Rise Restaurant, Darlinghurst - Sayonara dudes!

6 December 2010, 05:09

OH HAI! Well, make that bai to Chef Hideki Okazaki who is sadly leaving Rise Restaurant (23 Craigend St, Darlinghurst) to spend some time with the new addition to his family. It was our 10th visit to Rise, previous visits blogged here, here, here, here, here, here, and aw crap first 2 posts & 7th post have been eaten by the archive monster. The Sayonara Menu was 6 courses and $48 p.p.


Steamed pork belly, cauliflower, sugar snap, rocket salad with “chuka” vinaigrette. The tenderest pork evah! I’m pretty sure tenderest is a word. /runs to google. Yes yes it is. The pork was pretty damn juicy and I loved the presentation of the halved sugar snaps tho I wasn’t a fan of the bean sprouts hiding in the middle hmm I haz texture issues!


Potato soup with tofu & scallop tempura. There was complete silence at our table for the soup was delicious in oh so many ways. Creamy, soothing and tasting like the potatoes had happily given up their souls to create such a dreamy smooth soup, I could easily have drunk a litre of the stuff. The scallop tempura was a light and crispy nugget floating above the soup thanks to the hidden cube of tofu lurking in the depths like the Loch Ness Monster. Or an iceberg.


Sashimi- kingfish, ocean trout and one giant monster oyster. I would like to say things like, fresh! Tastes like the ocean! Or, so fresh it could swim off the plate! But it kinda sounds redundant when Rise always has the absolute best produce sourced.


Tasting platter – Soy milk flan with “shiitake” sauce; Rice paper rolls of cured salmon, omelette & gochujang mayo; Fish cake and green papaya. (Platter in the photo above was for 2 people). My fav from the platter was the flan which was like an uber smooth chawanmushi topped with the goodness of mushrooms. The rice paper rolls were um tasty but was totally outshone by the fish cake nubbin which was fragrant with basil and just enough chili to be zingy but not spicy.


Soba salad with chunyang chilli prawn. Ginormous deep fried prawn = happiness in mah belly


Chicken confit, bamboo shoot, button mushroom and “zahsai” sauce. Look at the skin look at the skin! Oh yes crispy perfection is staring right at you! And under that crispy deliciousness was chicken so juicy it was like it was weeping tears of juicy happiness. (Do I sound delirious? 4am awesomeness at its best hi jacq!)


Panna cotta with a layer of pomegranate & amareto jelly topped with a cumquat, amareto & milk granita. Unfortunately I haz issues with almond essence flavourings but luckily the boy loved it and hoovered up my dessert in no time.


But then Chef Hideki came out for a chat and brought us MORE DESSERT! Woot I love surprise desserts! They were green tea and rockmelon sponge cake rolls filled with a frozen yoghurt mixture studded with fruit mmm luckily by then everyone was full and thanks to my emergency dessert stomach I had the bowl to myself hahaha


♥

Farewell Hideki! All the best with your family and hope to see you soon!

1. This is not good. I always wanted to visit Rise at Darlinghurst but never got around to doing so. Maybe after Hideki leaves the place might change. I hope he comes back.

   — eatmarvin    Dec 6, 05:21 AM    #
   
   

2. YAY for surprise desserts! But boo that Chef Hideki is leaving cos all that food just looks amazing! :(

   — catty    Dec 6, 09:42 AM    #
   
   

3. Omg, that soup was to-die-for. And the soy milk flan was freaking amazing!! And lucky you getting extra desserts ;)

   — Betty @ The Hungry Girl    Dec 6, 11:01 AM    #
   
   

4. I am sure in time Hideli will pop up again somewhere (fingers crossed).

   Anyone else think that the rockmelon rolls look like salmon? Very cute :)

   — Sara @ Belly Rumbles    Dec 6, 11:07 AM    #
   
   

5. hi suze! this is pure 4am delirium at its best hehehe so sad that rise is closing, i’ve had some awesome meals there!

   — Jacq    Dec 6, 11:56 AM    #
   
   

6. Argh I’m always late to the party. So sad I never got to try Rise :(

   I like you at your 4am best Suze… your posts are always more ‘poetic’ :D

   — Karen | C&C    Dec 6, 01:42 PM    #
   
   

7. Frozen yoghurt sponge rolls! It’s like those horrible jam rolls from the supermarket, except AWESOMER (<- also a word. At least in my world)!

   shakes fist at archive monster

   — Hannah    Dec 6, 02:12 PM    #
   
   

8. All the dishes look absolutely amazing!!! yummy!!!

   — Rhonda (The Dainty Baker)    Dec 6, 02:23 PM    #
   
   

9. What a delicious spread of food. Too sad I am not making it in time before the sayonara.

   — Ellie (Almost Bourdain)    Dec 6, 05:12 PM    #
   
   

10. yum!!!!!

    — Fiona    Dec 6, 07:12 PM    #
    
    

11. Ohh it all looks so delicious, what a shame that Chef Hideki is leaving :( I love delicious tasty and healthy food and that looked like it ticked all the boxes.

    — GourmetGetaways    Dec 6, 07:23 PM    #
    
    

12. aww.. the potato soup sounds like heaven! and the sashimi looks so good. too bad i dont get to try it out.

    — Melissa    Dec 6, 08:51 PM    #
    
    

13. Everything looks absolutely beautiful! Japanese restaurants have such a knack for presentation…shame about the amaretto on the panna cotta.

    I’ve gone to eat the most amazing looking almond croissants only to find that once I reached the middle there was some kind of amaretto infused frangipane which was totally depressing…

    — Emthefoodrookie    Dec 6, 10:13 PM    #
    
    

14. OH I have a problem with almond essence too… tastes fake?

    BOO sayonara, my dad took me to Rise for my 18th so I’m quite fond of it.

    — Ayana    Dec 6, 11:00 PM    #
    
    

15. Oh! I loved that place! Had some fantastic date nights there- yours looks pretty darn good too :)

    — Tori @ Eat-Tori    Dec 6, 11:08 PM    #
    
    

16. It’s the end of an era! Where will your folks go now for celebrations and international visitor dinners?

    ps. nubbin

    — Helen (grabyourfork)    Dec 7, 02:15 AM    #
    
    

17. End of an era indeed. I think Rise was one of the first ‘fine dining’ meals I had back in the good old days.

    — Howard    Dec 7, 11:27 AM    #
    
    

18. So much sadness… and omgggg that souppp!!

    — FFichiban    Dec 7, 03:42 PM    #
    
    

19. Oooh, so you WERE there that night! I thought I recognised you but wasn’t sure so was scared to say hi :P

    — Vivz    Dec 7, 07:53 PM    #
    
    

20. Hey Suze, It was nice meeting you on the train. Sorry If I was acting akward/stupid because I have been following your blog so thought it would be good to say hi & introduce myself =) Have a nice day and see you soon !

    — Obesebaby    Dec 7, 10:31 PM    #
    
    

21. the potato soup looks soooooo good! i could do with some right now! hehe emergency dessert :P

    — Vivian - vxdollface    Dec 8, 09:56 AM    #
    
    

22. It’s been too long since I’ve been back to Rise. Can’t believe I didn’t take more advantage of this bargain when I could!

    — forager @ The Gourmet Forager    Dec 8, 11:22 AM    #
    
    

23. Rise restaurant has opened its red doors again :)

    — Rise    Mar 15, 10:07 PM    #