Tatsumi Modern Japanese Dining — Restaurant in South Island

The food is bad especially for the fine dining prices they are charging. It's definitely not an authentic Japanese restaurant, this is the type of place your grandparents or parents went to before anyone knew what Japanese food was.

The decore is really dated and the ambiance wasn't luxurious at all. I feel like I'm just entering someone's really messy living room filled with travel Knick-knacks from Japan. This is not a big deal normally but they will charge you $100 a head and you could be at any of the other fine dining establishments at Queenstown which have beautiful interiors to make you feel like you're having a luxury experience and many will even give you a great view of the mountains while you dine. Here you can stare at a department store surrounded by random souvenirs from Japan and some scattered empty sake bottles on some tables.

The starter was a few different things but it included some boiled edamame (a child can literally make this at home) and some bizzare skewer with prawn and what looked like a piece of blanched broccoli on it? I just felt like they put a few tiny things together on a stick and called it an entree. There was nothing interesting about it. Nothing that required any skills. Other restaurants entrees at this price will include sauces that are made in some interesting way, or some interesting produce or techniques. There's nothing like that here.

The sushi was the just some generic fish and some rolls that included avocado like it was some takeaway sushi place. There was nothing special about any of it.

Then there were just some very average karaage chicken and some random leaves salad DRENCHED in the type of sesame sauce you can get from daiso.

The main arrived and it was a SINGLE piece of rib that looks like it got fished out of a pressure cooker and that was absolutely average and a tiny crumbed lamb shank that appeared to be deep fried.

The dessert was a pumpkin (????) purin. The strong pungent pumpkin taste just clashed with the milk in the pudding and the sweet syrup. Couldn't finish it. It was not a fine dining dessert. This is the type of purin you get from a 7/11 in Japan but worse because it has a bizzare pumpkin taste.

Every dish also seem to be plated in some sort of bizzare and tacky Japanese gift shop plate that was in some strange shape. I've never seen this in Japan or in any Japanese restaurant in Australia. It just made everything feel very cheap but I think they were trying to make their extremely average food exotic. It makes me feel like this restaurant caters to the type that just sees Japanese food as "exotic" and are happy to have strangely made food as long as someone convinces them it's Japanese.

I just don't understand how this was $100 per person. Absolutely insane to me. I will pay a lot of money for good Japanese food. I have paid $200 per head for omakases and other Japanese fine dining. This wasn't even worth $50 per person. It's just preying on tourists and locals who have never had Japanese food in any major city since 2005.

Go...

As the premium Japanese restaurant in ZQN, I was really excited to make a reservation successfully as it is often fully booked, so walk-in is not a good idea. The atmosphere was generally Japanese, with the likes of Akira Senju as background music, other than that the deco is simple. Now, about the food, I tried the Digestion Menu, as it is the closest one could get as omakase in this part of the world, it was not bad, but not as good as I expected. The baked oyster is good in terms of freshness and the use of miso, but way too oily as a starter. For the second course, the appetizers, the tofus were good, although the red sauce on the fried tofu was too much as a sauce, it took away the real flavor of the appetizer, the other white tofu was really good. Not much to write home about the beef tartare nor the citrus marinated fish. For the sashimi, they were not bad, esp the tiger prawn was great, the smoked soy sauce added a layer of novelty to such familiar course, however, the crab eggs did not match the texture of scallops in my opinion. For the taro gnocchi, I think it was not bad either, although the shrimps were those tasteless ones you could find in all the other restaurants. The Salmon, it was far too salty, I can’t finish it. The lamb was not bad, and the proportions were really hearty. The highlight of the menu would be the dessert, I really enjoyed the Yuzu catalana, tasted like frozen cheese cake in a good way. Overall I appreciated Tatsumi’s efforts to bring western tweaks to Japanese omakase, but the result, I think there could be improvements....

An unforgettable dining experience! We’ve become regulars at Tatsumi, and our perfect combination never disappoints. We start with a Beautiful Water chilled sake, which shimmers happiness as it is poured from the bottle. One sip can bring tears of joy to your eyes.

We savour each sip, awaiting the first course - soft shell crab tempura. Served alongside a juicy and sweet marinated tomato, the crab is crispy, light, and with the slightest of spice. We devour claw after claw. Insatiable. We order a second round.

Next up is the yam gnocchi with prawns. Creamy dreamy. The prawns are delicately poached, soft and sweet. The miso broth tastes of the mushroom, with the slight salt of the roe, and covers the tender gnocchi. You’ll be licking the plate clean.

The grande finale (after a second round of crab) is the green tea fondant. Not too often do we come across category changers, which make you question every dessert before it. This is that. Somehow the chef has discovered the secret to a perfectly crisp outer shell, with oozing matcha deliciousness inside. The berry and ice cream on the side serve to cleanse the palate. Perfection on a plate. Order 2!

After our 6th, or is it 7th, try of this combo, we can say with full confidence you won’t be...