Aoki is one of the few restaurants that has managed to produce excellent food
every time we've eaten there, consistently. We think it's better than some of the Japanese restaurants in Tokyo that we've eaten at, at the same price, and it's a place that we don't mind paying good money for because of the quality we get every time.
These photos were taken from another dinner that someone very generous and nice bought us before our relocation to Melbourne, perhaps to make sure that we remembered him! We were seated at the counter where we could see all the action going on.
Braised beef as a starter - or was it pork? It wasn't exciting but we knew what was in store, and it didn't matter.
First up was yuba, or beancurd skin.
This had an amazing texture, slightly thicker on the outside but soft and creamy on the inside, akin to a soft boiled egg with a runny egg. Beautiful with a soy-based stock.
Shiro ebi with uni and caviar - always a favourite, and Aoki's uni has always been reliably fresh.
Perfection in a spoon.
Tempura vegetables for me.....
And raw oysters for the husband, topped with ponzu and caviar
The white fish with truffles made an appearance again, described as shiromi shio konbu koro truffle in the menu, seasoned with sesame oil, lime and seaweed. Excellent as usual.
This was the sake we had during dinner - it was excellent with the food.
A beautiful sashimi platter with ama ebi, otoro, hotate, chutoro, hamachi and what appeared to be part of a tobugai.
From another angle. Yums.
The sweetest tomato and sweetcorn, eaten simply with salt.
There were two types of uni that we had - one was bafu uni, which was saltier
Otoro seared and topped with chives
This was murasaki uni, which was sweeter
Chawanmushi with truffles
And last, but not least, the saga beef bowl topped with truffles. Seared to medium perfection, and topped with slices of Australian truffles (and I daresay, there must have been drizzles of truffle oil as well) - this sent us straight to heaven.
Amazing what a semi-cooked egg can do for the don
I can still taste the beef and truffles even as I'm typing this.
We then moved next door to Les Amis for dessert and coffee (yes there was still space)
Some of the cheeses we had
With warm toasted walnut bread
Accompanied by pine nuts, fig jam, possibly quince paste and raisins
The Les Amis chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream was gorgeous
The cherry dessert was very well executed
Perhaps one of the most perfect souffles in recent memory
The night rounded up with madelines and lemon curd. Simply perfect.
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