Readers will know by now that I'm not a fan of fusion food. I've long considered myself a diehard traditionalist, but Nonda at Gasworks had received enough positive reviews that it had my attention. The only thing that was really stopping me from going there was the seemingly high prices on its menu. This was soon rectified when I saw that they had gone on First Table, thus providing 50% off the food bill when you order a beverage. With that in mind, I went with my mum on my day off work to have a relaxing Monday lunch.
Usually when you see restaurants put on promotions, you expect it to be fairly quiet. This was definitely not the case when we went, as there appeared to be a large group of corporates there for a business lunch, along with a couple more small tables. The fitout was very modern and sleek with an open kitchen. In hindsight I would have liked a seat along the kitchen bar and should have asked for that.
Although they did have a lunch special, this was excluded from the First Table promo, which was fine for us as there were quite a few things I wanted to get off their a la carte menu. The menu itself was sorted into snacks, dumplings, large dishes, raws, sides and desserts. We tried to get an assortment to sample most things.
In terms of drinks, I had the matcha martini whilst mum had the lemon lime bitters. I found mine to be exceptionally sweet and light on alcohol or matcha flavours, even more so with the added garnish of honeycomb which I had to set aside. My mum said the lemon lime bitters was fairly standard.
Our raw dishes came fairly quickly. First to show up was the coffin bay oysters. These weren't too small and it was served with a refreshing yuzu chilli granita that was distinct enough from the norm. We really enjoyed it and it wasn't really spicy at all.
Another dish I was particularly keen for was the sashimi taco. Served with avocado cream, cucumber and chilli. Like the oyster, it was exceptionally light and refreshing. The sashimi was chunky and well marinated, the taco shell was very crisp. At $9 each it would have been on the expensive side but at half price it was good value.
Last of the raw dishes was the kingfish crudo served atop a bed of fennel. Like most crudo dishes it was doused liberally in a bold citrus dressing, this time yuzo kosho. The portion was generous to share between two but probably not any more people. Mum liked the addition of the fennel which had absorbed a lot of the citrus. The kingfish was fresh and had a firm texture to it.
Having received recommendations from friends, they told us that the corn and eggplant were both must order dishes, so we picked those from the snack plates. Both were fairly fantastic and surprisingly large in portion for something under the snack category. The corn was really enjoyable with a nice charred and burnt scent to it, a generous dash of smoky paprika and a lot of parmesan to keep it all creamy. There was definitely too much for the two of us to share. As for the eggplant, I'm not a fan of eggplant but this was executed well. The tempura batter was light and crispy and it was served before the eggplant could excrete further veggie juices.
Moving onto the larger plates, I was torn between the short rib or the chuck flap tail. We settled on the short rib on the basis that we had already ordered quite a lot of food. It turns out that even one rib can be a fairly big portion. Served already off the bone and cut up, it was rich and buttery with a delicious sweet soy glaze. The tart pickles on the side allowed us to cut through the decadence, making this a fairly well balanced dish.
Our waitress had recommended we order the crispy potatoes on the side to go with the rib and we were glad we did. These were amazingly crunchy and the nori flavours really shone through the mayo with an umami scent permeating each mouthful we enjoyed. This is definitely on my re order list if we come back.
In spite of my apprehension for fusion dishes, this was a really enjoyable lunch and we both left very full. Between the two of us though, lunch came to over $110 after the discount but including drinks, meaning that we would have been pushing pretty close to $200 if it wasn't for First Table. Whilst the food was executed well, I don't think that our lunch was necessarily worthy of the full price tag. On that basis I'm not sure that I would go back to Nonda if it wasn't on sale but would gladly return if it was.
Price Range: $50 - $60pp (post discount)
Taste: 8.5/10
Value: 8/10 (if no discount, I would say 5/10)
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10
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