Bistro Goemon #281

Interesting name for a Japanese Restaurant.  Interesting Restaurant

Tonights restaurant meant a lot to us for 3 reasons;

1.  This was our very first restaurant we have visited on our Glenhuntly Road odyssey that features in The Age Good Food guide under $30 2014.  Yep, it is in the  more sexily named "Cheap Eats Guide" that used to be our bible before Matt came along and we got distracted with baby blankets and Hours of Sleep.
2.  This restaurant is on the same site as the old Taj Tandoori Indian Restaurant; a restaurant that has figured largely in Mark and my life.  When we were doing our MBA's we used to get home from uni at 9 pm on a Monday night, exhausted from a full day of work and 4 hours of lectures and we used to crash this restaurant and eat some of  the best salak paneer alongside the ABC talent (Ripponlea Studio is just down the road).  It was our joint.
3.  This restaurant site was also the first and last time I ever tried out a joke in public.  It was a Saturday night and I was with  my mates from Monash Engineering and I found myself in the middle of delivering a joke. Quite a foreign thing for me.  It seemed to be going well , it was about an elephant in Africa, I cannot remember the details , however, I remember stuffing up the punchline spectacularly and receiving a massive laugh for doing so.  My first and last commiedien act.

So, to tonight.  We sat at the sushi bar as all the tables were busy, the only other time we have done this is at the groovy japanese bars in Russel St in the city.  We chose a bottle of pino grigio from the Mornington Peninsula as it was not BYO; another notable feature in Glenhuntly Rd.  The menu features many saki wines (not our cup of tea)  and then only "tapas" meals.  I am getting used to this mish mash of European and Asian ideas.

I looked around nostalgically.  Where the bar is used to be where the tandoori oven was.  Where despairing silence was (see the blog about the unpopularity of indian restaurants in Elsternwick) is now bustling, fresh, juicy optimism.

We ordered Spicy pork salad (not that spicy but fresh), Soft crab shell spring roll (recommend), king fish wanton ravioli (too creamy for our taste) and assorted sashimi (the best sashimi ever - new exciting fish cut thickly and true such as scallops with roe on top, crunchy kale and seaweed salads).

Yum.  Made even yummier by the fact that it was not done by some Alpha male dressed in white that kept all the waitresses in fear of their jobs but 2 groovy sashimi creators in black t shirts exuding artist concentration and one was a girl.  Love it.  

The japanese city restaurant has appeared in Glenhuntly Rd and we loved it.  Not too bad at $111 inlcuding our /$45 bottle of wine but don't come too hungry or the bill will be hefitier.  And,  you will be happy to know the light shades did not assault the senses.