Bopha Devi - One of Melbourne's Worst Restaurant

Hi! How are you doing?

While strolling down the Wharfs of Docklands, we saw “Bopha Devi” we’ve seen great reviews on Urban Spoon for this joint. We expected amazing authentic Khmer (Cambodian) Cuisine.

Have a look at what we had, and the prices we paid

 1^st K'dom 15.50

Chicken and crabmeat rolled together in crispy bread (3 pieces)

3 spring rolls and sweet chili sauce – consisting of crab meat and chicken wasn’t all real fresh meat, it was mushy and floury,  after the first bite, there was a bitter after taste (tasted like bitter melon). You may not like it if you hate bitter tasting food

2^nd Somlah Machou Kroeung $23.50

Spiced tamarind based soup with celery, capsicum and flavours of lemongrass, turmeric and kaffir lime lives, served with steam rice

SOUP – sweet sour soup overly loaded with celery and onion, some red and green capsicum with imported cheap FROZEN prawns! If I paid $23.50 for soup I would expect more for my buck. FAIL!

3^rd  Dried Shrimp Salad $18.50
Shredded carrot and green papaya - it was too salty (as in salt and not salty with fish sauce), not sour enough nor chili enough. We couldn’t even finish half the plate

4^th Steamed Prahok 21.50

Fermented salted-fish (prahok) is steamed with minced chicken, onion and egg. Once it is dressed with lemon juice and spiced to your liking with chilli, the steamed prahok is eaten with crunchy slices of carrots, cucumber, celery and steamed rice (GF)

Main – like fermented dried salted fish mixed with minced chicken and rice, this was considered BEST IN HOUSE MUST TRY… FAILED so badly, it wasn’t salty enough we added lemon to give it more of a hit didn’t work. There wasn’t enough fermented fish and too much chicken. In my culture we stole these ingredients from the Cambodian and we cook it with pork not chicken. This dish was so westernized it wasn’t authentic, should rename the dame dish to “minced chicken with spring onion & fish sauce)

WTH, our bill came close to $100 after drinks, I would never come back here.

The food is below ordinary, and the price is high in the sky.

Maybe the only good thing was the French accent waiter that served us, the food was overly priced, below average, not fresh, presentation wasn’t grand and this wasn’t authentic Cambodian food for sure.

If you don’t try how would you know? That’s our motto, but since we’ve tried, I can definitely say that we will never come back here again nor recommend it to anyone else. If this meal was great, I wouldn’t have complaint about the bill. I've had a heap of authentic food at a fraction of the cost.

4/10 (eatable but not worth it)

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

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Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with anything above, everything on my blog is my honest opinions, so I am not being paid or given free products to review or promote. My opinions are of personal experience and thoughts, so feel free to comment if you agree or disagree so I can also learn more from you.

Nobu Melbourne

It was our Anniversary a few months back, I have kept these photos for ages but haven’t had time to post up my review

We went to Nobu (Melbourne) a very well known Japanese restaurant.

It was classy, dark and gloomy, when we entered, you’ll be greeted with a warm welcome from the reception (that’s if you’ve booked a table, if not the receptionist might tell you there will be a wait depending on how busy it was that night)

As you walk down the flights of stairs away from the entrance, you are greeted by the many staffs and chefs with a big shout out in Japanese (didn’t understand, I guess it was a polite Welcome)

Service was amazing, but for a bottle of cold water the cost was nearly $12! So as time goes by you would realize you are going to put a big hole in your wallet. But it’s a special occasion, we’ll be happy to dine finely and not complain about the final bill.

The waiters would bring around this Salt-boiled Edamame dressed in extra sea salt

This is a berry/ cherry Fruit Punch – it was a little sour and tangy for my likings but my other half thought it was fine. I guess I don’t like alcohol so even a mock-tail wouldn’t entice my palate.

Tuna Tataki with Tozasu – this was good too, sweet and sour combo in your mouth

Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño – I love this dish (even though I am not a fan of sashimi). I love the sourness and the spice of the jalapenos YUMMY, it didn’t taste raw – must order dish

Scallop Sashimi with Dried Miso – raw scallop is so sweet, and the crispy fried garlic chip made the soft uncooked scallop crunchy, a mixture of texture.

Beef Tataki with Ponzu and Garlic Chips – OMG another raw dish, this was good but at this stage my mouth didn’t like the overwhelming garlic chip taste from the last dish and this dish added together – eww garlic breath on an anniversary hehehehe

Lobster Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing – this was disappointing for the price you pay, but we’d thought it doesn’t hurt to try. It wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t order this again, few pieces of lobster, lettuce, mushroom and more garlic chip + lemon dressing (I reckon it could be achievable at home) for $42 yep.. Now you see why I said they put garlic chip garnish on everything

Black Cod with Miso – after a few bites the good sweetness in your mouth just becomes so overwhelming, I’d recommend add this with white rice to balance out the saltiness and sweetness of the sauce. But if this was one of the first dishes I tried I wouldn’t have such a bad after taste. There was a special hajikami stalk left on top as a garnish which tasted like Garlic, it was crunchy and refreshing in the mouth, I think this was to balance out the black code sauce, it complimented well but extra rice in my opinion would have been even better.

This is Wagu Beef with a hot stone and 3 different types of dipping sauces – this was $150 worth of a dish, was the Wagu worth $1 per/gram, HELL NO. There was nothing special about the taste of this dish besides its presentation!

Overall I loved Nobu’s atmosphere, services and food. Just don’t go trying something that is worth $1 a gram and majority of the garlic chip garnishing wouldn’t have been better substituted with something else, when you know your customer had been consuming so much from their previous dishes. All the sashimi and cold dishes were wonderful.

 I had a discount card and the final bill still came out to be that total!

Overall rating:

4/5 starts

I liked some of the food we ate, but the final price (due to the Wagu beef) was ridiculous.

Well I hope you enjoy Nobu just as much as I did!
have a great night everyone