Sake

Meeting your new significant others' parents is one of the most terrifying things ever. This was the first time I had ever met his dad, and I was shit scared to say the least. Apparently his mum is a lot bubblier and friendly to meet than his dad, and his dad is apparently more like him. My boyfriend waits for almost 2-3 hours when first meeting people to hear what they have to say before he attempts a joke. He says he does this to avoid awkwardness. He told me to pick whichever place I wanted cause he had told his parents I was picky about where I ate, and that I shouldn't worry about the price because they'd pay for whatever we got. They were just up in Brisbane for a relaxing weekend and wanted to meet me while they were up here.

None of this reassured me whatsoever. What was I going to wear? Where were we going to go? What did they like to eat? What didn't they like to eat? Did they love any particular cuisine? Did they have any dietary specifications? How much was too much to spend for a meal? What if I chose somewhere that was terrible? What if I chose somewhere that was super cheap? What did they think was relaxing?

More importantly, what if they didn't like me? What if they thought I wasn't good enough for their son? Or I was boring? Or I dressed terribly? Smelt bad? Or I had bad taste in food? Or that I was some presumptuous punk mooching off their money by choosing somewhere expensive? Or that I didn't think they could pay for it by choosing somewhere cheap?

I understand rationally that it doesn't matter what they think as long as we're both happy together. A great majority of my life is spent not giving a fuck what anyone else thinks. I didn't learn how to do my own make up until I was 22. I can't be arsed following fashions, I dress comfortably like a bogan out for grocery run. I never learnt how to drive, cause I don't care for it. I went to band camps growing up. I gleefully spent the weekends playing games. I would start a verbal argument with anyone if I thought they were wrong. I read more books in a month than most avid book readers do in a year. I will honestly tell you things you don't want to hear if asked about it. I don't drink or go clubbing cause I don't see the point despite what my friends say. And yet, a part of me was desperately hoping they would like me.

Despite all my anxiety, I was warmly greeted when we eventually found them. We had a lovely time talking and walking to Eagle Street Pier where I had originally intended to take them to Jude, which has a fantastic burger menu on weekdays and an interesting weekend menu. I also chose this cause I was reassured that his mum would be tickled pink by the name of the restaurant since she shared it. She was actually, she squealed once she realised what it was called.

Unfortunately it was not to be, as she took one look at their Sunday all day breakfast menu and politely wondered if we should go elsewhere. I started to panic and named almost every other menu in the vicinity as well as every cuisine I knew under the sun. They decided they wanted something light and Asian, so Japanese was quickly chosen. Kobuki was my first choice and it was closed, I only eat cheap so I quickly threw out Siana! Jade Buddha! Sono is nearby! Sake is upstairs!

Out of nowhere my Boyfriend says that we went to Bavarian Bier Cafe for his birthday so upstairs we go. Looking at the menu, they were also not interested. They did remark that the Oktoberfest menu was good but we were one day too soon for that and that was with all the decorations up already. So we went next door to Sake and after a moment's deliberation that's where we went.

Here are links to their beverage, dining, and banquet menus. On the day we went, they were just finishing up with their Sakura Blossom menu.

I didn't actually take pictures of their interior because I knew that my Boyfriend's dad is an award winning photographer and I still take photos on my Samsung Galaxy S2. No pressure whatsoever. Its gorgeous though, quiet, serene, perfectly air conditioned, light music in the background which they turned down on request, the lighting is beautiful and there are huge sake barrels decorating the entire place.

It took me a while to bring up my courage to take some photos but I got over it as time went on and the food started coming out. Our waitress explained that Sake's food is designed for sharing and that everything came in large portions. We all decided to pick a dish and split them between us.

My Boyfriend and his father picked miso soup as starters. He remarks that its a bit bland, I'm no soup fancier so I didn't partake, although it was offered. It was a nice temperature, hot enough to steam, warm enough to sip easily. It also came in a tiny, fancy arse little cup with a lid on it.

