Friday, May 14, 2010

Luxurious Lunches

I absolutely hate it when I go somewhere, have my wonderful little Canon G9 on me, whip it out to take a picture and see...'no memory card inserted'.

ARGH?!

I was heartbroken, as Brad and I had ventured up to the Exhibition St end of Little Collins st to try out Sakura Kaiten Sushi, after I had read about it on '...it pleases us'.

See, I have always agonized that we don't have a good sushi train place in Melbourne, yes it's a bit of a novelty, but I don't see why it can't be done well. Gogo sushi on Swanston street is good, but standard and nothing amazing, Tomodachi in Melbourne Central I feel is overpriced and overdone...and then...what else is there really?

As much as I love my sushi hand rolls, sometimes you just crave something a little bit different. And with Brad and I being such big Japanese food fans, we're always keen to try a new place.

But anyway, at least I had my iphone on me, so I managed to snap a few pictures, but didn't record everything we had, as I was too busy eye-balling what was coming up on the conveyor belt.



Sakura Kaiten is a small, intimate space, but still maintaining a modern, slick feel about it. Without overdoing it as well, there's a fine line there. The sushi train can probably fit just over 20 people on it and there a few other seats as well.

The sushi presented on the train, was an absolute delight for me, all of it was visually very pleasing and there was an immense variety, which I certainly enjoyed. Even the fairly standard rolls were somehow made more exciting, there was spicy tuna rolls, but presented absolutely beautifully with the sauce on a little white plate, giving it a bit of a 'ying yang' look and then some more interesting combination's such as unagi and cream cheese.

Now don't give me that look, I know generally that unagi and cream cheese, whilst it kind of works, is usually over powered by the cream cheese, but I was extremely impressed with this one, the cheese was very subtle and absolutely just melted in your mouth to combine beautifully with the unagi. Mmmm.



The tuna sashimi was to die for as well, it was another one of those 'melt in your mouth' dishes that immediately makes you vocally express how delicious and good it feels.

Sakura Kaiten also does bento boxes, which I noticed some guys having sitting across from us, but I have to wonder if it's a bit of a waste, when the sushi on the train is so delicious!

It is slightly on the pricey side, the cheapest plates starting at $3.60, but for the quality you are getting, I think it is absolutely well worth your money. Brad and I plowed through about 8-10 plates and our bill came to about $40 in total, which I think is very reasonable.

After we finished lunch, we decided we weren't ready to quite call it an afternoon and wandered on down to the Lindt cafe on Collins st to get some macarons.

Whilst I do enjoy the macaroons there, I'm always grumbling at the service at the cafe, and even at 2pm, after the lunch rush, it was really not a whole lot different. I mean, there's a sign at the front telling you to wait to be seated, but no one attends to you for quite some time, even if the place is empty. And not to mention when it came to taking our order, the waiter who served me could have at least pretended to smile or be friendly at least....

But since it was quiet, our drinks and macaroons came out pretty quickly at least.



Brad's mocha looked absolutely divine, look at that chocolate sitting at the base there! Mmmmm! My chai was also, quite lovely, the milk was frothed beautifully, and whilst the chai wasn't the type that gives you the lovely spicy warmth in the back of your throat later, it was very tasty and unoffensive.

In regards to macaron flavours, I know some people are a bit hit and miss with Lindt's ones, but for the most part I think they are very tasty and am a personal fan of the passionfruit and hazelnut ones. The hazelnut in particular, always seems to have more ganache, making it oh so succulent and rich...

Basically, if you want something from Lindt though, take it away.

Whilst marvelous fun, I'm wondering if continuing these Wednesday lunches with Brad is a good idea for my work productivity.....:s

Sakura Kaiten Sushi
1/59 Little Collins St Melbourne VIC

Lindt Cafe
271 Collins St Melbourne VIC 3000

Sakura Kaiten Sushi on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this post - I've walked past Sakura Kaiten and liked the slick look of it, but was a little put off by the sushi train concept. I'm always suspicious about how long each plate has been circling around on the train!

    Jetsetting Joyce

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  2. Most welcome to have been of service Joyce! I found that there was always new stuff going on, so even if maybe a couple of dishes had made the rounds a couple of times, there was always new stuff being put on the entire 1-2 hours we were there!

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  3. Hi Ashley:)
    The first Sushi train i ever tried was in Australia on the gold coast ...and i love it.
    I ended up eating so much more Sushi then i ever thought possible...
    Great pictures...really love them .-

    Have a great day - SP

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