Melbourne Food Review: Bento Lunch at Takumi, CBD
I love the whole hot weather thing. Seriously, if Melbourne would be this hot everyday all year round, I would be a happy girl. But it makes me not want to do things – especially sit down in front of the computer and write a blog entry.
However, the Spatula, Spoon and Saturday (sometimes I get the word order mixed up myself) show must go on. Rilsta and I lunched at a month or so ago. Rilsta had previously had dinner at Takumi and wrote up a really nice review on her blog so I was quite looking forward to it.
(wagyu yakiniku bento box – $13.80)
The restaurant was rather nice, spacious and half empty. We were seat on the same table as another couple but with a seat between us. I wondered why they had to seat us on the same table when there were perfectly good tables available. I just wasn’t into the next couple’s conversation as they ordered the same thing and had boring conversation (at times like this, I wish people talk about something really juicy and exciting – murder and salacious sex details. But no. Apparently too much to ask for as a lunch time entertainment.)
As Takumi is meant to be the wagyu specialist, I decided on the wagyu yakiniku bento box. Our miso soup was brought out first. It was good though it could be a bit hotter.
Our bento boxes arrived at the same time. Rilsta settled on the wagyu burger set which came with rice, salad and sashimi and so did mine. The sashimi was lovely and fresh – it wasn’t as cold as I would have liked it (indicating the box has been sitting around) but it was the best part of the meal.
(salmon and scallop sashimi)
Sadly, I couldn’t say the same about the supposed highlight – the wagyu yakiniku. I wonder whether the word wagyu is being used to convey certain things (i.e. soft, fatty meltingly tender beef) but this failed drastically. The beef was tough, dry and overcooked. It wasn’t even hot (again, another sign pointing to the box having sat around before it was served)
(wagyu yakiniku)
The rice and the salad were decent. I quite liked the sesame dressing on the salad. I’m going to buy a bottle at my local Japanese grocer (which happens to be so damn good). I also had the corner of Rilsta’s burger – I found it to be slightly burnt (but then I had a bit of the edge bit), dry and overcooked.
After having a look around at other reviews, I feel like I just genuinely hit a bad day. I might give their dinner menu a try one of these days because it really seemed fabulous. Their lunch on the day, however, did not meet expectations but I guess for $13.80, it was an all right value for money.
Takumi Japanese Restaurant, 32 Burke St. Melbourne VIC 3000
