Toriciya - Cammeray

A few of our friends had recommended for us to dine at Toriciya ages and ages ago. But for various reasons, it had taken us til now to visit this joint. Post-media hype meant some difficulties in getting a reservation and a bit more forward planning (of which we suck at). The restaurant was small and cozy. Japanese speakers were everywhere - most importantly, in the kitchen - meaning atleast a good level of authenticity.

They had a specials page. Out of that, we couldn't resist ordering the Otoro (fatty tuna belly). Our waitress said that the tuna was from Norway - then shipped to Tokyo - and then to us. It was super super fatty, really melt-in-your-mouth and gave off a very mild and subtly sweet flavour. It came at a price though!

Something else from the specials menu was the charcoal grilled extra large Cloudy Bay clams. These were not chewy or tough... but still, slightly underwhelming.

 The Toriciya nigiri set did not disappoint though. The fish were all really fresh and really sweet. The thickness of the nigiri was perfect. There was scampi, tuna, king fish belly, salmon belly, scallop and some other fish that I've completely forgotten the names of. It was all delicious.

As Toriciya is also famous for their skewers ($3 each), we ordered a plenty. There was pork belly, chicken and shallot, japanese sausage, chicken skin, etc. and you could choose between having it basted in sauce or just sprinkled with salt. The skewers were all OK.

Just to make sure hubby was full, he ordered a triangle rice. This was literally a triangular shaped rice with sauce and fried. It was slightly overpriced for what it was.

Last but not least - dessert! We each got a scoop of icecream. The brownish looking scoop is the roasted green tea icecream whereas the normal green scoop is just normal green tea icecream. I liked my roasted green tea icecream muchly.

All up, it was a good meal at Toriciya. The produce here is fresh and the package presents itself nicely. It is slightly pricey but I guess fresh produce comes at a cost :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Toricya
18 Cammeray Road
Cammeray, NSW 2062
Tel: (02) 9904 2277

Sushi Hotaru - Sydney

Sushi trains bring back lots of memories. High school trip to Japan where a bunch of rowdy teens filled the whole sushi train shop. Lots of wasted time in HK waiting to be seated (cos every sushi train was super crowded back in the day). Late night after-uni sushi training. Much happiness indeed. So when we were invited by lovely Sue to dine at Sushi Hotaru, we jumped to the occasion.

It was my virgin trip to Sushi Hotaru, even though there has been many good things about the place. The first thing that drew my eye was the mosaic backdrop - sets the scene well :)

the chef (off to side) was camera-shy but super friendly :)

Most sushi plates are $3, which is awesome really. And not only can you pick off the train, you can also order off their i-pads (which unfortunately for me, means a lifetime of indecisiveness). Nonetheless, we made our choices and left stomachs satisfied.

Sushi Hotaru adds three-four new menu items each year. Guess that means you can come back time after time and try something yummy. For tonight, some of the new items included a crunchy prawn and cucumber roll, pork buns and seared chilli squid nigiri. That's where my search for new items stopped and instantly, focus was on eating. The seared chilli squid nigiri was super tasty. Slightly charred flavour, sweet (sauce-wise and seafood-wise), hint of chilli, all freshness and just zomg YUM. A plethora of really pleasing flavours - took a lot of self control to not order a second.

On Sue's recommendation, I punched in the beef tataki nigiri. Being two slices of Australian Wagyu, slightly seared, topped with onion, ginger and shallot, it was soft, light-meaty tasting and didn't requite too much chewing. Much much yummier than other beef tataki's I've had in other places.

The salmon nigiri also came with glowing recommendations. A large, really fresh slice of salmon atop of neatly made rice ball. What could go wrong really! Delicious :) I have to say, I liked the salmon nigiri more than the ship sushi with salmon bits and salmon roe which was OK but lacked the wow. The salmon and avocado roll was also good but again, just like your standard. 

I would highly recommend using the screens if you are ordering sushi's with deep-fried or seared things. We took a few dishes straight from the conveyor belt - one of them being the soft shell crab roll. It wasn't bad - it's just that I could imagine all the potential - how much more awesome it could have been if it was made to order. And I guess they also have good QC on their train - every two hours, someone's checking to make sure that the sushi training around is still good to eat, discarding any that don't look appetising.

Halfway through our meal, the chef handed over a pork bun. I took it before I realised that I didn't order it. I was about to stammer out that it wasn't ours when the chef happily waved the dish back to us and told us to try. I was super glad we did. The pork was melt in your mouth. The pork fat aromas filled my mouth and the warm, soft steamed bun was there to soak up all the oils. And of course, the kewpi - just completed the whole bun for me. A bit of lettuce and some sweet brown sauce... the package was just deliciousness!

Hubby ordered an eel hand roll. Unfortunately, he felt like the eel needed a bit more sauce. He also chose the lobster salad ship sushi. I thought it was good (but I like all salad-dressinged things) but hubby thought it was so so. Nonetheless, we ended the meal with a bang as I ordered two more really yummy items (which were a bit similar but oh so yummy) - the seared scallops (with and without the chilli and sweet sauce) and the seared chilli salmon. It's similar in flavour in some ways - but the fact that one was a salmon and one was a scallop allowed you to differentiate and look at each sushi with renewed appreciation.

