Sushia Izakaya, Sydney CBD

Miss Piggy dined as a guest of  Sushia Izakaya at the invitation of Horizon Communication Group.

Nestled in the back of the old Stock Exchange Building on Bond Street is Sushia Izakaya - a modern sushi restaurant offering a sushi train plus restaurant section and bar seating that overlooks the sushi masters at work.  It's the triple threat of sushi!

I don't make it up to the "big end of town" very often and I'm surprised at how much this little strip in the financial district has changed.  The office tower has been totally refurbished since my 1995 job interview in this very same building (yes, I'm THAT old). There's a cluster of good looking restaurants nestled around the side near the tiny (and no longer scary looking) Abercrombie Lane (aka the home of Establishment). It makes me miss working in the city - especially when there are such good eating options these days.

Because I'm dining by myself I grab a seat at the sushi train and wait for the chefs to send out some of their most popular dishes for me to try (yes, it's a tough life I know). I know I shouldn't as I'm sure I have quite the feast heading my way but my hand just reached out and grabbed a plate of sushi from the train.  It had been tempting me for a few laps so I was helpless to its lure. I'm a sucker for anything with cooked tuna so the salmon + tuna roll ($4.50) is perfect. Compared to a recent sushi train lunch out west that nearly bankrupted me I have to say the sushi train prices here are fairly cheap.

With my single plate from the sushi train inhaled I sip on my green tea that I think has been steeped with toasted brown rice - I love the nutty flavour this gives to the tea. Whilst enjoying my green tea it's hard not to be struck by the decor here. The walls are shaped like large, wooden fins, and the wave shaped embedded into the walls make me feel like I'm dining "in" the ocean.

The first dish sent out for me to try is one of my all time favourites - agedashi tofu ($8.50 for 4 pieces). After recently trying to cook tofu at home for the first time ever I have a new found respect for people that can cook tofu well, without it falling apart at the slightest glance in its direction. I loved the sweet dashi broth that was studded with crispy almond flakes that offered a great textural counterbalance to the silky smooth tofu.

Next up was the seafood kushiyaki ($12.90 for two skewers). The slightly charred, tender pieces of salmon, calamari and prawns were topped with a sweet and spicy chilli balsamic sauce that reminded me of a sticky chilli jam in flavour.

The sushi and sashimi platter ($34.90) is the stuff that sushi lovers dream off (well, I do anyway).  This beautiful looking platter is as vibrant + colourful as a piece of art (and in a way I guess it is art).  The platter is piled with tender pieces of delicately cut fresh sashimi (15 pieces of sashimi in all!!!!), piles of nigiri sushi (raw sushi on rice) + aburi sushi (that's nigiri sushi that's had a bit of a go around with the old blowtorch = charred, smoky and delicious)! I could quite happily eat a platter like this for lunch everyday (along with some agedashi tofu of course).

 

I don't usually order anything other than seafood or veggies when I'm at a Japanese restaurant so I was interested to try the  9+ Wagyu beef steak ($29.50) with a sesame demi sauce.  Wagyu beef isn't something I'd normally eat as I generally stick to grass fed beef and I'm surprised at how cheap this dish is given how expensive some Wagyu dishes can be.  It's definitely a bargain dish for wagyu lovers - though I still do prefer the flavour of grass fed beef. What I really enjoyed on this dish (apart from the lotus root chip) was the sweet potato mash - it's the sweetest sweet potato that I've ever tasted (which I think may be partially due to the sesame demi sauce).

The food at Sushia Izakaya is beautiful and wonderfully fresh. I think this restaurant is a great addition to the dining options at the "big end of town" especially now that Sushi Choo has cleared out of The Ivy just down the road.  Even better is that Sushia Izakaya has a focus on using fresh and ethically sourced produce which I think is just fantastic. The restaurant also supports the work of Compassion (a child advocacy organization) in Burayou, Ethiopia. Nicely done Sushia Izakaya - dining with a conscious. I like it.

Sushia Izakaya can be found at Shop 4 (ground floor), 20 Bond Street, Sydney.  Phone them on 9247 9911.

Sushi Train, Adelaide

Back when I lived in Broken Hill we'd occasionally make the five hour drive to Adelaide in order to soak up some big-city-living. Apart from Mildura, a three hour drive south, Adelaide is the closest thing to the "big smoke" that Broken Hill has.  Truth be told my main reason for wanting to visit Adelaide was Sushi Train. I wouldn't even check into the hotel on these Adelaide visits - I HAD to go straight to Sushi Train and stuff my face - the hotel could wait. When you live in a town with no sushi train you get a little...desperate.

