Tsunami

I was very tempted to bring the hubby out to Nine Fine Food again for his birthday.

Unbeknownst to each other, we'd BOTH booked Nine Fine Food for each other's birthday last year... so we ended up eating there TWICE in 3 weeks. Despite this, we STILL enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The temptation really was overwhelming to make a repeat visit to Nine Fine Food this year because I've been hankering their amazing salmon roe pasta... but I thought we'd try something different.

I'd heard good things about Tsunami in Mosman Park, so I decided to give it a whirl.

The bulk of the excitement for us was that Tsunami serves meals on volcanic rocks which have been heated to 400 degrees Celsius. The idea is to cook the meat (particularly the wagyu) on hot stones so that they cook in their own juices as the fat renders off the protein.

But first, some sushi.

We had the hotate roll - an avocado and raw salmon roe topped with Hokkaido scallops. Ant probably ordered this more for me than for himself because I go weak in the knees for Hokkaido scallops!

The salmon and scallops were divine - soft textured with a subtle hint of flavour. Which is a real shame because the rice was overcooked and starchy. Eating the sushi in one mouthful was a bad idea - even though the chef was generous in protein: rice ratio, the rice's starchiness and stickiness overwhelmed the delicate texture and flavour of the scallops and salmon.

Next up came our hotplate orders. We ordered the Grade 9 Wagyu brisket and the sashimi plate. 

To be honest, it's not that I hated our hotplate meals. I just felt like I couldn't justify the cost of them, in particular, the sashimi hotplate. 33 dollars for 12 pieces of sashimi seemed a bit on the pricier end of the scale for me. Additionally, the wagyu just didn't seem like the orgasmic experience it was meant to be. It was delicious but not oh-my-god-I've-died-and-gone-to-heaven-please-don't-resuscitate-me good. I don't know, we'll have to wait till we get to Kobe, Japan so that we'll find out what REAL wagyu is.

I came up with two factors that could be considered for the cost: importing the volcanic stone and the process of heating it up to 400 degrees. However, I can't help but wonder whether you're paying for a gimmick.

I will admit though that we did have fun cooking our own food. Well, I had fun watching Ant cook. I didn't cook because contrary to popular belief, I am actually the biggest klutz in the kitchen. To the point that I've been banned from handling real knives in a particular kebaby mummy kitchen. So I wasn't going to risk burning myself while out at dinner; knowing me I would have found a way to burn my face!

Dessert was a duo of creme brulees, which were torched at the table by our waitress. I liked her - she was friendly and chatty when chatted to. I asked her if anyone had ever gotten into an accident while prepping the creme brulee in front of customers - apparently someone did manager to set the table on fire!

Luckily, she wasn't as accident-prone as me, so we were left with nicely caramelised, crackly sugar tops on our creme brulees. One was a Frangelico creme brulee while the other was a Satsuma plum brulee. I wasn't a big fan of the satsuma plum brulee - the sourness of the plum just felt like too much of a contrast in flavour for the brulee. I did enjoy the Frangelico brulee - the nuttiness of the hazelnut liquer really shone through and gave the brulee a nice depth of flavour. That said, the texture of the brulees didn't really hit the spot for me. :(

Overall, we had a nice evening out. We weren't floored by Tsunami so I doubt it'll be on our first picks of places to eat; but we wouldn't avoid a social event that was held there. I just think that you would do much better going to Nine Fine Foods, Halu or Marumo which execute their dishes with more finesse and provide you better value for money.