Sushi Bar Rashai - Annandale

I drive past Parramatta Road quite a bit and every time I pass Sushi Bar Rashai I get quite intrigued. I get intrigued by the slightly bad English plastered on their window - "Bit slow but friendly" and "If you do not enjoy your meal - it's simple you don't pay". Interesting. For a restaurant to be putting their service speed down. AND for a restaurant to be so confident and bold about how awesome their food is they're willing for you to not pay for the meal... Has to be worth a try, right?

As my partner and I stepped into the restaurant, albiet super early for dinner, the first thing that caught my eye was all the "reserved" signs... on almost every table. The lesson to be learned here? Call up to book in advance. Lucky for us, as we were so early, they offered us a seat anyway.

Seated, we are met with a double-sided A3 size menu as well as a 'chef's special'. The food is okay-ishly priced and the dishes are just your ordinary average ones. Hence, we chose our ordinary average options.

The seaweed salad ($6.80) was just like every other seaweed salad. Marinated, sesame oiled and a hint of chilli throughout. Love seaweed salad - so quite pleased with this.

seaweed - $6.80

We also ordered the tofu salad ($9.80). We anticipated that we'd like the salad dressing and hence, opted for their "extra sauce" option. This came out as a nice and big plate of fresh bean curd with fresh greens. Their salad dressing was pretty awesome. Lots of onion with vinegar to make a dull brownish yellowish semi thick semi liquid paste which complements the greens and the tofu triangles really really well.

tofu salad - $9.80

Last but not least, we ordered the small party sushi and sashimi combination ($42.80). The presentation of this did not wow us by any amount. Meh - ordinary looking, nothing special. HOWEVER, the freshness of the sashimi DID manage to wow us. The salmon was awesomely awesome! Thickness was just right and regardless of whether they seared and flamed it a bit or whether it came natural or even in the sushi roll, it was creamy and super fresh. The other sashimi (tuna, kingfish, scallop) was likewise, very fresh and appetising. If only they fixed up the presentation of the platter ...

party sushi and sashimi combination (small) - $42.80

So overall, the restaurant is quite decent. Yes- we did end up paying for the meal and surprisingly, for a restaurant which claims slightly slow service, our dishes came out in no-time (but friendliness is to be questioned). Next time, though, I think we'd better book :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Sushi Bar Rashai
241 Parramatta Road
Annandale
NSW 2038
Tel: (02) 9560 3007