Almazett (Nth Caulfield) 03/2017

Not only have the wait staff changed, and the price of course, but the room seems to be lighter and more attractive. 

Decor is simple with little decoration. 

White clothed tables  promise a better class of restaurant.
 
As well as an a la carte menu they offer a $44 banquet and, for an extra six dollars, the addition of crustaceans. Corkage is $5/ bottle and, not unreasonably, with screw top bottles, we opened them ourselves. 
A plate of pickled turnip, diacon I guess, and carrot was served while we considered the menu. 

The menu is pretty much the same as years ago. Of course we went for the big banquet.
Before long dishes began to arrive in rapid succession. We had to ask them to slow down as we could not eat that fast and the table was becoming over full.
Mezze, a series of small dishes, came first. 
Taboule, a Lebanese classic lemon flavoured salad of parsley, burghul, tomato and other ingredients such as spring onions and mint with olive oil. 

This came with bowls of Hummus,

and Tahinna

Pita bread  

These were quickly followed by felafel with a tasty yogurt salad dressing

and meat rolls.

Until the meat rolls everything was very good and plentiful but the luke warm rolls, with a soft pastry missed the mark.
Lemon flavoured barbecued chicken wings was another winner


Lebanese meat balls, rissoles you might say, are usually seasoned with a variety of Middle Eastern spices and often have pine nuts included. 

Unfortunately these were over baked and dry with very little flavour except for lemon, yet again. A bowl of roast potato again with lemon and parsley, 

was also served before the crustaceans. 
The BBQ'd prawns were a little over cooked but quite tasty and the scallops were excellent.

This was followed by a whole fish, between four of us, 

which was seriously overcooked, as was the next course of chicken and lamb shashlik coverd by slices of thin luke warm pizza.

This was accompanied by bowls of rice

and beans

Dessert.
Mahalabia is a classic Lebanese dessert made by boiling down milk and then adding sugar, rose water, cream and cardamon. 

This one was not sweet enough, lacked taste and was too firm.

Finally we were served Baklava and Turkish delight with Arabic style coffee, with a touch of cardamon, in a Finjan
It was not haute cuisine but Almazett gave us a taste of Lebanese cooking and hospitality - there was a very large amount of food which we could not finish. On the down side the fish, the rissoles and the chicken and lamb shashliks were very overcooked and the seasoning was monotonous, almost every dish dominated, to a greater or lesser degree, by lemon.
Comparisons, they say are, are odious. Looking back at Abla's, which we went to almost 10 years ago, I would say that Abla had a little more variety but suffered from the same problems as Almazett. Perhaps, being so disappointed, we were overly harsh in our judgement of Abla which, (http://1001dinners.blogspot.com.au/2008/10/ablas-restaurant-carlton.html ), as far as quality of the cooking, was much the same as Almazett.
Comments Score:12.75 /20

Okami (Caulfield North) 03/2017

Okami is one of half a dozen 'all you can eat' Japanese restaurants around Melbourne. The Caulfield venue has been open for about 18 months. It is in a small shopping strip next door to Limors. Whilst Limors has survived decades their neighbours have not fared so well mostly only surviving two or three years. 
Decor is plain with a display of Japanese dolls in the entrance window.

 Table settings are basic,
 

 in a large room with a bar at one side.

 Although Okami believe that fresh and healthy are the keys to success in Japanese restaurants I think presentation is extremely important. In this area I think they could have done much better if they had a more attractive range of crockery, although the food on the dishes was well presented.
This is what we ate:
 Chawan Mushi

This is a savoury egg custard, served warm, it was excellent.
Seafood Tempura

The batter could have been finer.
Katsu Chicken

A nice dish.
Fried Rice

Tasty but very hard to eat from our small dishes, especially with Japanese style chopsticks. 
Chicken Karaage

Small pieces of crispy fried chicken.
Prawn Gyosa

A little doughy but still crisp, moist and tasty.
Deep Fried Calamari

As described but quite soft with no crunch at all.
Vegetable Harumaki

These prawn spring rolls could have been filled with anything, or nothing. I did enjoy the crisp batter and the touch of sweet chili sauce.
Egg Plant Salad

This half a centimetre thick slice had not much egg plant and even less salad. What there was of it was quite nice.
Sushi and Sashimi Platter

Rather ordinary. The rice was a little too sticky.
Green Tea, Sesame and Vanilla Ice Cream

Comment: This place offers very good value for good eaters at $32.8 for adults, $29.8 for seniors and $18 for kids 12 and under. They also offer BYO wine and have some beers, wines and sake at reasonable prices.
The word Okami means wolf in Japanese. Unfortunately the Japanese wolf became extinct in 1905. We hope this modern incarnation does not follow in their footsteps.
Score:13.5 /20

Matsuzaka (Caulfield South - Melbourne) 02/2017

 

It is almost four years since we last ate here and in that time it has changed very little at all. The decor is unchanged.

 They've stuck their take away menu, updated 18 months ago, on the window.

 That's about all. the long narrow room 
  is graced with two Teppanyaki tables and the rest are economically and simply set.

 The Japanese waitresses seemed a little better informed and they have added some

new cocktails with Japanese plum wines or sake mixes with regular spirits and given them fancy names which are rather nice.

 We had different dishes this time starting with chefs special crab dumplings.

which were wrapped in noodles rather than pastry. They were delicate and excellent.
Tempura prawns had extremey good crisp batter and are an excellent appetizer for $7.
 
There was one more before I took the pic!
I'm not sure how this happened, nor quite what it is but the waitress brought this to the table in place of the poterhouse Sukiyake hot pot that we ordered. She was reluctant to take it back saying we would have to wait for the Sukiyaki which seemed strange as one has to cook it for oneself at the table. We certainly did have to wait, almost half an hour. Evidently this was because the porterhouse was frozen solid and could not be sliced immediately.

 Eventually, just as we were ready to walk out, it arrived. 

 It was worth waiting for. A substantial dish ($28) it came wth a raw egg and was filled with goodies. Glass noodles, fine tofu and plenty of vegetables in a pleasing, slightly sweet soup.
My choice of Ika, (Calamari), grilled and served with garlic butter with an accompanying sake and ponzi flavoured soya sauce,
 

was not so fortunate. The calamarie were bland, with no crispness, the sauce was dull and the salad on the plate a mismatch.

We enjoyed their plum wine cocktail ($12) and drank cold Bishonen Jumai sake.

The meal was a bit patchy but overall quite good. 
Score:13.75 /20