Mitsuno (Malvern) 09

I have been wanting to visit this well regarded Japanese restaurant at 16 Glenferrie Rd for some time and am only sorry that I only got to trying a couple of dishes. Seating about 40 it's a simply furnished pleasant well lit venue. (despite this dark picure). A couple of blackboards offer the days specials and a selection of saki and beers.

Eating solo I knew what to do this time. I ordered a cold semi dry saki,
a bargain for $8 for about 300ml, picked up a book, Curiosi-tea, which is a fascinating collection of stories and information about tea, and settled back for a relaxed meal.

With the advice of the proprietor I started with a platter of sashimi ($18).

Decorated with thin strands of daikon, thin slices of radish some slices of lemon, there were three slices of five sea foods. The centre of the plate as occupied with Tuna surrounded by Blue Eye, salmon, scallop and kingfish. They came with a knob of wasabi and a saucer of soy sauce. This was a fine dish each fish with its own texture and taste however, without detracting from it, I have have had better. The scallop was perfect as was the Blue Eye but I have had finer examples of the salmon and kingfish.

I followed this with a special rare cooked marinated grade 9 Wahgu topside on a bed of sweet potato mash with a light sweet soy sauce ($18).

This was totally delicious. An excellent combination of well matched fine tastes with the varied textured steak.

I finished the meal with a panacota with chili strawberry sauce ($9.5). The panacotta was disappointing, it could have come off the shelf at Coles, and the chili was undetectable in the otherwise tasty sauce.
Comments: Although till some way off perfect I thoroughly enjoyed this meal.

Score:14 /20