Kobe Jones – King Street Wharf, Sydney

By Ms. Taste

Following my review of Sushi Choo’s $20 all-you-can-eat sushi train, several readers alerted me to a similar all-you-can-eat sushi deal on offer at Kobe Jones. Their lunchtime only special was priced at $25pp and included their signature Volcano Roll (which alone is priced at $28).

All You Can Eat Sushi Platter

Determined to check out this deal, I took the day off work and gathered my foodie friends together for a power lunch at Kobe Jones.

We arrived at 1:00pm, were promptly shown to our table and given menus.

The all-you-can-eat sushi selection included:

DRAGON ROLL – tempura prawns with crab salad and cucumber with unagi and avocado layered on top with nori, tempura flakes and
smelt roe sprinkle

VOLCANO ROLL – oven baked scallops layered on a crab salad and avocado roll with Kobe’s special cream sauce and a sesame seed
and shallot sprinkle

SPIDER ROLL – crunchy soft shell crab with avocado, crab salad, cucumber with smelt roe sprinkle

CATERPILLAR ROLL – unagi, crab salad, cucumber with avocado layered on top

DYNAMITE ROLL - spicy tuna, kingfish, salmon or scallops with cucumber and sesame seeds

KOBE JONES’ FINEST NIGIRI – selection based on market availability

When we finally flagged down our waiter after 15 minutes of chasing, he told us bluntly that we couldn’t choose what pieces we got as it came in a ‘platter’. Geez mate, would’ve been nice to have been told that at the start.

Our first platter arrived some 30 minutes later. The first thing that struck me about the sushi was how poorly they had been put together. They weren’t just messy, some looked like they were falling apart. I was also let down by the quality and freshness of the sushi. The rolls were plain, a little stale and boring. The nigiri sushi was probably the most disappointing. Considering these were the ‘finest’ nigiri Kobe Jones had on offer, the sashimi that sat on top of the nigiri was ‘torn’ and stewy. I also noticed that our platter was missing the Spider Rolls.

Volcano Roll

The Volcano Rolls on the other hand, were no disappointment – they tasted just like how I remembered. The crab salad and avocado filled rolls were soaked in a creamy tangy sauce with pops of scallop. Once we had eaten the allocation in the bowl, we had no shame mopping up the sauce with other stray pieces of sushi.

Kobe Jones 'Finest' Nigiri

Our second platter was a little more pleasing, the sashimi was much fresher. I took this as my cue to get some good photos of the sushi. But still, the Spider Roll was nowhere to be seen.

Dynamite Roll

Once we got around to our third and fourth platters, we were done with eating the stale pieces of nigiri and decided to peel off the sashimi instead.

Nigiri, sans the sashimi

I had a real issue with the service we received at Kobe Jones. Cold, insincere and even bored at times, the waiters were short of “rolling their eyes” at us when we went to order our next platter. Forget about getting your tea refilled!

The poor service really lets down the overall dining experience at Kobe Jones. I’ve been here several times in the past and the service has always been a bit of an issue for me. Lucky for them, the Volcano Roll does bring me back – but probably not as often as I should.

The platters took an average of 20-30 minutes to arrive, so if you thinking of a quick lunch during your lunch break – forget it. It took us a full 2 hours to polish off four platters – although we were full, we were nowhere near satisfied. If Kobe Jones can’t afford to serve the same standard of food I’ve come to expect here, then they really shouldn’t be offering the all-you-can-eat deal. It’s as simple as that.

Note: Kobe Jones’ $25 all-you-can-eat sushi lunches are available from Monday to Friday from 12-3pm.

Kobe Jones
29 Lime Street
King Street Wharf, Sydney
NSW 2000, Australia
# 02 9299 5290
www.kobejones.com.au

Lunch – Monday to Friday 12.00pm to 3.00pm
Dinner – Monday to Friday from 6pm

There is a 10% surcharge on weekends and public holidays.

COMMENTS / 15 COMMENTS

Oh no! I am very particular with service myself… bad service, even with good food, spoils the whole dining experience. And there’s nothing more infuriating than the combination of bad service + bad food + long wait + dear prices.

Trisha added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 4:23 pm

oh you should’ve taken a pic of the first platter. And here I was thinking that the poorly plated sushi sure photographed well!

Helen (grabyourfork) added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 4:27 pm

I know! I really should have. I think I was too hungry at the time to care, but on hindsight, I realised that should’ve taken more photos – especially of the torn sashimi.

I guess the half squashed sushi in the background in the last photo does illustrate to some extent the quality of the sushi (or lack thereof).

Ms. Taste added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 4:31 pm

Your assessment was pretty much spot on. Except I might give them a little more credit for the sushi, both the Volcano Roll and the Dragon Roll were pretty spectacular!

