Sunday 6 October 2013

Sono Restaurant - Hamilton Portside

It is amazing what unemployment can do to a person - it actually gave me the motivation to want to blog again due to epic boredom.

Well, to kickstart this old blog, I am going to pull out some photos I took whilst having dinner with mon petit ami.

Hamilton Harbour is a home to an array of expensive, boutique stores and restaurants and one of them is Sono.

Okay. I admit that I stole this two images from Google. Completely forgot to take a photo! However, these two photos look exactly as it is.

 Alas, we did not get one of those tables next to the nice view of the port.

The service was great, albeit a bit slow but we did go around dinner time. James and I looked at the menu and to be honest, we didn't even know where the hell to begin!

EVERYTHING on the menu looks so delicious.. If only I could afford to order it all, I would! T_T

Le mon petit ami and I debated, over a bottle of red, as to what to have. We took so long that the poor wait staff seemed to stop waiting on us after we kept saying "give us another five". He wanted the hotpot and I wanted variety. As per usual, I won that round - we settled on the tasting course.

For $85AUD per person, we had a wonderful 6-course meal:

First up, the Appetiser Plate: [clockwise] Fresh oyster with lime sauce, seared wagyu with citrus soy sauce & chilli grated radish, and finally (my favourite) soft shell crab with shiso salsa. 

I finished my platter in a mere matter of seconds as I was starving. Mon petit ami was trying to indulge his as appreciatively as possible.

More appetisers followed:

Left to right: Snapper carpaccio, tuna and salmon sashimi

Tuna sashimi is personally often overlooked when it comes to sashimi, but this... this tuna made me speechless. I don't know, but tuna sashimi often tastes bland, not fishy enough and mushy. I do not hate it nor love it but wow, this portion had a fatty quality almost equivalent to the salmon sashimi and had a clean mild fishy taste.

Again, I almost gulped these down without swallowing.

Fresh crabmeat croquette and Scampi springroll.

The croquette was a little ball of seafood heaven - creamy, hot, crunchy on the outside. The spring roll, on the other hand, was nice but nothing out of the ordinary.


Prawn tempura sushi roll, seared salmon belly sushi with avocado drizzled with mayo and fish sushi roll.

That was the last of the appetiser dishes - though it doesn't present itself out of the extraordinary and looks like sushi that one can get at any sushi restaurant, it tastes way better due to the freshness (and maybe also the fact that we paid $85 per person).

The much awaited mains arrived!
For my mains, I decided on the duck breast with teriyaki orange sauce. Tender, moist duck breast. Omnomnomnomm

For him:

South QLD Kobe cuisine Wagyu Striploin MB6 steak with garlic soy jus

Simplicity to its finest! James seemed to have had enjoyed his dish anyways.

Last, but not least, dessert! I somehow expected mochi or some high quality green tea or black sesame ice-cream. I definitely did not think this would be for dessert.


The lava cake was to die for.

Seriously! I often have cravings for sweets, especially if and when it's a dessert combining chocolate and melting. Holy shit, I stuffed my face despite wails of my stomach pleading, "No more! You surpassed our capacity limit, you cow!". 

We were embarrassingly the last customers there too. I could not believe the waiter still offered us coffee/tea. I was impressed. At other restaurants and even having worked in hospitality before, I would have been a tad bit annoyed if there was a couple taking their sweet goddamn time. 
  • Presentation: Good 3.5/5
  • Food/Taste: Excellent 4.5/5
  • Service: Great 5/5

Definitely will be back again!

Sono Japanese Restaurant (Hamilton Portside branch)
Level 2, 39 Hercules St | HamiltonBrisbaneQueensland 4007Australia
(P): 07 3268 6655
Sono Japanese Restaurant Portside on Urbanspoon

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