Emon - Surry Hills

After a busy day at work, I sped down to Surry Hills to have dinner with a few friends at Sushi Suma. Unfortunately, Sushi Suma was packed out with no tables for another half hour. Feeling extremely hungry, we decided to go to Emon, a nearby Japanese restaurant.

Emon is a very small cozy authentic Japanese restaurant. The waitresses and cook all spoke fluent Japanese and several customers conversed Japanese too. Hence, we knew that the quality of the food had to be pretty good.
We ordered green tea and this came out in an awesome glass tea pot. This tea was extremely strong. Bitter yet not overly so, it smelt like really good tea.

Green Tea

We also ordered an appetiser of renkon chips ($4.40). This came out as super thinly cut slices of lotus roots, deep-fried and slightly salted. Very so slightly on the oily side, it was subtly tasty and oh so confusingly addictive.

renkon chips - $4.40

The spider roll ($11.50) came out as 8 sushi pieces with soft-shell crab, cucumber, lettuce, fish roe and wasabi mayo. It was tasty and the soft-shell crab was yummy but the rice was slighty on the soft, soggy and mushy side. Wasn't bad though.

Spider Roll - $11.50

We also ordered the Salmon Sashimi Salad ($18.50). This was a bed of green salad topped with several big thick slices of salmon sashi. In the mix was some avocado pieces, cherry tomato and a half-cooked onsen tamago ("hot spring egg"). There's also a vinegary dressing with wasabi mayo, and bits of crunchy gyoza paper strips sprinkled on top. It was a very nice, tasty and fresh salad - but I do miss the awesome sashimi salad at Sushi Suma.

Salmon Salad - $18.50

Last but not least, we ordered the Okonomiyaki Seafood ($16.50). This japanese pancake was filled with prawn, squid, and cabbage and topped with tasty bonito flakes, nori, mayo and okonomiyaki brown sauce. This egg/flour mixture was filling and tastes quite traditional.

Seafood Okonomiyaki - $16.50

Overall, the food here was not bad and came out nice and hot and fresh. The downfall is this - the food came out extremely extremely slow. The whole restaurant gave off a zen vibe - dimly lit, quiet and very relaxing. So if you're here looking for a fast feed - you'll be disappointed. But if you're here to enjoy authentic Japanese food at an authentic Japanese pace... well... this is your nice and cozy little restaurant.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Emon
432 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
tel: (02) 9698 0778