Matsuri
For a special treat we decided to dine at Matsuri on Gouger St, a well regarded place in the media and at work. It's a cosy Japanese restaurant tucked upstairs on the quieter end of Gouger St. We were lucky to get a table as we had not booked and the manager was not the most welcoming of people.
It is a pleasant enough place, with a sliding door entrance and little bar at the front. There's a small room for regular diners and an even smaller room at the back for more traditional Japanese dining. The manager had the novel idea of putting up a draped kimono between us and another set of diners.
We started by sharing a sushi and sashimi plate. Whilst the sushi and sashimi were of an arguably better quality than most other places, it was not a significant step up above other restaurants such as Genki (also tucked away off Gouger St). However it is better than most restaurants (cough Sumo cough) with the sushi rice actually having some flavour and the fish tasting fresh like fish should.
For mains we went with the don set which basically consisted of two dishes served with rice each and dessert. I went with the salmon and steak for the don dishes. The salmon don was simply raw salmon sliced thinly served over sushi rice whilst the steak was pieces of tender steak cooked in a soy based sauce.
Whilst the salmon was nice I had probably had enough of raw fish by the end of it, besides the sushi rice didn't quite have the tang that I like. The steak was lovely and juicy with the sauce complementing it very nicely by adding that extra savoury flavour. Overall both dishes were satisfying enough but not quite amazing enough to warrant the high regard this place seems to garner.
We barely had enough room for the desert which consisted of green tea ice cream and red beans in syrup. The green tea ice cream was nice, with that lovely texture and richness green tea ice cream has, although it did seem a tad too powdery. I only had a little taste of the red beans in syrup, a very popular Asian dessert but a bit too sweet for my taste.
The service was a bit slow considering the place was not extremely busy and the bill was on the higher side for Japanese restaurants. Overall the food was nice and satisfying but certainly not worth the rave some people have given it. I think I prefer the more open ambience of Genki and I don't think the premium you pay at Matsuri is worth it compared to Genki. Then again compared to other Japanese restaurants it is one of the better ones and at least the premium is more deserved than say at Sumo. So I would sum up Matsuri as being one of the better Japanese restaurants but definitely not the very best.
It is a pleasant enough place, with a sliding door entrance and little bar at the front. There's a small room for regular diners and an even smaller room at the back for more traditional Japanese dining. The manager had the novel idea of putting up a draped kimono between us and another set of diners.
We started by sharing a sushi and sashimi plate. Whilst the sushi and sashimi were of an arguably better quality than most other places, it was not a significant step up above other restaurants such as Genki (also tucked away off Gouger St). However it is better than most restaurants (cough Sumo cough) with the sushi rice actually having some flavour and the fish tasting fresh like fish should.
For mains we went with the don set which basically consisted of two dishes served with rice each and dessert. I went with the salmon and steak for the don dishes. The salmon don was simply raw salmon sliced thinly served over sushi rice whilst the steak was pieces of tender steak cooked in a soy based sauce.
Whilst the salmon was nice I had probably had enough of raw fish by the end of it, besides the sushi rice didn't quite have the tang that I like. The steak was lovely and juicy with the sauce complementing it very nicely by adding that extra savoury flavour. Overall both dishes were satisfying enough but not quite amazing enough to warrant the high regard this place seems to garner.
We barely had enough room for the desert which consisted of green tea ice cream and red beans in syrup. The green tea ice cream was nice, with that lovely texture and richness green tea ice cream has, although it did seem a tad too powdery. I only had a little taste of the red beans in syrup, a very popular Asian dessert but a bit too sweet for my taste.
The service was a bit slow considering the place was not extremely busy and the bill was on the higher side for Japanese restaurants. Overall the food was nice and satisfying but certainly not worth the rave some people have given it. I think I prefer the more open ambience of Genki and I don't think the premium you pay at Matsuri is worth it compared to Genki. Then again compared to other Japanese restaurants it is one of the better ones and at least the premium is more deserved than say at Sumo. So I would sum up Matsuri as being one of the better Japanese restaurants but definitely not the very best.
Labels: restaurants, wines
posted by Forrest Rivers at 13:46
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