Takumi

So I did end up going to Mart 130 again on the weekend. And the food was as good as I hoped it would be. But that is a story for another day.

Today, I shall talk about Takumi. Located on Bourke Street, they call themselves ‘Melbourne’s Only Wagyu Beef Specialist’, and they specialise in a variety of wagyu beef cuts for you to self-grill on your very own grill on the table (much like a Korean BBQ place). Being a wagyu beef place, its a restaurant where you have to spend quite a bit to eat your fill, with quite a variety of set courses costing from $45 pp to $90 pp. Alternatively, you could also go ‘omakase’ and ask them to serve you whatever they have, and you just pay the price later.

They do, however, have a variety of ‘signature dishes’ (which were basically their entrees) and a la carte meats to be ordered for the grill, which is what I went for.

This Salmon Carpaccio only costs $10.80, which is what I’d consider a steal for an entree in a restaurant like this. And it was very good as well.

This, essentially a beef carpaccio, was significantly more expensive, being $18.80, but was still very good.

The grill did not cost us anything. You can see some white hot coals at the bottom.

$24.80. The word ‘premium’ significantly increased the value of this plate of meat. There was no ‘non-premium’ version of this.

$9.80! There was a premium version of this dish, and it costs $15.80.

Basically, the we had an excellent meal there, but I needed judicious amounts of rice to be satisfied. That being said, its a place that I would go to again when I feel like eating some higher class meat.

And before I forget, we had ice cream as well.

 

Mart 130

Mart 130 is a popular breakfast place situated along tram route 96 (from Bourke Street), and has been reviewed countless of times by numerous blogs and reviews before. Most of the reviews start by saying that Mart 130 was an actual tram stop which got rebuilt as a cafe, and ‘mart’ is ‘tram’ spelt backwards, and 130 being that it is stop 130 along route 96. I don’t intend to repeat what they said.

As you can see if you look closely enough, the red word by the side of the building is actually ‘tram’ spelt backwards, and this was an actual tram stop. Oops.

While it doesn’t look like much from the outside, a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere greeted us as we walked in.

Customers can sit inside, or out the back, but it was quite full when we were there, so we took what we got, and sat out the back. The only problem with that was that the sun was streaming directly into our faces.

This is the huge menu that greeted us as we walked in. Notice the ‘R’ in tram is backwards.

Our drinks came before the food. The mango juice was freshly blended mango, which was awesome. The iced chocolate had a scoop of ice cream in it, which was also awesome, I guess.

This dish is, I think, one of their specialties. Corn fritters with bacon, relish, sourcream, and a sprig of coriander. I normally don’t like corn, but this was quite good. Very good indeed.

This was ordered off their specials, and is basically what I said it is. While nothing special to shout about, the eggs were poached well, sausages were good, and the sour dough bread was good as well.

Don’t let my description of the meals (I didn’t sound too excited) put you off from going to this place. It is a truly excellent place for breakfast, with a wonderful bustling atmosphere, and good food.

I might be going again this weekend, if possible.

=)