Sydney Yummy: Japanese

I tend to try my best to catch up on social life during holiday, as weekdays is impossible to be social, and weekends is often too short to even relax myself! When H called up during the Easter holiday, I quickly suggested a date to catch up as we have not seen each other for more than a year. It's quite unbelievable given that she work and live in the CBD, I by pass the city almost everyday, but that's how busy our lives are!!

Knowing that I just started my restaurant blogging recently, she suggested for us to try Sushi E, a fine Japanese restaurant in the Establishment hotel. Sushi E doesn't sound foreign to me at all, as it belong to one of the Merivale groups, which have a variety of famous restaurants under them. As with most fine dining restaurant, sitting is limited, so it's strongly suggested that you pre-booked your dinner, which we did, of course!

It's located on the 4th floor of Establishment hotel on George St. The actual restaurant is not big at all, in fact, a large part of Level 4 is actually a very swanky bar called Hemmesphere. Because of the lighting condition, I am not able to take good pic of the restaurant and the bar, but you can view it here.

H booked a 6.30pm dinner, and when I arrived a little late, as usual, she was already there.
It's a good thing to dined early here, and you'll see why. We're the 2nd couple around the table, and there are 3 chef preparing the freshest sushi and sashimi in front of us. The middle one is the head chef of the restaurant, Nobiyuki Ura ( pictured above ). He is such a charming guy with a very cheeky personality. As I mention, because it's early, and there were not a lot of diners, we received very personal service from the chef, and even receive a plate of free sashimi **

We carefully selected a few dishes to share. This is H's second time but my first, and there are so many dishes that I like to try!!

salmon tartare $23. raw salmon combined with onion, lemon and mayo then finished with generous serves of salmon roe and cucumber. The salmon is then dressed with a wasabi ponzu dressing

It's quite interesting to see that your food is being prepared right in front of you. Our first dish, the Salmon Tartare, was quickly prepared and appeared in front of our eyes in no time. It's actually raw salmon combined with onion, lemon and mayo,then finished with generous serves of salmon roe and cucumber. The salmon is then dressed with a wasabi ponzu dressing. There are also a few pieces of fried wonton skin or similar kind of pastry strips, as an accompany to this dish. The salmon pieces is very fresh, and I love the popping of saltiness when bite into the really generous serves of salmon roe. I'm actually glad that we share this dish as it can be quite rich to be consumed alone.

Special Treats from charming chef for us ONLY ** Snapper Sashimi

We were so surprise when the chef treat us with this awesome snapper sashimi, dressed in a light lemon and vinegar sauce. He say it's his personal dish for us to try and hope we like it. Of course we like it, the snapper is fresh and the dressing tangy, we absolutely loved it!

spicy scallop tempura roll * $19.0 scallop tempura pieces, cucumber and tobiko, with togarashi chili on spicy red sauce rolled I/O (L)
spider roll * (soft shell crab) $17.5 dry fried soft shell crab, cucumber and jalapeno mayo, rolled I/O with spicy tobiko and chives (R)
We select 2 types of sushi from the extensive menu. The spicy scallop tempura roll was rolled inside out, with scallop tempura pieces, cucumber and tobiko, and togarashi chili on spicy red sauce. However, it was the spider roll that steal our hearts. It's also rolled inside out, with dry fried soft shell crab, cucumber, jalapeno mayo,spicy tobiko and chives. The crab pieces is huge, and very nicely flavoured.

If we have bigger appetite, we would love to try more exotic sushi, like the hemmesphere roll , which consists of salmon, avocado, baby capers, mixed cress, jalapeno mayo and spanish onion rolled inside out, which the chef
prepared for another dinner. ( pictured )

wagyu beef 5 score $48. 500 day grain fed wagyu from south queensland with a white miso and sesame sauce, grated radish, bok choy, chives and sautéed enoki mushrooms

But I'm glad we didn't, coz when our 5 score wagyu arrived, it was scumptious!! It was 2 large pieces of fatty, juicy wagyu, lightly grilled, serve with a white miso and sesame sauce, grated radish,bok choy, chives and sautéed enoki mushrooms. May I say that it was the most tender beef i have ever eaten?! It's so soft and moist it's almost like eating beef cake! It makes me wonder, how tender can the 9 score wagyu be?
BTW, just some info about the scoring of the wagyu: the higher the score means more marbling effects, which also means, more fat stuff between the meat layer! The quality of wagyu and hence the price of it also depends on the scoring, from 1 to 12. I've read from a food magazines that a 12 score wagyu will look like a piece of meet covered in snow!!!
Alas, every delicious foods tends to clog your heart!!!

agedashi tofu $18.0 silken tofu which is deep fried then served in a hot broth of dashi, mirin and soy

The last dish was the agedashi tofu, which is a good way to end the dinner. After the fatty beef, we really need some cleansing tofu, albeit they were deep fried :)

I have a love and hate relationship with agedashi tofu, if well prepared, it can be the most simple yet delicately flavoursome dish. on the other hand, it can be bland, oily and yucky! Which fortunately, was not the case here, the tofu is so smooth and silky, pairing with the slimy outer skin and light soy = heaven!

Complimentary Free Treats : Berries Custard jelly

Dessert was complimentary, the custard is smooth, sweet and a nice companion to the slightly zingy berries compote on top.

I really enjoyed the dinner, catching up with an old friend, enjoying a fantastic dinner, and best of all, having a great great time in sushi E, I'm not saying this becoz of the free sashimi, though we really appreciate his generosity!! I'm surely going to be back with husband very soon!!

Sushi E
Establishment Hotel Level 4,
252 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9240 3041

Everyone know, I'm a big sushi lover! I'll travel for good sushi, I'll pay for fresh sushi, I'll photograph creative sushi, I'll stand in the rain and queue for a perfect sushi, I'll gain weight for special sushi, but, I'll also loose my temper over bad sushi!! I've tried a lot of sushi in Sydney CBD and surround, but nothing can beat the sushi at Makoto. Their sushi is always fresh, and the chef is also very creative and there are always new sushi, new flavours everytime we visit. The only downside to dine in Makoto is that I always come home heavier and my wallet, lighter!

I'm still waiting for one day, there will be a thing call all you can eat sushi train! ( I've tried the all you can eat Japanese buffet at Yutaka, but sushi is not a main theme there, and i haven't return since! )

In Makoto, the price of each sushi is according to the colour of the plate, it's very standard sushi train style. We discover that most of the colour plates circling around the conveyor belt were blue and red. More exotic sushi will be placed on a black colour plate, and more simple one will be place on the cheaper colour plate ( light yellow ). A La Carte and handroll menu also available.

We almost always have to queue for at least 10 mins before there are seats available. ( Sydney siders do know their sushi! ). During winter time, there are also free hot green teas available for us, who queue outside the bar waiting to be seated. Just for the records, the longest we've been waiting on queue is about 30 mins! But it's well worth it, and I'll let the pics do all the talking!