Sushi e, Japanese, Sydney

sushi-e


Level 4, Establishment
252 George St Sydney

9240 3000

http://merivale.com.au/sushie/

"Imagine you’re in Tokyo dining at an enclave of modern Japanese expression. At the centre of a huge marble bar you watch head chef, Nobuyuki Ura, and his team serenely at work, precisely turning fresh fish into edible works of art. Welcome to sushi e."

Sushi e promises and delivers. From the moment we stepped into sushi e we knew that this was something special.

We started with a selection of three sashimi. The flavours were so delicate. I definitely recommend these, they were incredible.  Kingfish topped with slices of ginger, chives and sesame seeds, drizzled with garlic oil immersed in ponzu and seared with smoking hot olive oil. 




Snapper topped with sesame seeds, chives, lime juice sprinked with english sea salt and drizzled with white soy based dressing.



Spicy scallop flame seared under black mountain chilli and spicy mayo, baby leaf salad



If you dine at sushi-e you must order the sashimi. Everything is of the highest quality and oh so fresh. We ordered the scampi and salmon belly nigiri and requested them to be lightly seared. Best scampi sushi I have ever had in my life.






The Dragon Ash roll is very popular amongst diners and I noticed that several other tables had also ordered the same roll. This was seared salmon inside-out wrapped with prawn and mayo flame seared topped with fried onion and ponzu dressing. I also tasted some really fresh crisp pickled ginger.



We had the fried chicken kaarage and the prawn siu mai as sides. The prawn siumai was fresh and pipping hot and delicious. The kaarage crispy and succulent.





By this stage we were extremely full but the main act was still to come. For our main to share we had the balmain bug tempura which is bug tail tempura tossed in a rich spicy chilli dressing and chives and served with dressed salad greens. This dish actually really reminded me of tofu adegashi.. but instead balmain bug adegashi! I loved this, incredible flavours. A must order.



Overall- a great dining experience. If you want outstanding Japanese, this is the place. If you also want to impress someone this is also the place to take them.

The Good: Incredible food and attentive service. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The Bad: Pricey but then again past diners include Kanye West, Jason Derulo and Leonardo Dicaprio.

Musashi, Japanese, Sydney

Musashi Japanese Restaurant

447 Pitt Street

(Cnr of Pitt Street & Campbell Street)

9280 0377

http://musashirestaurant.com.au/

Last minute impromptu dinner at Musashi! Crap thing about dining out on a Friday is that if you don't organise and book ahead you'll end up like us: waiting half an hour at Chat Thai before giving up and waiting another 20 minutes at Musashi.

Musashi is a casual Japanese restaurant near Haymarket. Its always busy and the food is consistently good (or at least consistent). The interior is also kind of cool.

We share the Tofu and Seaweed salad ($8.80) and the Takoyaki ($8.80). We were like really hungry so failed to take a photo of the takoyaki before it was demolished. Got a pic of the salad though! The salad was really healthy :)

I ordered the Seafood Udon ($15.80). I always order this :) The soup is delicious but also very clean, doesn't have that MSG taste.

The boys all ordered the Musashi Bento Box ($24.80) which is huge. It comes with sashimi, sushi, croquettes, prawn tempura, salad, brocolli, potato salad and teriyaki chicken.

K ordered the Pork Katsu Don ($15.80).

Overall a good experience. There might be a wait but the food is consistent and doesn't damage the wallet.

The Good: Great food, consistent and affordable

The Bad: Might need to wait for a table. The toilets are a bit dodgy.

Menya Oiden, Japanese, Sydney

Menya Oiden

537-551 George Street Sydney

First of all- some news! I'm on Twitter :) I'm a noob though.. never used twitter before so I'm not too sure how it works. Please add (or follow? all this facebook/twitter jargon makes my head spin) me on http://twitter.com/#!/thehungryduck See you there!

Anyways... sooo.. This morning I went to grab a coffee and noticed a new restaurant next to Menya Mappen. 'What's this?!' I asked myself. Enthralled, like a kid for whom Christmas had come early, I realised it was Menya. Oiden is an addition to the Menya chain and follows the same concept as Mappen except it serves hot piping Japanese rice bowls instead of udon bowls.

I had to try it. It didn't matter that I only had breakfast an hour ago, I was having lunch at Oiden. Hah! The determination of a foodie. On a side note- I wonder if I can claim all these meals as tax deductions..

Oiden is a 'self serve' rice bowl bar- basically you select your main and then you get toppings/additions yourself (just like in an old school cafeteria). Its cheap, the small beef bowl is $4.50 a bowl and the large $6.50. Most of the additions are around $2 each. There is also free chilled filtered water.

This is the restaurant right before noon

And shortly later a queue forms..

