March 2024 update: Circular Quay’s fine diner Oborozuki now offers a Japanese-French à la carte menu and has moved away from its kaiseki offering. Daeun Kang, the former sous-chef at Aria, is the new head chef at Oborozuki. Kang said: 'I aim to present a fresh, contemporary interpretation of Japanese cuisine, enriched by the precision and finesse of classic French culinary techniques.' If you’re looking for a fancy night out and want to impress, Oborozuki delivers.
Read on for our original write-up of Oborozuki from November 2022.
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Have you ever had a waiter come to your table, not to pour wine, but instead to pour hot water over dry ice that’s scattered around the bottom of an orchid display, only for the ice to then melt and smoke, creating a magical fairytale moment in front of your very eyes? We hadn’t either, until we dined at Oborozuki, the new fine dining venture that offers fusion between kaiseki and teppanyaki, where theatre is part of the experience and opulence is everywhere you look.
Opened in November, Oborozuki features a bar and restaurant situated across from each other in Circular Quay. Start off at the bar (naturally) and drink up the views of Sydney Harbour, as well as a Whisky Highball with cherry blossom and Aperol, inside the chic elongated room, before heading next door for the main act.
Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese style of dinner, similar to degustation. Oborzuki offers both kaiseki and teppanyaki menus; the latter across three private dining rooms, the former over two soaring, glass-encased levels that seat 120 diners, making it the largest kaiseki dining room in Australia.
Dining at Oborozuki is a marathon, not a sprint: the ten-course kaiseki menu consists of creatures of the sea and plated to look like a work of art.
Dining at Oborozuki is a marathon, not a sprint: the ten-course kaiseki menu consists of both hot and cold dishes populated by creatures of the sea (sea urchin, Beluga caviar) and plated to look like a work of art. Highlights include fresh seasonal sashimi with bluefin tuna, scampi, Hokkaido scallop and more; Tasmanian lobster tempura with white seaweed; and grilled Azaki A5 Wagyu, which tastes like salted butter and melts in the mouth like it, too.
A dramatic curved staircase, lined on one side with a glass feature wall holding magnums of sake (of course), takes you down into the restaurant. Dark grey tiles against warm wooden furnishings, pops of lush greenery and golden yellow velvet seats create an elegant and sleek look. (Plus, you know you’re somewhere fancy when the toilet has more buttons than a TV remote.)
Though it must be said, Oborozuki is anything but cheap, and a dinner for two with matching wines will leave you with an eye-watering bill. However, with service that’s as instinctive and flawless as a cheetah, dishes that would not be out of place in Hobart’s MONA and front-row seats to world-class Harbour views, Oborozuki offers guests an opportunity to step inside a world of luxury and indulgence to taste some of the finest Japanese cooking you can find in Sydney. For a few glorious hours you’ll be away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world, and for a special occasion, Oborozuki may very well be worth the price tag.
Find out more information here.