All up, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Sushi Hotaru. Tasty and fresh (especially when ordering off their fancy screens), definitely a good choice for a fast quenching of sushi craving. Moreover, if you eat here enough, you can collect stamps on their loyalty card - one stamp for every $20 - 10% off for every 5th stamp! Happy hour here is from 2.30pm to 5.30pm where miso soup or green tea is given for free :)

Sushi Hotaru (Town Hall)
125-129 Bathurst Street
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9264 1630

We dined as guests of Sushi Hotaru and SD Marketing

Taiki Japanese Restaurant

A craving for Japanese food took us nearby to Lane Cove one night. I always crave sushi and hubby always enjoys Blue Fin Tuna, so when we found out that Taiki had Blue Fin on their menu, we were both pretty happy and edging to try.

We couldn't resist ordering the 'Otoro' nigiri (fatty tuna). We envisioned something similar to the awesome melt-in-your-mouth experience we had in Tokyo. Unfortunately, this fell a bit short. Yes it was tasty and yummy - but it lacked that melty feeling and was slightly sinuey.

How could I resist from ordering the deluxe sashimi and sushi platter. Loads of deliciously fresh sashimi. The salmon was good and this chunky white fish (not kingfish) was sooooo good. It was so creamy and delish! The nigiri here was average but OK enough to satisfy my sushi cravings.

More tuna for hubby came in the form of a grilled tuna cheek. This didn't LOOK good but it smelt pretty tasty. The tuna flesh was silky and yum. I actually really liked it and there was a lot more meat than what I'd expected.

The restaurant wasn't super busy but all the customers here seemed happy with their orders. The sashimi was pretty amazing and the tuna cheek was not bad. However, the nigiri and sushi rolls here were just average.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40


Taiki Japanese Restaurant
96 Longueville Road
Lane Cove NSW 2066
Tel: (02) 9428 1007

Guest Post - Sydney's BEST speedy sushi

Sushi is the perfect food when you’re on the go: it’s light, full of energy and packs a pretty good flavour punch. It’s also pretty spill-friendly (as long as you go easy on the soy), making it ideal for a speedy business lunch.

Words and Photography provided by Menulog.

We’re lucky to live in a city that has embraced the art of Japanese cuisine and has such easy access to fresh seafood. Outside of central Sydney, however, it can still be difficult to track down genuine, quality sushi. Here are some quality restaurants around the city that will ease your craving for good sushi on the go.

Ichiro’s Sushi Bar, Mascot

What to order: The Aero, Botany and Bourke signature sushi rolls.

Yume, Gladesville

What to order: Brown rice sushi to be extra virtuous.

Watermoon, Potts Point

 What to order: Beautifully fresh sashimi.

Okonomy, Five Dock

What to order: The Entree (assorted sushi and sashimi) set.

Paper Planes, Bondi

What to order: The chicken teriyaki and salmon bento – for a taste of everything.

@! (At Restaurant) - Crows Nest

On recommendation from a close friend who said that they had the best sushi in Sydney at a little restaurant in Crows Nest, we absolutely just had to try.  The restaurant is on one of the main streets of Crows Nest and is called @! Restaurant. Restaurant with symbols as names? Yup - I'm intrigued.

Stepping in, is small and neat. Run by seemingly authentic Japanese people (which is always a good sign). Looking around the other tables and looking at the menu, there were way too many things we wanted to try. After much deliberation, we settled for a Wagyu Potato Nest, Grilled Kingfish head, and the Sushi Omakase.

The Wagyu Potato Nest comprised of super delicious, flavoursome, melt-in-your mouth wagyu beef cubes, soaked in some really awesome slightly sweet sauce. This came with a mound of super crispy thin potato fries. Because the fries were super thin and crisp, it didn't get too soggy, even when it fell in to the sauce. Was quite a yummy dish!

Wagyu Potato Nest

 The Kingfish head came out next. At this time, I was super puzzled as to why our sushi came out last (cos authentically, shouldn't sushi and sashimi come out first so that our palates weren't tainted??). Anyway, the Kingfish Head was really well cooked. The meat was succulent and juicy and whilst it possibly just had salt and pepper on it, it was really good - esp with a hint of lemon on it :)

Grilled Kingfish Head

 Lastly, the omakase sushi set turned heads around the restaurant. It looked absolutely gorgeous and the people on the next table were quite envious. There was a huge variety of fish - all really fresh and good. Not quite tokyo standard, but my friend was right, one of the best sushis in Sydney. The tuna was good. The salmon was good. The lightly flamed scallop with sea-urchin was AMAZING. The scampi was super sweet. Hubby loved the sea eel. All up - LOVED IT!

Omakase Sushi Set - $55

@! Restaurant is definitely a restaurant to return to in the super near future!

