Last night after Kendo training, I went and had dinner with some friends from the Taiwan Tour as a impromptu planned 10 year reunion of sorts. There was originally going to be nine of us there (counting only adults) but it turned out to be seven. It wasn't a problem that it was a low turnout at all.
Dinner was set at Kobe Jones, a upmarket Japanese fusion restaurant near the King St Wharf area that has a reputation for the quality of dishes along with the price. We were to be meeting at 7pm, but with wet weather and traffic there was a little bit of delay and lateness by some of us. I bummed a lift from one of the guys who was driving downtown and so we were a little late in getting there while two others were also late for the same reason.
The interior of the place is interesting. It looks very Chinese and not very Japanese at all, and furthermore it looks like what you'd expect maybe a modern opium den to look like LOL, except it has tables and chairs for dining and not recliners for getting high on. The waitstaff there were assortedly dressed in that the women all wore this white dress with black bamboo pattern, while most guys were in blacks except for a random non-asian guy who was in a suit. Perhaps he was the manager or something like that.
We ordered as soon as we could and there was a mix of dishes and rolls, and a few mains also to share. We also had a small flask of warm sake that the three of us guys present shared. The sake was pretty nice warm and it was very gentle. Not something that had the alcohol taste or burn of a spirit, but it went down warm and in a mellow fashion, quite nice. The food came out sort of in waves I guess as it was being prepared accordingly with the orders through the kitchen.
The presentation was really nice. It also tasted pretty nice. But being Japanese and being upmarket, the portions weren't very nice for the price. But, that is kind of expected with higher class dining. We did have quite a lot of dishes, and the final bill came out to be quite high. Thankfully some of the people who were there had Entertainment Cards that gave us a discount, so the bill came to $288 or so after the discount. I ended up paying $50 for my share because I had also ordered a coke ($5.50) for the caffeine because I was really tired, and also because it was only the three of us guys who had the sake which was $16 for the 180mL flask. I guess it was reasonable in price, but could have been a little bit better in volume.
Dinner talk was interesting and it was good to catch up with people to find out where they were at the moment, what they had done and life in general. We also got to meet Nathan, the 16 month old son of one of them, while her younger sister was only recently married. Another of the girls is currently engaged and will be marrying at the end of the year or so. We actually got desserts at the end of the meal too, and that was pretty cool.
We got a mixed plate for $31 to share between everyone and it had eight things on it. It was really nice and you can really tell the craftsmanship of a place with their desserts, kind of like how good a Chinese place is on their fried-rice dish. One of their signature dishes I guess for dessert is this thing they make called chocolate chopsticks. Yes, chopsticks made from chocolate. It's pretty nifty. The chocolate is solid all the way through and are the length of like frying chopsticks, quite long. The chocolate quality was okay I think they had to have a particular blend for it to work otherwise it might not have kept its shape and properties so well. It had a slightly bitter aftertaste so the cocoa content was probably a little higher than what you would expect from supermarket chocolate. Interesting, nifty, and sweet.
Afterwards, I walked to Wynard station with our group leader since the others went back to their cars, and then caught a train home. Not too shabby a night.
Dinner was set at Kobe Jones, a upmarket Japanese fusion restaurant near the King St Wharf area that has a reputation for the quality of dishes along with the price. We were to be meeting at 7pm, but with wet weather and traffic there was a little bit of delay and lateness by some of us. I bummed a lift from one of the guys who was driving downtown and so we were a little late in getting there while two others were also late for the same reason.
The interior of the place is interesting. It looks very Chinese and not very Japanese at all, and furthermore it looks like what you'd expect maybe a modern opium den to look like LOL, except it has tables and chairs for dining and not recliners for getting high on. The waitstaff there were assortedly dressed in that the women all wore this white dress with black bamboo pattern, while most guys were in blacks except for a random non-asian guy who was in a suit. Perhaps he was the manager or something like that.
We ordered as soon as we could and there was a mix of dishes and rolls, and a few mains also to share. We also had a small flask of warm sake that the three of us guys present shared. The sake was pretty nice warm and it was very gentle. Not something that had the alcohol taste or burn of a spirit, but it went down warm and in a mellow fashion, quite nice. The food came out sort of in waves I guess as it was being prepared accordingly with the orders through the kitchen.
The presentation was really nice. It also tasted pretty nice. But being Japanese and being upmarket, the portions weren't very nice for the price. But, that is kind of expected with higher class dining. We did have quite a lot of dishes, and the final bill came out to be quite high. Thankfully some of the people who were there had Entertainment Cards that gave us a discount, so the bill came to $288 or so after the discount. I ended up paying $50 for my share because I had also ordered a coke ($5.50) for the caffeine because I was really tired, and also because it was only the three of us guys who had the sake which was $16 for the 180mL flask. I guess it was reasonable in price, but could have been a little bit better in volume.
Dinner talk was interesting and it was good to catch up with people to find out where they were at the moment, what they had done and life in general. We also got to meet Nathan, the 16 month old son of one of them, while her younger sister was only recently married. Another of the girls is currently engaged and will be marrying at the end of the year or so. We actually got desserts at the end of the meal too, and that was pretty cool.
We got a mixed plate for $31 to share between everyone and it had eight things on it. It was really nice and you can really tell the craftsmanship of a place with their desserts, kind of like how good a Chinese place is on their fried-rice dish. One of their signature dishes I guess for dessert is this thing they make called chocolate chopsticks. Yes, chopsticks made from chocolate. It's pretty nifty. The chocolate is solid all the way through and are the length of like frying chopsticks, quite long. The chocolate quality was okay I think they had to have a particular blend for it to work otherwise it might not have kept its shape and properties so well. It had a slightly bitter aftertaste so the cocoa content was probably a little higher than what you would expect from supermarket chocolate. Interesting, nifty, and sweet.
Afterwards, I walked to Wynard station with our group leader since the others went back to their cars, and then caught a train home. Not too shabby a night.
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