Category: Japanese

Japanese combines the best of raw and cooked food. Its Sushi and Sashimi are known worldwide for its distinct way to present food.

Toko Contemporary Japanese Izakaya

Toko Japanese Izakaya Review:

Our review this week came from a Japanese izakaya restaurant, called Toko. The restaurant is located in a busy suburb of Surry Hills in Sydney. We were there to celebrate one of our friends’ birthday with a set menu, Matsuri Banquet Menu. There was quite an extensive list of items in the menu.

Edamame – soy beans, maldon sea salt

There is nothing out of the ordinary to talk about here. It was just a regular edamame.

Hiramasa no usuzukuri – sliced kingfish, yuzu, chives

It was another quick munch-and-devour dish that was not memorable enough.

Koushi no tataki – venison carpaccio, nashi pear, yuzu koshu, potato airbags

This venison was the first dish that we took notice. It was quite a spicy dish. The potato airbags gave an added crunch to the dish.

Japanese salad – seasoned leaves, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, light-wafu

Some of our friends thought that Japanese salad was the best dish of the day. Although I am not a big salad eater, I actually quite enjoyed it. It was sad to think that salad was the best dish in a degustation.

Osashimi omakase – assorted fish from chef’s best selection of the day

It was supposed to be the dish that would bring the wow factor. Instead, we were given the usual sashimi: salmon, tuna, kingfish, scallop, and snapper. To make things worse, we didn’t think the tuna and scallop were sashimi fresh.

Toko signature maki – chef’s selection of maki rolls

Again, there were three ‘standard’ maki rolls: california, ebi, and kingfish.

Pirikara dofu to avocado – spicy fried tofu, avocado salsa, barley miso

Despite the word ‘spicy’, the tofu is nothing but spicy. The venison was actually more spicy than this one. The tofu was also quite dense.

Ebi tempura – crispy prawn tempura, dashi broth

It was a very ordinary prawn tempura. Each one of us only got ONE mediocre prawn.

Wafu zucchini – zucchini, waft sauce, sesame

Despite being only one stick of zucchini, this robatayaki was actually quite enjoyable.

Sake no aburi yaki – smoked miso king salmon, house pickled ginger

Personally, I think this dish was the best for the night. Unfortunately, we had to share this salmon amongst the four of us. It was just my luck that I was also the only one getting fish bone in my piece.

Ko-tori hoba oven-yaki – miso marinated spatchcock baby chicken

We wereIt was a deboned spatchcock. The glazing was almost similar to the salmon.

Dessert platter – chef’s selection of toko desserts

The dessert platter was the saving grace for us. There were quite a lot of elements on it – basically it was all of their desserts lumped into one. The desserts on the plate were rhubarb crumble, pannacotta, fondant, three types of ice cream and assortment of fruits.

Drinks

Considering that they are an izakaya place, their drink menu was pretty good.

Yuzu Martini

Lychee and Jasmine Mojito

The final verdict for Toko Japanese Izakaya

It is quite sad that this amazing venue was majorly let down by its subpar degustation selection. The king salmon and dessert platter were the ones that saved our night.

Did you know?

The group has three restaurants in Australia. One of them is also in Sydney, called Tokonoma, and the other is in Melbourne.

Rating for Toko Japanese Izakaya:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $100 with drinks

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

490 Crown Street, Sydney 2010

+61 2 9357 6100

http://www.toko-sydney.com

Apr 16, 2017
Grilled Beef Tongue Recipe

This week we will be writing about an Indonesian recipe with a little twist, Japanese-style. The recipe is for Grilled Beef Tongue with miso butter sauce.

To be perfectly honest, we weren’t planning to make the Japanese version of it. However, we ran out of the Indonesian ingredients and had to make a little adjustment. Eventually, it worked out brilliantly!

Grilled beef tongue is one of my favourite Indonesian dishes. It takes quite a long time to prepare and very quick to devour.

What do we need to make Grilled Beef Tongue?

1. Whole Beef Tongue – it can be pretty intimidating
2. Onions
3. Garlic
4. Miso paste – you can get any packaged miso paste from grocery shop
5. Butter – same proportion to the miso paste

I did not put a specific number because you may add or reduce according to your need.

The preparation for making Grilled Beef Tongue

The hardest part in the making of this is waiting. You will need to boil the whole beef tongue with onions and garlic in a stockpot/saucepan for more than 3 hours.

