~ Just Another Pretty Face - NOBU Melbourne @ Crown ~
This place is officially on my BLACK LIST of restaurants in Melbourne. It's up to you to believe whatever I've got to say. Well as we all know, this NOBU is an international brand, owned by Robert De Niro, famous in the US and Hong kong blah blah blah. Well it's probably already in The Age 2008 Good Food Guide, but if it's not YET in there, i'm praying it NEVER will. The basic criteria to be part of a good food guide is to obviously serve GOOD FOOD. Well sashimi's a staple when dining jap and a basic criteria for sashimi would be for it to be FRESH and served cold ( not in the icy sense but chilled, guess u all know what i'm saying). Unfortunately, Nobu has a rather "creative"/unorthodox (sense my sacarsm here please) way of serving their sashimi LUKE WARM. Yes i'm talking about sashimi at a temperature of about 25deg celcius? However I must commend their ideas in terms of putting in different sauces to complement the sashimi but sorry guys, doesn't really help much since I totally hate sashimi served LUKE WARM (ie, left at the sashimi counter for too long because the restaurant's too busy??). I believe sashimi fans would agree with me. A signature dish of Nobu - Miso Black Cod, by far is the best dish of Nobu and probably the only one worth mentioning. The Cod is baked to perfection with a layer of crisp on top, while the flesh remains juicy and flakes of piece by piece. Unlike the usual cod fish i've tried at other places, this is not the least greasy, and I actually regretted not ordering 1 more portion! Other dishes I ordered included a grilled beef steak with wasabi salsa, grilled chicken ( can't really remember what it exactly was) were pretty normal to me and therefore not worth much mentioning here. Call me demanding. THe food at Nobu on the whole wasn't outstanding enough but at least it wasn't as outrageous as the attrocious service. On my first visit, it struck me that NOBU only hires pretty faces to front their restaurants as the receptionists in my opionion pretty HOT. Upon entering the place, I informed them I had a reservation and my parents had already arrived and so I asked to be taken to my table. The receptionist in a "are u sure they're already here u yellow thing" tone told me that no one's arrived yet. hmmmm strange. dude I just got off the phone with my mom and i could hear the NOISE of the restaurant in the background!! Not tolerating this stupid arrogant attitude, I told her " hmm you MUST have missed them!" and so she instructed me to WAIT while someone else would come take me to my table. Pardon my impatience but after 1 minute, sensing that NOBODY"S bothered about this random YELLOW-skinned person, i decided to just venture my way down to look for my parents. VOILA. they were all sitting at the table scrutinising the menu. Now i Wish i brought all of them up to the reception and make them parade in front of the receptionist. Bitch. As for my second visit, well not exactly 2nd since i DID NOT officially dine there, THANKS TO THE RECEPTIONIST AGAIN (not the same person as the previous time). I seriously doubt these guys hired by Nobu have ANY EXPERIENCE in PR nor MANNERS!! I decided that to truly test the so-called service of any restaurant would be to appear as no-frills as possible - ie. t shirt and jeans!! As we walked into Nobu without a reservation, we were told by the receptionist that the lounge area was available but the restaurant level was full. so WHY NOT? well nobody told us that the lounge area was a "first come first serve" - ie find your own table and seating area and so we ventured like fools into the lounge, hoping that someone would come along and show us to a table or even present a menu to us. NO. We stood there like idiots for almost 2 mins. Sensing something amiss we made our way back to the reception to find out how this dumb ass restaurant works. After asking WHY no one attended to us, the other receptionist explained that the lounge was on a first come first serve basis. So i told her " well you did not inform me of that just now" In my humble opinion, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!! Instead of apologising for that LITTLE mistake, she went on and on about how it's first come first serve. LADY!! that's not what i want to hear. I want an apology. We decided that instead of listening to her blabbering on, we decided to throw a fit and walk out of the restaurant. As we walked out, I turned around and caught the 2 bitches giggling to themselves about how we DID NOT know what first come first serve is!!!!!! Giggle all u want bitches. The next time you see me at NObu, I'd be a connoisseur reviewing your restaurant and your pretty face is not gonna impress me!! Somehow it felt more comfortable to be having a simple dinner at the food court in Crown casino rather than to be abused by these receptionists. Oh well, if there's 1 theory that Nobu has to get correct in terms of service, it'd be CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. As for Nobu's ambience, I am not impressed. Despite the typical dim and uber lounge meets traditional japanese interior, I was totally put off by the noise level in the restaurant. A cacophony of lounge beats, talking and laughing is too much for my faint heart. I had to yell across the table to make sure my mom could hear what i was saying. The Air-conditioning at Nobu is probably non-existent. The heat in the restaurant level made us all frustrated that we finished our meal in less than an hour. Enough said, the mere mention of NOBU now makes my blood boil. It is up to you to believe whatever i'm saying here. No harm visiting them just for the experience. For the amount of money I'm paying, I'm better off at Taxi Dining Room where the service is by far one of the best i've encountered.
