This was the most whack-a-doodle restaurant we’ve ever been to in the entire world. Straight up, no bullshit, it’s definitely a rich man’s hobby project (note: please scroll to “Service” for proof).
The Roe is advertised as a sea urchin specialist in Melbourne, catered to bougie customers at a high end price point. We went on a random Monday. It was just us and one Chinese family.
The Roe is advertised as a sea urchin specialist in Melbourne, catered to bougie customers at a high end price point. We went on a random Monday. It was just us and one Chinese family.
Complimentary
This was a complimentary lemon shot and a plate of coloured raddish? 😐 We’re not sure how this has anything to do with urchins.
This was the soy sauce bottle on the table and holy shit, it was sooooo annoying. One spritz barely got us enough soy sauce and the nozzle was tight. It was so tiring trying to add soy sauce to anything with this gimmick so we ended up opening it, and pouring it directly from the bottle. This bottle alone was enough to make us not return lol.
Food
We got two chawanmushi for $15.90 each. The left was the foie gras unagi, which was average. The egg was decent, but watery.
This was the roe roe fried chicken for $13.90. It was crispy fried chicken glazed with sea urchin. The chicken was juicy, the batter was thick, and the urchin added the tiniest bit of umami but they also seasoned it with Chinese spices which we felt took away from the subtle appeal.
We thought we might as well try their extravagant boat: roe roe roe your boat for $299. For the price, we really thought there would be more sea urchin considering the entire restaurant is inspired and named after this creature. The tuna and salmon cuts were too thick, and definitely off-cut pieces of the fish. The abalone was good. The Sydney rock oysters were average. There was just more focus on gimmick than the quality of the seafood.
The staff also tried really hard to up-sell lobster and more abalone to us as we ate this dish.
The staff also tried really hard to up-sell lobster and more abalone to us as we ate this dish.
This was the angel uni hot dog for $39.90. Again, the tuna cuts were average – fresh, yes, but not good cuts of the fish. The foie gras was sickening in such a thick cut. This was overpriced, with no flavouring.
Service
The restaurant fit-out was so strange already, with mismatched chairs, tables and decorations. When we went upstairs to use the bathroom, we were hit with a whole amusement park. The entire top floor was covered in a collection of sea urchin antiques, ocean animals, and lots of toilet paper LOL. It felt like an acid-induced dream. Only the private room looked like it belonged in a restaurant.
The staff were nice but kind of over-the-top as they all had microphones for communication, but could no communicate between them on what we ordered. The food was also very slow for an empty restaurant. There was about 5 different servers for this Monday night.
The staff were nice but kind of over-the-top as they all had microphones for communication, but could no communicate between them on what we ordered. The food was also very slow for an empty restaurant. There was about 5 different servers for this Monday night.
Review
This was definitely not worth the money. The soy sauce bottle annoyed us enough for us to not return.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
