Ju-Rin - Crows Nest

Taking a brief break from our overseas eats...

Ju-Rin

SMH Favourite Asian Restaurant - Ju-Rin was the destination for our group of six. Needing to book a few days in advance and even then, ending up with a booking at 6pm (kicking us out by 8pm) - we were expecting good things from this place.

We decided to order a few things to share. For starters, there was the Green Salad with Wakame. This was amazingly fresh and the dressing was mixed just right - seemed almost tailored to our taste buds. Not too vinegary, not too sweet, not too salty, it was just right - complementing the fresh greens and delish wakame really really well.

Wakame and greens salad

We also ordered the Torched Salmon with Avocado Sauce. Instead of a "sauce", it was actually avocado pieces. The salmon pieces to flamed so that the outers were lightly charred and the insides were nice and rare. The seasoning (subtly sweet) and the avocado made for perfect match. The only qualm is that the slices were limited. Definately not enough of this yummy fish.

Torched Salmon and avocado sauce

The Premium Wagyu Karubi Box Sushi came out as 8 pieces. The beef was super tasty, teriyaki-like taste and beefy texture. As they were little pieces, the rice:beef proportion was done quite well.

Premium Wagyu box sushi

Next up were the Squid and Scallop Steamed dumplings. Three of these made a serving. This was interesting but I'm not entirely sure how much I liked it. The texture was mushy and "siu mai" like with a wierd wrinkled mushy skin. The innards were subtle. Very very subtly scallopy - almost too subtle. AND - you could chomp it in one bite - mmm... not enough.

Squid and Scallop Dumplings

The Tonkatsu (crumbed deep fried pork cutlet), on the other hand, was larger proportional-wise. Crunchy crumbed juicy tasty pork dipped in awesome mayo. YUM.

Tonkatsu

The Special Jumbo Roll was a blackboard special. It was really really jumbo. Even my partner needed 2 bites to swallow. Whilst awesomely huge, the sushi filling wasn't too exciting. Egg, avocado, marinated bamboo shoots and shitake, and bits of... eel? and flying fish roe. Tasty combination, large... but I much rather my awesome salmon and avocado :)

Special Jumbo Roll

We also ordered noodles with pork bits. The soup was slightly subtly chilli and tasty but not msg-like. The noodles were good - not too mush and not too undercooked. However, sharing one little bowl of noodles between the 6 of us were hard. Not a very sharable dish LOL

Pork Noodles

Last on our list were Salmon and Cream Spring Rolls. These were surprisingly awesome. Super tongue-burning hot, the creamy white paste mixed with bits of salmon oozed out of a crispy spring roll pastry which was deep fried til golden. Good inovation from the normal pork or vege based spring rolls.

Salmon and Cream Spring Rolls

Overall, the staff were friendly. They gave us room to chat and be loud. But were also attentive when we needed to add dishes. The proportions weren't overly large so for the price, you could probably get more food elsewhere. However, the quality of the eats was high - most dishes came out really yummy and appetising. Not a bad restaurant to return to, but not if we're trying to budget :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 29.5/40

Ju-Rin
316 Pacific Hwy
Crows Nest
NSW 2065
Tel: (02) 9966 5811