This is the sashimi combo, 18 pieces of seafood, including salmon, king fish, tuna, octopus, , with freshly grated wasabi and daikon on a bed of crushed ice. My resounding opinion was average at best, I found their knife work wasn't crash hot, you can clearly see ragged edges on pieces of tuna in the picture, most of the pieces were uneven not that beautiful uniform loveliness you think of when you think of sashimi, most of the pieces were quite bland and I found a weird texture on my salmon like they had forgotten to scrap off skin? My favourite part on this entire dish was the fancy sakura blossom cut carrot slivers. True fact.

Orange is salmon. Red is tuna. White is kingfish. Frilly white is octopus.

This was our flower arrangement. Its a bit sad, our flowers were the only wilted ones in the entire restaurant. How do I know? I checked of course. The entire flower makes me sad, its lopsided, the flowers at the top are dead and the tiny bit near the bottom is like a tiny flag of hope that is ignored for the overwhelming

My god.

All cats look the same in the dark?

The quail as per the menu, galantine of quail stuffed with yama-gobo & shiitake
mushrooms, coated with orange-soy glaze, served with poached golden beetroot leaves & pickled golden beetroot. Incorrect there was one mushroom, look how lonely it looks. The yama-gobo is pickled burdock root, that delicious orange thing in the middle and believe me it was delicious, crunchy, sour and wrinkly. The texture was wrinkly, like when you bit down on it, it wriggled and squeaked. The stuffed quail wings still had bones but I adored them, golden, crunchy and bloody delicious. The galantine quail was super tasty as well with more mushroom bits, and that's all I remember beyond the hrngharghhhh of flavour. The roasted wings were fantastic too, but fiddly with the winglets attached.

Mmm quail

I liked this dish, I thought the combination of flavours was amazing and would cheerfully have fought everyone else for another piece, we ended up each quarter between a pair of us, my Boyfriend and I and his parents.

This was the popcorn shrimp, tempura prawn bits with a creamy and slightly salty sauce. It didn't add anything about, but why was it so fluro orange if it tasted like nothing. Nature made orange things naturally delicious and flavourful like oranges, cumquats, mandarins, carrots, pumpkins, mangos, sweet potatoes and papaya. So what the hell was in this sauce and why wasn't it spicy and  creamy like the menu said. The tempura batter was super light, crunchy and fluffy and slightly lemony, which I liked. It cut through the oil a bit, and made it seem marginally healthier. This being said, this was the dish of the day for me. I wish the shrimp weren't so tiny sized though, but I suppose they are shrimp not popcorn prawns.

Popcorn shrimp

We also ordered the assorted tempura, consisting of seasonal vegetables, prawns and tentsuyu dipping sauce. Oh god, it wasn't the best assortment, we had pumpkin, squash, asparagus, potato, sweet potato, broccolini, green onion and wait for it, avo-fucking-cado. I hate avocado, and my god when I was dared to eat the tempura'd avocado, I gave it due to peer pressure and I regretted it. You think avocado tastes like pure fat by itself? You should taste it tempura'd, I suppose it could be worse, it could have been deep fried.

Tempuraaaaaa

My such big broccolini

All in all, we left fed, not full or satisfied. I felt like I could have eaten again afterwards, somewhere cheap and cheerful and filling for a fraction of the price spent here. I don't think it was good value for money, it was lacking in a lot of places for somewhere that was supposed to be so good. Presentation on both environment and food, general taste and I don't know, I just felt ill at ease the entire time, the time we spent there was great though but good company makes anything better.

Sake
Atmosphere: 4, the flowers ruined it for me. If I hadn't noticed them, it still would've been a 5-6? It was too fancy for a bogan Southsider like myself, I just felt like I was under dressed and slovenly there in the quiet atmosphere of the restaurant even despite their warm welcome. Also all the serving staff were Aussies and the kitchen staff I saw were Japanese, maybe that's the racist in me, coming out. I missed the warm friendly atmosphere of Bavarian Bier and the beautiful river views too, Sake was just too still for my liking, way too much for a Sunday lunch.
Service: 7, well presented, friendly staff who were able to offer recommendations and keep our water topped up. Nothing out of the ordinary though.
Food: 6, everything was cooked well, nothing made me sick. The popcorn shrimp was pretty good.

I'm starting to wonder if I just outright dislike expensive restaurants but I haven't been anywhere where I thought the money was well spent either? Who knows.