As soon as I saw Adelaide's Sushi Train on our drive in from the airport to Eat.Drink.Blog headquarters I knew had to get my fix...for old times sake.  It was a Pavlovian response - I saw Sushi Train and started to drool.  This time though I dropped my bags off at the hotel before taking my place at the train.

Everything was just as fabulous as I remember - all my old favourites were still doing their lap on the conveyor belt. The crisp tempura prawn nigiri drizzled with lashings of sweet teriyaki sauce was as scrumptious as ever and the creamy tuna ship was still perfection on a plate.

I think Salmon Aburi is always a good choice, the salmon being scorched by the deft touch of a blow-torched which gives it a lovely smokey flavour and a creamy texture. I also could not pass up one of my favourite sushi dishes - Dragon Roll, a firmly wrapped roll of cucumber and cream cheese that is topped with eel, sesame seeds and a sweet sauce.

I had to limit sushi intake on this visit as I was off to meet some other bloggers for a sweet afternoon tea but I thought four plates wasn't too piggy.

Sushi Train is at  36 City Central Market Arcade (Gouger Street), Adelaide.

Sushi Wow, Parramatta

I've often wanted to duck into Sushi Wow in Parramatta's Church Street Mall, but the lure of my beloved Sushi Bay at the monolithic Westfield is just too hard to resist. Recently though I bit the bullet and cheated on Sushi Bay....and I'm kinda glad I did as Sushi Wow is really...WOW!

The restaurant is quite dark and "moody" but the food is anything but.  There were so many enticing plates of sushi to choose from, but as I'd just returned from a huge food blogger conference in Adelaide (aka eating weekend) I limited myself to four plates (though I'm sure I could've squeezed in five if I REALLY tried).

The Dragon Roll was topped with the largest piece of eel that I've ever seen adorning a sushi roll. The eel was charred perfectly and sweet from a dousing in a teriyaki style sauce, and the addition of cream cheese in the filling gives the whole morsel a lovely creamy texture.  Of course I cannot go past a good old Tuna Roll - these were great. You can go wrong with a dollop of creamy tuna encased in a rice + seaweed blanket.

Sushi Wow also had quite a few styles of sushi role that I've not seen elsewhere like the simple and fresh tasting Salmon with Seaweed Salad. I loved the slither of orange that came with this plate - dinner and dessert all in one go.  The Tuna Roll topped with a Cheesy Salmon Aburi was FANTASTIC. The tuna was soft and creamy, and the salmon had that lovely charred flavour that can only come from a Japanese restaurant blowtorch (tastes better than it sounds, I promise)!

Sushi Wow is at  188 Church Street, Parramatta (in the Church Street Mall). I'll be back for sure - especially to try their wonderful looking plate of Miso Eggplant (I did go back to try the Miso Eggplant and it's AMAZING, though impossible to eat with chopsticks).

Kai on King, Newtown

There's few things I need in this life to make me happy.  Actually that's a big fat blatant lie.  I need loads of things keep my happy like The Boy, books, The BFF, Big Sister, Niecey Poo, movies, balcony gardening, eating out, Foxtel IQ, mandarins, friends, cats, loads of holidays, more cats, Menya Mappen (and now Hana Hana), my camera, comfortable "eating pants" and of course a decent sushi train within walking distance of my work.

Kai on King is just a quick waddle down King Street and I find myself there quite frequently for a quick lunchtime feed.  It's a nice walk and it makes me happy that I have something pretty healthy not too far from the cubicle farm where I work.

Kai on King has a pretty decent selection of sushi to choose from. They seem to be fairly popular so there are always fresh plates of sushi being added to the merry-go-round of happiness.  My favourites are the little cooked tuna + avocado roll and the soft shell crab roll (YUM).  The avocado roll with edamame is something I've not seen anywhere else before (it's great).

The pumpkin tempura roll is also something I've not seen before and it's another great little option.  And of course who can go past delicious Takoyaki (Octopus Balls) - not me, that's for sure.

They have a weekday lunchtime special on at the moment - but 5 plates get the cheapest one for free - weeeeee!

Kai on King is at 129 King Street,  Newtown.

Umi Kaiten-Zushi, Haymarket

As the BFF and I sat stuffing are faces full of sushi at the sushi train at Umi Kaiten-Zushi I couldn’t help but wonder (she says channeling her inner Carrie Bradshaw) isn’t a little...mean to have a big fish tank in the middle of the sushi train where the fish can watch us eating their relatives? 

Occasionally we’d look up from our fishy feast and spot the fish in the tank staring right at us. I felt a bit guilty, but not guilty enough to stop eating. In fact between us we polished off FOURTEEN plates of sushi. Sorry fish, but you were really tasty.

