Kobe Jones, Darling Harbour

Kobe Jones has been on my Go To List for a while now, so when I saw them up on Groupon, I couldn't resist. 

We headed there on Friday night, and I have to say, this place is one I would definitely go back to and be happy to pay the usual amount for the menu we had. 

We got there on 6 o clock, so perfect time to be watching the sun setting over the harbour. What better way to kick off a weekend?

Not long after we were seated, some hot sake was brought to our table. I'd never really tried sake before, so I gave it a go and I don't think it's something that I'll ever be ordering myself.  

First course soon followed, the Number One Special, Crab salad with avocado wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and baked with a secret sauce.

Boyfriend and I both took our first mouthful at the same time and both instantly knew this was the start of good things to come. The crab was so finely shredded, it just melted in your mouth. 

Next to come out was a tasting plate with one of these:

- Spicy Ebi Nigiri - This wasn't far from your standard Nigiri, but the chili kick was good. It was just the right amount and not too overpowering to scare away chili haters.

- Lollipop Sushi - Again, this wasn't too dissimilar to your standard sushi roll, but the way it was wrapped definitely but a fun spin on the usual.

- Wagyu Tataki - Super fine slices of soft, buttery wagyu with just the perfect amount of dressing. This dissappeared from my plate way too quickly for my liking.

- Spider Roll - Soft shell crab has to be one of my favourite fillings in a sushi roll, this went down a treat.

- Salmon and Seafood Poke - Finishing off the tasting plate, this was definitely the perfect palette refresher. 

A plate of jalapeno salmon tataki was next to appear on our table. The salmon was sliced beautifully, again with a perfect chili accompaniment. Hot enough without being to overpowering (I did leave my jalapenos on the plate). Boyfriend can stand a bit more heat that me, so he enjoyed the chili kick as well as the jalapenos). 

While we were enjoying our tataki, the calamari fritto was brought out. The batter on this wasn't heavy at all, which was nice. After eating so much fresh and light plates, you don't want to kill it with anything heavy. 

Again, before we'd finished our plate the next course was brought out, spicy seafood tobanyaki. This had a great mix of prawns, scallops, squid and mussels. Boyfriend quickly devoured all the crunchy bits around the side of the plate. The dried tuna shavings on top added a really nice texture and I seriously start trying to think of ways that I can get my hands on the recipe for this secret sauce.

Just as we're finishing scraping the last of the secret sauce of the plate, a volcano roll is brought to the table. The scallops were beautifully prepared and the roll is covered in a more than generous amount of sauce. 

We're almost at the end, but are already starting to wonder how much more we can actually fit in. While we are already reminiscing of the many plates we had already devoured, two giant crab legs are brought to the table, hmmm... We start our dig and make a massive mess. But I think this is OK, have you ever seen any pull apart a crab without getting a little dirty? The crab comes with some fresh lime, and honestly that's all it needs. 

The waitress comes and takes the plate and wipes the table down for us (woops!) and we do a double check of the menu. Still to come is the lobster hot rock and dessert. OK, so lobster hot rock we're thinking just a couple pieces of lobster each. No, it came out with a massive serving and with a nice side of mushrooms to cook on the hot rock as well. I think it would have been enough for 3 or 4 people after the amount we had already eaten. 

Cooking the lobster was a nice novelty to finish up. It came with three dipping sauces, seaweed garlic butter, motoyaki and jalapeno ponzu. Each was delicious and as full as we were, we wanted more lobster to be able to soak up as much sauce as we could.

We were given a choice for dessert of tiramisu or the flaming anko. Not being huge fans of tiramisu normally, we went the flaming anko (green tea crème brulee with red been served flaming to the table for a caramelised finish). It came to our table as said, flaming! 

This was a bit of excitement to finish off. The brulee, was delicious, warm, beautiful smooth texture and the red been were yummmm! Because it came flaming to the table, it was still a bit soft on top. If I had been able to wait, it would have crisped up for that anticipated crack. So not complaining there.

Looking back at the amount of food you got for the price, this was GREAT value. I’d definitely recommend here to anyone and would definitely love to revisit again soon.