As a member of your “power lunch” I too was very disappointed by the service, as I was dropping by in my lunch hour I had a very limited amount of time in which to eat, their refusal to serve more than one platter at a time (and then taking 20 minutes between serving each platter) was frustrating considering there were four of us at the table.

I am of the opinion that if you can’t realistically offer your food at a discounted price then don’t! Don’t offer it, and then fail to deliver with the right quality of goods. All it does is trash your reputation.

Wendy added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 4:31 pm

That’s funny because I didn’t have a pleasant experience with the service the last time I went to the Kobe Jones in Melbourne!! I haven’t been back since no matter how good those Volcano rolls taste!

Your photos make the sushi look good though!

Rilsta added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 4:39 pm

$25 for all you can eat volcano rolls is pretty good though. You always need to sacrifice a little to enjoy a bargain

Mr. Taste added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 5:00 pm

I agree, $25 for an all you can each sushi experience is pretty good. but it would be nice if they could back it up with a little bit of nice-ness!

Maria@TheGourmetChallenge added these sweet words on Jul 17 09 at 10:13 pm

As the fourth and final member of the “power lunch,” i also left feeling a bit void inside me. To me, i always had the image of Kobe Jones as an upscale Japanese restaurant. However, all thoughts of that were shattered from the first step i took inside the restaurant.

Immediately, i was put off by the waiter who was supposed to guide us to our table. By no means, am i an up tight guy, but this person was just so arrogant! He failed to acknowledge us properly as he spoke aloud to whom we though was another waiter behind us, and then proceeded to walk off with menus in hand. So there our gang stood as lost as could be, until he started gesturing at us as he was a good 15-20 paces away to tell us to follow.

As said in the review and also Wendy’s comment above, the service for the rest of our lunch was sorely lacking. For the food, there wasn’t much to complain about as the volcano roll was truly awesome and tasted every bit as good as that photo looks!

One other small gripe was that by the end of their lunch service at around 2:30pm, the quality of the sashimi on the nigiri started degrading. By our fourth platter, the salmon and kingfish sashimi was evidently not as fresh, with darker colours and drier texture. Surely if the food is not fresh, then you would hope they had the quality control of a relatively upscale restaurant to not serve it?

All Kobe Jones are doing is just tarnishing their reputation with substandard service and inconsistent food quality. No wonder they need this $25 lunch sushi deal to gain more customers. However, i feel their new marketing strategy is more like a double edged sword.

Ivan added these sweet words on Jul 18 09 at 1:08 am

Great review, you’re so right they shouldn’t be offering that deal if it compromises their quality and reputation. I would go just for the all you can eat volcano rolls though, they look fabulous.

Steph added these sweet words on Jul 18 09 at 9:48 am

that’s a shame about the service. it’s one of my pet hates with some restaurants. i’m not sure how authentic Kobe Jones is but i’ve been once and thought it was like a japanese restaurant for westerners, a bit like The Malaya is malaysian for westerners. $25 for all you can eat is pretty good but not when they serve you substandard sushi and service which makes you feel like a second class citizen. some people really shouldn’t be in the service industry.

Simon Food Favourites added these sweet words on Jul 18 09 at 12:42 pm

Unlucky with the experience, at least the volcano roll is good because it’s one of my favorites there as well.

Howard added these sweet words on Jul 19 09 at 5:20 pm

Thank you for blogging about this. I see the billboard everyday and wondered to myself about how the all you can eat sushi offer worked. I agree the volcano roll is good but the 2 times I have been there the service really lacked attentions.

clekitty added these sweet words on Jul 21 09 at 12:52 pm

Definitely a spot on review of the Kobe Jones all you can eat. When we went, again it was completely lacking in service, although attitude-wise wasn’t as bad as what you’ve experienced. I think the 30min wait for the platter was entirely too long, and the nigiri were completely over-riced and under-fished. However, we were able to order JUST the volcano for the second round.

Overall, the volcano did not disappoint, but everything else did. If it wasn’t such a good value, I really wouldn’t have gone back (yes I went twice… someone smack me out of it…)

Onomatopia added these sweet words on Jul 22 09 at 9:04 am

Hmm.. that bad quality + bad service is a surprise to me.

I went for the Kobe Jones special too but it was really good service and I couldn’t really fault the freshness of the sushi either.
I wonder if it’s because we went on a Friday?

Vivz added these sweet words on Jul 22 09 at 9:31 pm

dang ! i heard abt this from a friend and Googled it hoping to find out more about it ….
but the sushi and the service sound so disappointing haha, i had a friend who worked at Kobe Jones – didn’t know the service was so bad
sounds like you have to dedicate a few good hours to eat here :s wonder if it’s worth it