[RESTAURANT REVIEW] ... Fine dining where Italian food meets Japanese influence - BEST IN SYDNEY!

Fancy dessert? Yep...but that wasn't even the best dish of the night - read on to find out more!!

Good evening fellow Steemians!

Today I wanted to introduce you to one of my favourite restaurants here in Sydney. They've been around for a couple years now so well established and throughout this time I have visited 4-5 times. Each time the food, service, wine and overall experience has been outstanding. 

LuMi is a very unique restaurant that combines the best of Italian and Japanese cooking. A lot of their dishes appear to be a traditional 'Western' fine dining meal but when you look deeper and explore the ingredients they've used, you can really see the Japanese influence and it's absolutely genius how they've combined these two cuisines. 

A degustation menu is standard at the restaurant and always starts off with a few snacks - they may look simple, but the flavours and texture are complex and completely satisfying.

Normal macaron? NOPE, it's Chicken Liver!! Yes, it was amazing. 

This was like eating the most exquisite potato chip that was airy, light and disappeared in your mouth once you ate it. Delicious!

All bread baked in-house and served with hand-churned butter.

First dish is chawanmushi which is a steamed egg dish. It has great depth of flavour, reminds me of a consomme type of flavour and the texture is like silken tofu.

Next up is scallops, kohlrabi and yukari. Kohlrabi is a type of cabbage that has a similar texture and taste to radish. It was very, very thinly sliced and added a great freshness to the rich scallops. Yukari is a type of furikake (dried seasoning commonly used in Japanese cooking). 

Roasted beetroot, black sesame and cream. Anyone who's ever oven-roasted beetroot will know that this completely transforms the vegetable from a 6/10 to a 10/10! 

Start of the pasta dishes with a Ravioli, gruyere cheese and porcini butter. Can you get a better or more classic pasta combination than cheese and mushroom? They just made it even better by using gruyere which is a cheese that's rich and nutty complimenting the woody, nutty taste of the porcini mushrooms.

Honestly, LuMi's pasta dishes are what I live for. This is textbook LuMi - Burnt Semolina Spaghetti, Quail and Marjoram. Handmade pasta, perfectly al dente, I am drooling as I'm writing this up!

Meat was Lamb, Red Miso, Leek, Lime Kosho. See what I mean about 'normal' looking Western dishes with Japanese influence? This lamb was slow cooked for over 24 hours and wow it was so beautifully tender but not mushy in texture. Amazing technique and flavour.

First up for desserts was Yuzu, Mandarin, Licorice, Wakame Powder. The Licorice top was so thin and was very satisfying to crack! I love the sourness of yuzu so this dish was perfect. 

Ok can we just take a moment to stare at this dessert. Isn't it beautiful? It astounds me how they can create such masterpieces and hurts me to eat it as it's so beautiful !! This one was a Ginger Ice Cream, White Chocolate and Passinofruit. Yum, yum, yum.

So there we have, my favourite restaurant in Sydney and in terms of consistency, flavour and quality of the food, service and ambience I honestly think this is the best restaurant in Sydney. 

Let me know what you think, whether you found the dishes interesting and if there's something like this where you live! 

@phamished xx