Sushi-Ya - Artarmon

Again, because of my recent complaints about not going to our "regulars" for lunch or dinner, my partner and I decided to check-in on Sushi-Ya at Artarmon for lunch, one of my previously all-time favourites (mainly because it's decent Jap food for awesomely reasonable prices). Luckily, I was not dissappointed.

Green tea

My partner and I ordered a "Special Lunch Course" ($32.50) and a Combination lunch set with miso soup ($18.80). My partner felt as though he would need rice as well, but because of the friendly advice from the waitress who said it was not necessary, we decided to hold out on it - and lucky for us we did. There was SOOOO much food! It was quite insane for a lunch (AND we had enough for takeaway which would be the normal proportion of my normal lunches LOL).

Anyway - on with the food. As part of the special lunch course, we got an awesome salad. This salad comprised of your normal greens, and lotza seaweed (my favourite) and super delicious potato salad - all drenched with jap vinegary sauce! Mmm... I would have been happy if all I got was this salad! :)

Salad

Agedashi tofu was also part of the lunch special. This was was quite good especially if the tofu was dunked in the sauce. The tofu was nice and silken whilst the the batter did a great job in soaking the sauce leading to a combination of tastey smooth healthy tofu.

Agedashi Tofu

There were also edamame beans. Interestingly, the beans were warm. It was the first time I ate these warm - yet, it was quite good and lightly sprinkled with salt.

Edamame beans

One thing that came with the combination lunch set was the pork katsu and deep fried chicken. I thought that the chicken was awesome! It was so tender!!! My partner disagreed and said he's had better. Nonetheless he conceded that it was OK... The pork katsu caused another source of disagreement. My partner thought that this was probably one of the best pork katsu's he's had - super crispy and crunchy yet not too thick batter and nice tasting pork. What I thought was that the pork was not as tender as I would have liked... you had to chew it! it didn't melt in my mouth!!! (my partner told me that it wasn't supposed to melt in my mouth >.<).

Pork Katsu and Deep fried chicken

Miso soup - came with the combination lunch set. One of my friends told me that no matter where I go, the photo of the miso soup will be the same - and the taste will also be very similar. She was correct. Yet, on a cold day - hot soup is much welcomed.

Miso soup

Another item with the lunch set was the salmon lover's roll. This was super super good!!! Like a california roll (Yummm) with salmon on top (double yummm)!!! Too bad I only managed to eat one of these >.< (yes, I was close to full by now and there's much more food to come).

Salmon Lover's roll

So by this time, our table was filled with food - I could feel the presence of eyes staring at us, wondering why we ordered soooo much food (we didn't know!!! well... I assumed but my partner did not believe me). Nonetheless, the food kept coming.

Next from our awesome special lunch set was the sashimi. There was salmon, tuna and kingfish. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect Sushi-Ya to have good sashimi - but their salmon was excellente~ (surprisingly excellente). Super creamy and super fresh and super fatty and super smooth and super tastey. The tuna and kingfish were average.

Sashimi

Now- a special miso soup to complement a special lunch set. This was definately something special. It was sooooo sweet tasting because of the scampi in the soup. It was amazing! So much better than the normal miso soup. As I drank most of the normal miso soup (stupid me) my partner got most of the this scampi miso soup (*sobz*). But yeh - this was awesome!!! Need to put scampi in all my miso soups from now on!

Scampi miso soup

Out of a choice of soft shell crab or prawn tempura, my partner and I chose the soft shell crab. I know I've said in a recent post that the soft shell crab at Katsura was awesome - this is no less awesomeness!!! Soooo meatily juicy and yet soooo crisp on the legs bit. The crabby sweetness just flowed out. This is enough to bring a smile to anyone's face!

Soft Shell Crab

I told my partner that the special lunch set came with sushi - he did not believe me. It did not seem possible to him that there would be MORE food to come. But it came!!! Assorted sushi-goodness. The scampi one was super sweet, the scallop one was too and my partner said that the eel one was awesomeness!!! All the rest were pretty average. We were definately very full by now.

Assorted Sushi

Last to come from our special lunch course was dessert!!! Mmm... always room for desssert! There was green tea tiramisu and green tea icecream. And omigoshhh, this was deliciousness!!! (even on a full stomach). The green tea tiramisu was very green-tea-y, just right in sweetness, and just right in texture. I'm definately going to try and make this at home (and force my partner to eat it). And the green tea icecream? Just right as well - very green tea flavour, not too sweet, not too creamy, not too ice-y... just right! Mmmm...

Dessert! Green tea tiramisu and green tea icecream

All up, do the maths, and you'll find that our meal came to $50 ish dollars. The meal fed two hungry breakfastless individuals and enough to feed another person (in takeaway). The atmosphere is nice and cosy and the waitresses are nice and friendly. (I must say that she did try to warn us about the amount of food we ordered - we just decided to ignore her advice).

Ratings:
Food - 9
Service - 8
Ambiance - 8
Value for money - 9
Overall - 34/40

Sushi-Ya
10 Wilkes Ave
Artarmon
NSW, 2064
tel: (02) 9411 1377