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We Love FOOD. We hate over-rated restaurants and feel sad for under-rated ones. We'll uphold justice, to reveal the truths of who's good and who's not! bolditalicstrikestrong♥♥♥
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Dec 5, 2007
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3:33 AM
~ Just Another Pretty Face - NOBU Melbourne @ Crown ~
This place is officially on my BLACK LIST of restaurants in Melbourne. It's up to you to believe whatever I've got to say. Well as we all know, this NOBU is an international brand, owned by Robert De Niro, famous in the US and Hong kong blah blah blah. Well it's probably already in The Age 2008 Good Food Guide, but if it's not YET in there, i'm praying it NEVER will. The basic criteria to be part of a good food guide is to obviously serve GOOD FOOD. Well sashimi's a staple when dining jap and a basic criteria for sashimi would be for it to be FRESH and served cold ( not in the icy sense but chilled, guess u all know what i'm saying). Unfortunately, Nobu has a rather "creative"/unorthodox (sense my sacarsm here please) way of serving their sashimi LUKE WARM. Yes i'm talking about sashimi at a temperature of about 25deg celcius? However I must commend their ideas in terms of putting in different sauces to complement the sashimi but sorry guys, doesn't really help much since I totally hate sashimi served LUKE WARM (ie, left at the sashimi counter for too long because the restaurant's too busy??). I believe sashimi fans would agree with me. A signature dish of Nobu - Miso Black Cod, by far is the best dish of Nobu and probably the only one worth mentioning. The Cod is baked to perfection with a layer of crisp on top, while the flesh remains juicy and flakes of piece by piece. Unlike the usual cod fish i've tried at other places, this is not the least greasy, and I actually regretted not ordering 1 more portion! Other dishes I ordered included a grilled beef steak with wasabi salsa, grilled chicken ( can't really remember what it exactly was) were pretty normal to me and therefore not worth much mentioning here. Call me demanding. THe food at Nobu on the whole wasn't outstanding enough but at least it wasn't as outrageous as the attrocious service. On my first visit, it struck me that NOBU only hires pretty faces to front their restaurants as the receptionists in my opionion pretty HOT. Upon entering the place, I informed them I had a reservation and my parents had already arrived and so I asked to be taken to my table. The receptionist in a "are u sure they're already here u yellow thing" tone told me that no one's arrived yet. hmmmm strange. dude I just got off the phone with my mom and i could hear the NOISE of the restaurant in the background!! Not tolerating this stupid arrogant attitude, I told her " hmm you MUST have missed them!" and so she instructed me to WAIT while someone else would come take me to my table. Pardon my impatience but after 1 minute, sensing that NOBODY"S bothered about this random YELLOW-skinned person, i decided to just venture my way down to look for my parents. VOILA. they were all sitting at the table scrutinising the menu. Now i Wish i brought all of them up to the reception and make them parade in front of the receptionist. Bitch. As for my second visit, well not exactly 2nd since i DID NOT officially dine there, THANKS TO THE RECEPTIONIST AGAIN (not the same person as the previous time). I seriously doubt these guys hired by Nobu have ANY EXPERIENCE in PR nor MANNERS!! I decided that to truly test the so-called service of any restaurant would be to appear as no-frills as possible - ie. t shirt and jeans!! As we walked into Nobu without a reservation, we were told by the receptionist that the lounge area was available but the restaurant level was full. so WHY NOT? well nobody told us that the lounge area was a "first come first serve" - ie find your own table and seating area and so we ventured like fools into the lounge, hoping that someone would come along and show us to a table or even present a menu to us. NO. We stood there like idiots for almost 2 mins. Sensing something amiss we made our way back to the reception to find out how this dumb ass restaurant works. After asking WHY no one attended to us, the other receptionist explained that the lounge was on a first come first serve basis. So i told her " well you did not inform me of that just now" In my humble opinion, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!! Instead of apologising for that LITTLE mistake, she went on and on about how it's first come first serve. LADY!! that's not what i want to hear. I want an apology. We decided that instead of listening to her blabbering on, we decided to throw a fit and walk out of the restaurant. As we walked out, I turned around and caught the 2 bitches giggling to themselves about how we DID NOT know what first come first serve is!!!!!! Giggle all u want bitches. The next time you see me at NObu, I'd be a connoisseur reviewing your restaurant and your pretty face is not gonna impress me!! Somehow it felt more comfortable to be having a simple dinner at the food court in Crown casino rather than to be abused by these receptionists. Oh well, if there's 1 theory that Nobu has to get correct in terms of service, it'd be CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. As for Nobu's ambience, I am not impressed. Despite the typical dim and uber lounge meets traditional japanese interior, I was totally put off by the noise level in the restaurant. A cacophony of lounge beats, talking and laughing is too much for my faint heart. I had to yell across the table to make sure my mom could hear what i was saying. The Air-conditioning at Nobu is probably non-existent. The heat in the restaurant level made us all frustrated that we finished our meal in less than an hour. Enough said, the mere mention of NOBU now makes my blood boil. It is up to you to believe whatever i'm saying here. No harm visiting them just for the experience. For the amount of money I'm paying, I'm better off at Taxi Dining Room where the service is by far one of the best i've encountered.
Tee-Shirt & Jeans
We Love FOOD. We hate over-rated restaurants and feel sad for under-rated ones. We'll uphold justice, to reveal the truths of who's good and who's not! bolditalic