and no cap.

C: No cap tonight.