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

@! Restaurant
417 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest, NSW 2065
Tel: (02) 9437 5285

Sushi One - Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a city of life and amazement. It is also a city filled with plenty of super busy people living their super busy lives. However, it is also Chinese people who live in this city, and sterotypically, as Asians, we all love a good bargain. As such, things like "50% off your Bill" when you eat after 10pm is met with much enthusiasm - so much so, that it felt like we were lining up to enter a night club when we were waiting (seemingly ages) for our table. Having waited for so long, we had long mapped out our selections (as below)...

salmon roe ship

Mackeral sushi

squid and otoro tuna ship

super massive anago eel

salmon and salmon roe sushi

Otoro tuna sushi

scallop done three ways

tropical roll

I have to say, service here is abysmal - which is normal I guess when your staff are working like a dog from early hours til past midnight. The food was average. The fish was all fresh enough and the sushi tasty enough... but nothing spectacular. However, when you account for the fact that you get 50% off your entire food and drink bill, almost all is forgiven right? :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 4/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 25/40

Sushi One
One Grand Tower
639 Nathan Road
Mong Kok, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 3583 1100

Hukuya - Eastwood

My mum's been going on about this Jap restaurant for years and years and years and though I had never been, the intention to give the place a visit had been on my mind for quite some time. Expectations were low - given that it was a Korean owned Jap restaurant,  but we gave it a go anyway. The place was surprisingly packed out! We sat down at the sushi bar and ordered our sushi.

We had the regular sushi - 10 pieces ($16) and the inside-out california roll - 9 pieces ($13). To my amazement, it tasted pretty damn good! The fish was fresh and cut well (though somewhat inconsistently good across the different tables). It was a good fish to rice ratio. The rolls which came with the regular sushi was a bit odd and mainly consisted of cabbage, but my california rolls were deliciousness~

regular sushi (10 pieces) - $16

inside out california roll - $13

I have to say, it's not a bad Korean-owned sushi joint. No wonder it's so busy all the time~ Definitely will be back for a quick bite :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Hukuya Sushi Bar
Shop 1, 25 Railway Pde
Eastwood
NSW 2122
Tel: (02) 9804 8200

Kuma Japanese Restaurant - Rosebery

A few years ago, there was no such thing as group coupon deals. Now, websites which offer heavily discounted meals, activities and travel are rife. If you are very diligent in purchasing and organising and using coupons, you can really save heaps from these deals. They also make pretty good presents. One such deal that I managed to get my hands on recently was a 6 course meal from Kuma for just $35 for 2 people offered by Groupon.

To be completely honest, hubby and I entered this place with really really low expectations. Afterall, a 6 course Jap meal for 2 people for just $35? Seems a little bit too good to be true. Amazingly, however, we were quite blown away by the value and quality which was offered. We were first offered a choice of drink - wine, sake, soft drink etc (which was also included). Miso soup was also complementary. There was some stock standard courses - the sashimi, salmon and avocado roll, tempura...but also some choices involved - deep fried vs pan fried gyoza (either pork or prawn), choice of main course, and flavour of icecream.

sake

The sashimi was good enough, as was the miso soup. No complaints there (but it wasn't WOW factor). The salmon and avocado roll had a little bit too much rice for my liking - but hubby thought it was alright.

entree sashimi

miso soup

salmon and avocado roll

The pan-fried pork gyoza was one of my favourites for the night. Pan-fried so that it was crispy on the bottom, still nice and soft on other sides, and heaps juicy and succulent inards. It was very much YUM. The tempura was alright. Slightly bit too floury for my liking but the prawns were really quite fresh. the tempura was also seasoned quite well.

pan-fried pork dumplings

tempura

In terms of the mains, hubby got the katsu chicken whereas I opted for the teriyaki salmon. The katsu chicken was average. You get your golden brown bread-crumbed crunchy outer-layer covering the tender chicken bits inside. Deep-fried chicken craving tick! My teriyaki salmon was a lot better than I expected. The fish wasn't over or under cooked. It was really really tasty and doused in that sweet teriyaki sauce. And it came with a mound of yummy veges. Liked it quite a bit :)

katsu chicken

teriyaki salmon

Last but not least was dessert. We had one of each flavour - green tea and sesame. The funny shape of the sesame icecream (how it's kind of cylindrical and has specific grooves on it) is indicative of how it came straight out of a store-bought container (the ones you can probably get at asian grocers). The green tea icecream on the other hand, came out nice and spherical. Amazingly enough, both icecreams were actually very deliciousness~ So store-bought or not, it was pretty good.

black sesame & green tea icecream

We were both quite surprised by what we got out of this meal. As it was a pre-paid meal, after we finished eating and felt like we chilled out enough, we just got up and left - how simple and convenient! :) Whilst this particular deal probably can't be purchased at the moment, there's still quite a lot of other restaurant deals offered by Groupon. Just by going here, you can eat to your hearts content for a fraction of the cost!

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall -  29/40

Kuma Japanese Restaurant
304/5-9 Rothschild Ave
Rosebery NSW 2018
Tel: (02) 9663 2902