March 2018 - Page 2 of 6 - One Piece Left

We recently found another local Japanese restaurant! Located in Glen Waverley, Aoki is yet another addition to the already overflowing restaurants around that area. As we do love our Japanese cuisine, we were excited to see what Aoki could offer.

Upon entering we noticed how modern and spacious the restaurant was. The tables, benches and floors all had a similar stone tile theme with the glow of purple lights throughout. In fact it reminded us of some of the Japanese restaurants we recently visited in the U.S. It had a real upmarket and modern feel. We were greeted by friendly staff who seated us straight away and provided us with some menus. There were so many dishes that we wanted to order!

We decided to settle on the Aoki 9 short courses as a starter which showcases 9 of their signature entree dishes. They also had a 6 short course version but of course being the greedy people that we are we picked the 9 course set! It came out presented beautifully in a wooden box with the dishes separated into 9 grid sections. All the dishes were really appetising. Some of our favourites from this set included the chicken salad in this lovely sauce, the eel, blueberry duck and the prawns.

For mains I ordered the truffle honey porterhouse steak with wafu sauce. I was very surprised at how soft the steak was! It was almost melt in your mouth soft and the truffle honey was an interesting yet perfect match for it because the sweetness of it balanced out the savoury flavours of the steak. The coleslaw that came with the steak was also really nice and flavoured well. Overall it was a really good dish that we would order again.

Davin ordered the Poke Don from the sushi menu. For some reason, he seems to keep ordering the winning dish lately. My dish was really good, but of course his dish was even better. The Poke Don is pretty much like the poke bowls that is the craze lately so it was a bowl of rice with fresh fish such as salmon and tuna, with egg and avocado. The fish was super fresh, the rice was cooked well and it was just overall a beautiful and healthy dish. We were thrilled to have found a place where we can order a poke bowl closer to home.

We also ordered a serving of their fatty tuna which was on their specials. Oh my gosh, it brought us back to Japan! It melted in our mouths and left our lips shiny from the fattiness!

Finally we ordered the Yuzu cheesecake with matcha sauce which was also one of their specials that night for dessert. I loved this dessert! It was so soft, light and fluffy and was not too sweet which was perfect for us.

Well as you can see, we really enjoyed the food here and we will certainly be back for their delicious food when we’re feeling like some Japanese!

Aoki Japanese Kitchen
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: 52 Montclair Ave, Glen Waverley VIC 3150
Phone: +61 3 9561 7442
Website: www.aokimelbourne.com.au

Oh Melba… we have shared so many fond memories together. I still remember vividly one of the times when I ate for over 4hrs straight, and I saw fear in the eyes of the lady at the Sushi bar. I didn’t think she could believe that a single person could eat so much, and I nearly had to be stretchered out on that particular occasion! The reason for my madness is because everything tastes so damn good and I just want to eat it all! In case you haven’t realised, Melba is a buffet restaurant.

Walking past The Langham lobby and up onto the podium level, you’ll be greeted by the grand entrance of Melba. It’s quite a classy looking affair inside with massive windows and a magnificent view of Southbank. Growing up, I’m used to eating at buffets filled with a lot of families, fighting over the first batch of prawns to come out of the kitchen! No such dramas here. As a matter of fact this would be a great place to take your date and have a romantic dinner. There’s very few buffets where I can make this claim.

Personally speaking I adapt the same strategy for all buffets. Line my stomach with carbs and hot foods before I attack the cold seafood dishes. I find that hitting the seafood too hard at the start makes me feel extremely sick. Everyone is different and it’s best to find a strategy that works best for you. Forget the notion of trying to eat your money’s worth, it’s simply not going to happen. It’s good to note that the seating times here are generous so you get the luxury of working through the food systematically.

Well onto the food…. where do I start? To begin, I would recommend starting off with either the peking duck, lamb/beef roast or the freshly cooked noodles. Pay close attention to the roasts, you can generally tell which ones have been dried out by the food warmer. Trust your instincts and move onto something else if this is the case. Roast is a good start as it allows you to accompany it with some of the many salads on offer. I like to then move onto the freshly cooked Wagyu steaks. These are high quality pieces. Since they are so thin, I generally opt for them to be cooked rare since they always end up medium rare by the time it hits my plate.

After this it’s seafood time! The oysters are really fresh here, with a creamy texture. The crabs are a bit of work to eat, because I’m lazy I prefer to peel prawns instead. The sushi bar is my favourite hang out spot in the whole restaurant. One serve of sashimi (salmon, tuna, kingfish) is roughly 3-4 pieces, so feel free to ask for double or triple servings if you don’t want to make too many trips. Finish off with some fruits/desserts/cheese.

Obviously this is my routine, so eat and do what feels best for you! The important thing to remember is that you cannot expect an absurd variety like some of the Asian buffets, but there’s more than enough variety to suit even the fussiest of eaters. The prices varies but you’d be looking at around $94 for dinner, cheaper for lunch. There’s no doubt that this is on the expensive end of buffet dining, but it’s truly a case of quality over quantity (I’d never thought I’ll be using a phrase like this to describe a buffet restaurant). I highly recommend going to Melba and eat till your heart’s content!