Judging dinners… “J”

Japanese in North Sydney

J is for Japanese

Shinju Japanese Restaurant, 51 Berry St, North Sydney, Australia

Organised by ALANNA on Friday night, December 2009

Twas a night for misjudgments…and harsh judgments!

I misread the invitation and based on this, Zinks and I were going to take a  leisurely 5 minute bus ride to North Sydney from Neutral Bay. At 7.20 pm, my mobile rings and it’s Sez.

“Where are you?”

“At home,” I reply.

“What are you doing?”

“Playing computer games,” I lazily say.

“Is this Keira?” Sez asks.

[Now, it sounds like she doesn't believe that I, Keira Wong, enthusiastic emailer, ballistic blogger, Facebook filler-in-erer, word processor writer, would be on the computer playing her geeky games. But in fact, it was because they've been waiting 30 minutes for us. The dinner started at 7 pm, not 7.30 pm as I first thought, and we would be half an hour late, not on time. That leisurely bus ride became a frantic, normal Keira drive down the highway with Zinks still damp from the shower he stepped out of seconds ago and quite possibly car sick.]

“Better”?

The gang were waiting for us at “Drink Better Wine” at 189 Miller Steet (corner of Berry Street). Alanna and Sez were on their last drop of red wine. Sez was recommended her wine but she didn’t really like it, taking intermittant sips from Alanna’s glass.

We settled the bill of the two drinks at $32. Alanna’s glass of wine was $5. Making Sez’s a gastromical $27!!! We paid the bill in disbelief, after all, Sez did drink it – albeit disfavouringly.

We decided to speak to the manager to express our discomfort of being recommended a $27 glass of wine. We asked a waiter for a menu to make sure our facts were straight, and that we weren’t incorrectly charged. We told a waiter we wanted to speak to the manager, giving context as to why. He then took it upon himself to say: “The reason we have a wine list is so you can see the prices and know what you are buying.”

Fair enough. We explained to him we weren’t disputing the price, we paid for it after all, but thought they should not recommend a glass of wine that is above the average cost of a glass of wine one would expect. In fact, it is almost double the average glass of good wine. And the recommendation wasn’t even to Sez’s liking; high price ≠ quality [Alanna's $5 glass for example]. His response?

“People who live in this area can afford a $27 glass of wine.”

!!!!

Unbelievable. We  do live in the area, work in the legal and financial industries, and could afford this glass of wine. Whether we saw the value in it or would have paid for the glass if we knew the price is another story. Our feedback to this place is when recommending a glass of wine do not recommend an expensive glass or let it be known to the customer of the above average price.

Judge not lest ye be judged

The waiter obviously made a judgment and we made a counter-judgment. We are not going back to that establishment. Based on the recommendation/high price alone, we would have learned from our mistake (read the menu, ask the price, don’t take the waiter’s recommendation on good will/trust only) and moved on, questioning whether we would go back. But their display of customer service guarantees that.

Back on track

But now onto the meal and the actual subject of this post: the alpha dinner. Our arrival now was  now 8 pm after this debacle. We apologised to the restaurant, and they were fine. Ah, how refreshing to see the other side of the hospitality we just experienced!

5 Jackanapes:

The Originals (minus Dave who had to attend his brother’s wedding), Ari and Sez.

Juicy food

We got the Kyoto tepanyaki set for $38 pp.  Standouts were the ginger beef appetiser, king prawn, fish and misoyaki steak. The other table who grandmother was hysterically laughing at her daughters being pelted with food from the teppanyaki chef.

Misjudging simple for fancy. Alanna: "Oooh, what's that special sauce you're putting on." Chef: "Oil."

Now my turn. I walked past the teppanyaki grill and said: "Mmmm pancakes!" Actually "mmm dishcloth" is more accurate.

And the food takes a backseat to the judgments again! Prawns and fish.

 Alanna really wanted to order the pancakes with cream and strawberries but there was a 25 minute wait. We didn’t want to wait that long, nor did we want to end the night early, and decided to walk to McMahon’s Point to get some sweetness. On our way out we saw the laughing grandmother table (who left the grill 20 minutes ago) angrily demanding the restaurant to pay for the dry cleaning of their black jacket. Sez wondered if her complaint to the bar was similiar to these people’s, but in this case they must know what they are getting themselves into with teppanyaki. And the grandmother was having a ball!

First rule of teppanyaki: CATCH! Sez in action.

Rule number two: EXPECT THIS! Yes, food will be everywhere. It's teppanyaki, people.

My dinner companions had a yummy mango cheesecake at Piato, and I had rich chocolate mousse with a dollop of food envy on the side.

Judgment

7.5/10

Pros: Good value and yummy food. Teppanyaki is like bingo: it serves a purpose (eating, winning money) and it’s a fun game! Interesting experiences to learn from and discuss.

Cons: Drink Better Wine’s service. Lower north shore’s ridculous business hours (perhaps we’re too entrenched in city life to accept kitchens closing at 9.30pm, even for coffee!)

After party antics

We all left each other rather sober (from experience and minimal alcohol) but certainly had an enjoyable, eventful evening!