I'm not so much a fine-diner, but occasionally I do enjoy my little bit of luxury. So, for 2016 on my single blow-out meal (Cut me some slack, I'm a Uni student) I decided to head off to Koi Dessert Bar with two friends, RA and PT, for a somewhat late-birthday-ish-kind-of celebration.
I love good desserts. I'll put it out there.
... and I'm no food-blogger, but here we go.
Environment, etc.
The restaurant was very comfortable, to say the least. The Dessert Bar below did seem rather crowded, noisy, and a little too bustling, but the upstairs restaurant was nicely set out, spacious, and altogether rather generous.
Ambience, check. Good service, check. Cleanliness, check.
Okay, now let's get onto the juicy parts.
Food
Food came adequately with no real significant wait, which was great because we were super excited to try these dishes. Had it been any longer and we would have started eating our cutlery.
Dish Number #1 - Cool Cucumber
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| Yogurt with fermented green mango, cucumber, green almond and chilled cucumber lime |
I personally felt like this was a really well-placed dish -- it was great to start off on. The little balls of yogurt burst inside your mouth, filling it with the perfect consistency of yogurt-y mixture. The lime juice around it (which they poured separately from a cute-little beaker) also balanced it out really well and went exquisitely with the yogurt.
The petals and greenery on top really were for aesthetics, and I'll be honest, they needed it because this dish did look rather simple. It also appeared rather small with the daunting, black abyss of a bowl, but boy, oh boy, once you popped one in your mouth, it far exceeded my expectations, at least. And although I may complain that it was a rather small dish, I admit that any more would have been too much, and the dish would have just become a dessert dish consisting of, pretty much, a bowl of yogurt.
It's rather difficult to infuse 'cucumber' into a dessert quite nicely -- I mean, it's not your every day dessert ingredient, would you say? I felt it was a great dish to start off the set menu because it was refreshing (worked wonderful with the lime) and small enough to get you started for the bigger dishes that were to come. It wasn't an insult to the senses or too 'in your face', which I think is what you need to start off and finish a dessert menu such as this.
Dish Number #2 - Moss
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| Pistachio mousse, caramel gel, white chocolate matcha dulce cremeux, pistachio sponge, matcha moss, apple blossom jelly, nitro lime and yogurt and green apple. |
This looked impressive. Right off the bat. This was the well-known signature dish, and we were anticipating it greatly and it did not fail to impress in the slightest.
The dish looked like an artwork, especially with snow-like textures and the salient matcha ball. The different flavours of the dish really went well together and gave a refreshing new taste with each spoon, which is entirely different to the constant and unvarying spoonful-after-spoonful that you experience with other desserts. Depending on what you picked up in your spoon, the taste inside your mouth could be refreshing, electrifying, relaxing, or surprising.
A very special mention has to go to the apple blossom jelly which all three of us absolutely loved. It reminded us of jasmine tea and was such an interesting little side to the main dish. It seemed odd at first, with its little flowers (in the jelly itself!) but popping it into my mouth and letting it melt away slowly completely relaxed me and took me back to my love of tea.
Ultimately, I loved this dish. So, so much. I could have eaten four of these (okay, maybe not). The star of the dish: the matcha and the mousse, was perfectly done, and all the little details really added to the flavour and aesthetics of the entire dish.
Dish Number #3 - PB&J
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| Caramelised brioche with peanut creme, cassis pastille, strawberry and almond gelato |
'PB&J' huh?
The name was a little deceiving I suppose. I walked in, unsure of what to expect. PB&J sounds so... simple! Certainly not what I was expecting to have at a fancy restaurant such as Koi.
But, I mean seriously, look at it. Look at it. It's beautiful. And the taste of it was, I suppose, what I expected (of peanut butter and jam) but also with these little added pops and twists here and there. For one, the base was crunchy which added a wonderful element of crunch to the dish (I love my crunch) and that balanced out the cream rather nicely. The alternating nut and jam helped balance each other out as well (I'm not a big fan of excessive jam, and so for me to say that this dish was really damn good... it's saying something!).
I must admit, the serving was slightly big. I can't exactly fault it, perhaps -- I'm not the biggest person with the biggest stomach, and personally I find jam and peanut butter (or nutty creams) to be rather filling (this was also our third dessert at this point). Nonetheless, I demolished the entire thing.
The almond gelato dashed on the top was also beautiful and offered such a refreshing break from the intense flavours of jam and nut that hit over and over whilst munching on this dish. I could eat an entire bowl of that smooth, silky gelato.
Also, I forgot to mention that this dish was eaten with the hands, not with cutlery, which was an interesting experience and fun, but it did sadly mean sticky hands, which is not fun.
Dish Number #4 - It's Too Hot
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| Passion fruit curd with pineapple sorbet, mango creme and kaffir lime meringue |
My fears that this dessert would somehow be extremely spicy were quickly dismissed when this was served. Sadly, it was a hot day and a few of the dishes were left out a bit too long (the plates were also warm) and the pineapple sorbet had melted slightly by the time it was given to us (the picture here is of PT's dish -- my own was far too sloppy for me to take a photo of!).
But, the taste of it made up for this little downside. Now, I'm not naturally a big fan of passion fruit, nor meringue, yet I still find myself highly praising this dessert, so that's saying something.
However, I did find the meringue a bit too sweet, which was starting to overload my senses as this was our fourth dessert(!) and there were quite large slabs of it. Ultimately, I found the dish a slightly odd and intense flip-flop between the sourness of the passion fruit and pineapple, and the sweetness of the meringue, which was refreshing at first but slightly extreme by the end. It was a rather intense dish to end the set menu. Also, keep in mind that by this point we're all feeling a little full, so that might add to some bias.
Regardless, it was a nice dish, and any passion fruit or meringue lover would praise it far more than myself, and perhaps if it had been the first or second dish then I may have had different comments about it.
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Overall, Koi Dessert Bar was a wonderful place to go. From the moment I tasted the first dish, all the way till the end, I pretty much had a smile on my face. This is a place I want to take those I love to, so that they, too, can experience the joy of good and well-thought-out desserts, far beyond any bowl of ice-cream or gelato that you can simply purchase at a store.
Though leaning towards the pricey side of things, for a once-a-year outing I can say that this was money well-spent. A big thank-you to RA and PT for the company and showing me the world of delicious desserts (I want to go back again... now!)
And, for those who have made it so far, congratulations. Here is a small selection of photos that I took from the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium (which we visited earlier in the day, before our massive feast on sugary-goods, which I do not condone but perhaps once or twice is okay).
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| Octopus |
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| Moon jellyfish |
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| Mud skipper |
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| Great Barrier Reef exhibit. A sad reminder of what we are destroying up in Queensland. |
Stay hydrated.
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