A couple weeks ago, I attended the pre launch function at Kushi Robatayaki Bar and Grill, a new Japanese restaurant specialising in grilled food over hot charcoal. I went to the dinner as a guest of the ever up to date Brisvegustation, along with popular instagrammers Imco and Basketballfreak6.
Got there at our reserved time of 7.30pm, and our table was set and waiting for us.
The menu had a very wide selection of Japanese food, ranging from sashimi, sushi, rice and noodles, along with their specialty robatayaki. We ordered with an intention to try as much of everything that we could.
Like other yakitori places, salt and chili were readily available on the table
After a bit of a wait, our food started to arrive.
As with most Japanese cuisine, the raw food was served first. We commenced our meal with an assorted nigiri set. It comprised six pieces of nigiri, an enormous salmon and roe gunkan and six pieces of mini sushi. The fish was fairly fresh, and the pieces were fairly thick cut, but the major downside for us was the rice which was quite firm and undercooked. I tried the gunkan and found the roe to be quite fresh.
We also ordered a dish of assorted sashimi. Again, fairly thick slices and a generous portion for an assortment of sashimi, without the rice. Having scallops with wedges of lime between them was quite innovative and gave them quite a tangy citrus taste which I enjoyed.
Next we had the karaage chicken with wasabi mayo. The chicken pieces appeared to be thigh or drumstick which were quite juicy. Portions were quite substantial, but batter was not too crispy.
This was the chawanmushi, steamed egg. It contained a piece of naruto and shiitake mushroom. The egg was quite silky smooth and infused with a light mushroom taste. I would have liked a bit more by way of other fillings though.
The prawn tempura was very crunchy and super fresh. Prawns were large and firm in texture, coupled with the cool and refreshing tempura dipping sauce, it was really quite delicious.
We also had a serve of kakuni, The slow cooked pork was infused with a strong sweet soy taste and the pork melted in my mouth. This dish would have gone wonderfully with a serve of rice to soak up the juices.
After this point, our main attractions of the evening started to arrive, the namesake robatayaki. This was the chicken wing. It was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper before being grilled over charcoal. The chicken was fairly well cooked, the skin was nice and crisp, but the meat retained its juiciness.
This was the pork belly. Again the meat caramelised well. The crackling wasn't too crispy, but the meat wasn't too fatty either. This was probably one of my favourite robatayaki dishes of the night.
Balancing out the meatiness, this was a dish of king oyster mushroom and oyster mushroom. They were glazed with oils before grilling, which gave it a nice crispy coating on the outside and locked in the juices.
Next up we had two serves of pork ribs. They came out quite toasted, and any more would have been too much. Again the meat was quite tender and easily fell off the bone without any struggle at all.
The crowd pleaser that evening was without a doubt the cheesy scallops. Grilled with copious amounts of mozzarella, each pull was a stringy delight. Needless to say, we all got a second round afterwards.
Like the tempura prawns, the grilled prawn was massive. However in this instance, without any dipping sauce, it turned out to be somewhat dry.
Contrary to expectations though, the chicken breast wasn't too dry, having also been doused in sauce and only lightly grilled before serving. I quite liked the tender chicken pieces which were only lightly seasoned to highlight the chicken flavour.
Our last dish of robatayaki was the squid. It too was lightly seasoned to highlight the taste of squid. The texture was also quite good, not too chewy and not too dry.
The only dessert on the menu was tiramisu. It was quite a liberal interpretation of the dessert, as it was more chocolate cake with chocolate cream than it was tiramisu. It has no coffee elements, but did have a good cooling effect after a considerable amount of grilled food.
Espresso and Matcha dined courtesy of Brisvegustation as guests of Kushi Robatayaki and Grill, but as always our opinions are soley our own.
Price Range: $30 - $50pp
Taste: 7/10
Value: 7/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10
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