Whenever I’ve walked past Umi Kaiten-Zushi there has been a line out the door, but this was our lucky night as it seems people are less likely to queue for food when it’s bucketing down outside.  I hope this theory rings true as I’m attempting to visit Jamie’s Italian tonight where I’ve heard tales of someone  waiting TWO HOURS to get a table.

The billboard outside Umi's entrance boats over 100 different types of sushi. With an offer like that how could we resist?

Let the feasting begin...

Fresh salmon topped with Seaweed Salad - a nice way to kick things off.

Fresh salmon topped with fish roe - fancy

Cooked Tuna Ship - my favourite (cos I have boring Aussie tastes perhaps)?

Money Bag type things stuffed with plump, juicy prawns

Drumroll - ROAST PORK BELLY roll. A sushi revelation I tell you.

No idea what this is...but it was tasty.

Salmon Nigiri - that has had the blowtorch treatment.

Tuna Nigiri with sesame seeds

This is what happens when you can't use chopsticks...wah, my sushi! I ate it anyway though.

Eel Nigiri - don't knock it til you've tried it as it's damn tasty.

Edamame - nice.

Some soft of blow-torched fish - mystery fish sushi.

Soft Shell Crab handroll - really really good, espeicaly as it was freshly made to order.

Crab Claw - another favourite.

Some sort of flan type dessert - couldn't quite pick out the flavour, not caramel though (boo).

We had a discount voucher for 25% off our meal (or $20 - whichever was the smaller amount) so our meal ended up costing $40 which is fairly good for two people considering the amount of food we ate.  Without the voucher it would've been $60 - still not bad really, especially as we ate quite a bit of fresh salmon and other not so cheap plates.

Sushi Hon, CBD

It's a sign of the Miss Piggy times that a trip into the city is met with more excitement about where I'm going to eat lunch, rather than where I'm going to shop and what I want to buy. These days I covet food more than clothes...mostly.

In my dream world I had envisaged Niecy Poo lunching at one of the fabulous new restaurants on Level 6 of the new Sydney Westfield, but it was between pay weeks and my car rego is due so we were relegated downstairs to Level 5 to eat at the food court with the regular folks.

Not that the Level 5 food court is anything to be sneezed at. This is the foodcourt to end all foodcourts with not a McDonalds, KFC or dodgy Indian takeaway to be seen. This place puts the fancy back into schmancy - with black marble and posh (foodcourt) nosh as far as the eye can see.

There is an overwhelming choice of eateries here, but in the end we settle on Sushi Hon - a sushi train that  urban legend (or Urbanspoon to be more precise) says has the longest sushi train in the southern hemisphereere...or something like that. Whatever, I just want sushi...on a train...then in my belly.

Like everything at the new Sydney Westfield Sushi Hon is sleek, modern with lots of dark marble.  It's hard to tell how long the sushi train is as it snakes its way around three separate seating areas.

There are quite a few fancy looking plates of sushi doing the rounds - these cost $8.00 a pop and they are hard to resist as each looks more tempting than the last.  In the end we decide to share one fancy plate between us and opt for the Tuna Tataki.  The tuna is super fresh, meaty yet tender, and sits atop of mound of mashed avocado that is almost guacamole like in flavour and texture.

Although there are a few cheaper plates on offer non of these are circulating when we visit lunch so I order a Tuna Ship ($2.80).  Unless they are REALLY badly made Tuna Ships never fail to put a small on my sushi loving face and the offering at Sushi Hon does just that.

Whilst we had the attention of the waitstaff/sushi girls both Niecy Poo and I order a Soft Shell Crab Hand Roll ($5.80). The good thing about ordering your sushi from the staff is that arrives at your table fresh and pipping hot...just like our delectable hand roll.

Next up is the Red Cap ($5.80) which I suppose garners its name from the reddy/orange cap of flying fish roe that sits atop this inside out roll. Beneath the red cap sits a crunchy deep-fried crab stick surrounded by crab salad and avocado.

We had plans to head to Din Tai Fung for dumplings (also at the Level 5 foodcourt) after our turn at the sushi train but I just had to have one more plate of sushi which basically filled me enough...too full for dumplings (but not too full for a dash to my beloved Mappen later in the afternoon)!  The tuna and avacado roll ($4.60) was simple and fresh tasting. Enough said.

All in all the sushi at Sushi Hon was lovely, fresh with some interesting plates doing the rounds.  I did feel some plates were a little pricey - as is most of the food at Sydney Westfield, but the quality was there to justify the more expensive plates.  Would I go back?  Absolutely.


Sushi Hon can be found on Level 5 of Westfield Sydney (86-100 Market Street), Sydney.