GOURMET TRAVELLER 49of sea-lettuce powder, that’s only on
the snacks menu. So too a chicken-liver-
parfait profiterole filled with a jam made
from dried plums cooked in umeshu and
dusted with deep-purple plum powder.
Order the snacks.
It’s almost shocking to find food
of this calibre and price range in this
location, a stretch of Lygon Street best
known for red gingham tablecloths,
giant laminated menus and often
boisterous crowds.
Kazuki’s serene, elegantly sparse
room – tables dressed with meticulously
pressed linen, sculptural rice-paper
light shades, mustard carpet – and
experienced, professional floor staff
puts it firmly in fine-dining territory.
It’s a noticeable, conscious step up
from the Kazuki’s that’s been feeding
people in Daylesford for the past seven
years. It’s also something of a gamble
moving it here, given the cheap and
cheerful approach of its neighbours.
But for Kazuki and Saori Tsuya, the
gamble has paid off, with a restaurant
that’s landed fully formed and ready for
its close-up. The refined setting is ideal
for a menu where Kazuki and head chef
Anthony Hammel (ex-Pei Modern) marry
classic French technique with Japanese
ingredients to thrilling effect.
The duck, for example, instantly
claims a spot in the league of Melbourne’s
best. It’s a Macedon Ranges bird, dry-aged
on the bone for a week. The fat under
the skin is rendered beautifully, the skin
crackles, the flesh blushes deep pink
and the flavour is strong and clean.
It’s teamed with a radicchio purée,
black garlic, blackberries and shiitake
mushrooms. The balance and variety
of flavours is remarkable. There’s also
the bonus of duck hearts on the side,
which are brushed with teriyaki sauce,
grilled on the hibachi and served with
house-made furikake.
There’s deft work with prawns, too.
Skull Island tigers are grilled over wood,
slathered with a sake beurre blanc and
paired with cos leaves cooked in butter
and a scatter of avruga.
The nine-score Sher wagyu is available
on all forms of the menu (two- or three-
course à la carte, or five- or seven-course
tasting) for an additional cost, but fans➤D
o not neglect the snacks
at Kazuki’s. They may be
an optional add-on to the
set-course menus, but it
would be foolish to bypass them. Do so,
and you’d miss the thin crisp of kipfler
potato topped with cultured cream
and sea urchin roe. Or a Goolwa pipi,
served cool and raw and wearing nothing
but a subtle hint of soy and wispy strands
of pickled ginger.
The kitchen may well send out a
Moreton Bay bug dumpling sitting on
pickled cucumbers under a cloud of
foamed sake butter as a little extra, but
the long crisp of fried nori topped with
cod-roe paste, salmon caviar marinated
in soy and sake, and light sprinklingsA one-time Daylesford favourite, Kazuki’s is bringing
small-town charm to Carlton with clever cooking and no
shortage of technical prowess, writesMICHAEL HARDEN.
Make a move
Co-owners Kazuki
and Saori Tsuya.
Below, clockwise
from top: pipis;
chicken-liver-
parfait profiteroles;
and nori with
cod-roe paste and
salmon caviar.Melbourne review