There's quite a few options to choose from. Since I wasn't that hungry I opted for the small beef rice bowl. But check out the menu! How cool does cheese beef bowl and ontama beef bowl sound? I'm so trying them out next time :)

Restaurant interior

I order a 'small beef bowl' and the 'small' is actually quite small - Check out the size of the bowl the guy is holding. Its a good healthy portion but I was still a bit surprised since its really small.

Creamy half-boiled eggs ($1.50)

Hot Bar Offerings ($1.50- $2.80)

Cold Bar Offerings ($0.90- $1.90)

Miso Soup ($1.50)

Beef Rice Bowl ($4.50)

The verdict? This is a guilt free lunch that's simple and tasty. A small bowl of rice topped with sukiyaki beef, shallots and pickled ginger.

I also order one chicken karaage ($2). This was deliciously crispy on the outside and tender on the inside :)

My only criticism would be the lack of healthy greens. The only greens I saw were either deep fried (ie asparagus tempura) or seaweed (which doesn't really count). Tsk! I can mentally picture my mum complaining about the oil and fat content..

Anyways I did manage to spot some fresh cold tofu ($1.50) which is healthy and sort of makes me feel better about eating that chicken karaage. Drizzle some soy sauce on top and its delicous.

Overall? Its a novel experience worth trying :)

The Good: Affordable, quick and simple meal

The Bad: Limited options (mostly rice). Also you cant really sit and chat for long.

Sushi Tei (Take Two) and Sunday Night Listening

Sushi Tei (take two)

1 Chifley Square

Sydney

www.sushitei.com

Remember last time where I said I was pleasantly surprised by Sushi Tei? Well.. I gave Sushi Tei another try on Friday it was disappointing (to say the least). But you know what is surprising? This acoustic version of Sam Sparro's Black and Gold by Katy Perry :) Cute hair bow too

Anyways so Sushi Tei.. where do I start?

The restaurant is big and spacious.. We get seated at the far end of the restaurant but because of this, it was a bit hard to get anyone's attention.

Green Tea

Sashimi Salad

We start with a sashimi salad served with Sushi Tei's special dressing. Urgh this used the cheapest cuts of tuna. I don't even think it was sashimi grade because one piece I got was chewy and sinewy. Gross.

Aburi Sushi Rolls

We order a selection of aburi sushi and receive six of the saddest looking sushi I've ever seen in my life.

Combination Sushi Rolls

This was slightly better than the aburi sushi except for the boiled scallop sushi. That's the third one in the top row.. How depressing does it look? Seriously.. Its shrivelled up and looks like its been sitting around for the past three hours. We didn't even bother eating this one. Actually to be honest, I felt quite sick the next day... So I would definitely recommend you avoid Sushi Tei's sashimi & raw offerings..

Baked Scallops with Cheese

Finally! Something decent. This was good but not as good as the ones I had last time. The last time we had them they were freshly made, however this time they were warm and I think premade.

Salmon Aburi and Crab Meat Roll

Unagi Roll

King Prawn Roll

The three above cooked sushi rolls were okay but nothing fantastic or special.

Adegashi tofu

This was probably the dish of the night (which isn't saying much since its just deep fried tofu in dashi with bonito flakes on top).

Luckily we used an entertainment voucher so the meal worked out to be only $30 per head. However at $40 per head, I wouldn't recommend Sushi Tei. There are much better Japanese restaurants in Sydney.

The Good: Central location (near Chifley Plaza), plenty of seating and hot menu

The Bad: Poor quality sashimi and fresh sushi

Sushi Hotaru, Japanese, Sydney

Sushi Hotaru

Level 1, The Galleries Victoria

500 George Street Sydney

9262 9917

http://www.yesfoodservice.com.au/sushihotaru.html

Recently opened, Sushi Hotaru has been very popular because of its central location and also because all plates (Except the gold ones) are $3.00. Thats all hand rolls and pretty much everything on the menu except for sashimi.

The restaurant is pretty big and if you're lucky enough to get a table, you have the option of ordering off a touch screen.

Salmon and cream cheese

Crumbed Prawn

Sashimi ($7.90)

Salmon and Cucumber Roll

Think this one has one of those fancy names (like rainbow roll/volcano roll etc) but cant remember it so I'll just describe whats in it haha

Takoyaki

Delicious and only $3. I suggest you order these off the menu because if you take them off the train, theres a chance that theyre not fresh or crispy.

Soft shell crab and omelette hand roll

Spicy grilled scallop sushi

Beancurd sushi

OK I don't know what these are called but I dont really like them. The beancurd is sweet and its basically rice wrapped in sweet tofu/beancurd.

Raw scallop sushi

Chicken, avocado and cheese sushi

If you like sushi, you'll love sushi hotaru. The menu is massive and at $3, you'll be so stuffed afterwards you'll have to waddle home.