After 3 hours of boiling, remove the beef tongue from the stockpot. You will need to peel off the outer layer of the tongue. If you boil the tongue long enough, you will be able to peel it off easily. Otherwise, add an extra hour in the stockpot.

How do we make the Grilled Beef Tongue?

1. After peeling off its outer layer, slice the tongue around 0.5 – 1 cm thick.
2. Melt the butter. 20 seconds in the microwave should be enough.
3. Mix the miso paste with melted butter.
4. Brush the miso butter sauce onto the beef tongue.
5. Grill the beef tongue on both sides.

A little tips to make your perfect Grilled Beef Tongue

1. Like I mentioned earlier, you need to boil the beef tongue long enough so that you can easily peel off the outer layer.
2. Serve the beef tongue over rice!
3. For the Indonesian recipe, we usually use the ‘satay padang‘ paste from Munik. You can also substitute the sauce with your favourite basting sauce.

Apr 3, 2017
Nikuzo

Nikuzo Review:

For our review this week, we We went to Nikuzo Japanese restaurant in Bondi Junction, Sydney. Nikuzo is an all you can eat restaurant with three different buffet menu. The standard buffet is quite cheap and has your basic all-you-can-eat needs, including beef tongue. For $10 extra, you get the wagyu and seafood buffet. There are quite a lot of seafood options, including scallops and soft shell crab.

The premium buffet has more wagyu, but its true value is in the fresh oyster, salmon sashimi and sushi, and beef yukke. If you don’t eat raw stuff, the middle option would be the best for you.

Wagyu

Wagyu is obviously the biggest selling point in the menu. They have 10 different wagyu beef cuts (7 for the middle option and 3 for premium one). Choose whichever cuts you love!

Seafood

I was also quite impressed with the seafood lineup that they served. They have two different kinds of oysters: deep fried and fresh. You can only get 1 oyster per person in the premium buffet. They have unlimited salmon sashimi and sushi. You can also have salmon with butter for the cooked version.

I couldn’t get enough off their deep fried soft shell crab! If seafood is really your thing, you can also order different kinds of prawns and scallops.

Desserts

They have three different desserts: vanilla ice cream, fruits, and Japanese pancakes (Taiyaki). Taiyaki is only available if you choose the premium menu. They have different kinds of toppings for the vanilla ice cream. The premium menu gave you the kinako powder and liqueur topping options.

Everything else

There are quite a lot of other dishes that I could not specify individually.

The final verdict for Nikuzo

It was quite unfortunate that Nikuzo’s setting wasn’t that great. The food that they served was very good. It was also a good value for money.

Did you know?

Let’s just put more pictures here!

Rating for Nikuzo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $30 / $40 / $50 buffet

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

1 Newland St, Bondi Junction 2022

+61 2 9369 3328

Nikuzo in Zomato

Mar 15, 2017
Mottomoo – House of Hamburg

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message color=”alert-info”]

Mottomoo has advised that they have changed their concept and menu. We will be updating the content of this blog post accordingly.

[/vc_message][vc_column_text]

Mottomoo Review:

I actually wasn’t planning on reviewing this restaurant. I was at Mottomoo because I tried to have a quick lunch for the little one before meeting a friend. Unexpectedly, I was quite impressed with their quality. Hence here we are talking about it!

The restaurant is located in one of the high end malls in Jakarta, called Pacific Place. The little one was craving for a Japanese restaurant. More specifically, the craving was for Japanese salmon teriyaki. It’s really hard to find even a decent salmon teriyaki in Indonesia.

Salmon Teriyaki Don – 63k – Japanese rice bowl with Norwegian Salmon fillet brushed in special house made teriyaki sauce

It was probably one of the more elaborate teriyaki don I have ever seen. In addition to the usual suspects, they also added mushroom, corn and seaweed.

Nicely done salmon teriyaki = happy kid.

Cheese Tater Tots – 45k

I thought I could use some snack before the main dish. I chose deep fried cheese sticks with some sort bolognaise dipping sauce.

Mushroom pepper Hamburg with Truffle – 89k.

This is what I love the most about Mottomoo. Japanese Hamburg is a fusion of Japanese and Western-style cooking. I love how Mottomoo grilled its Hamburg. It was still juicy and mixed really well with the mushroom pepper and truffle. Have that with a bowl of rice, and you have one nice meal!

The final verdict for Mottomoo – House of Hamburg

I did not expect their food could be good. But, I was wrong. I enjoyed the meal we had at Mottomoo.

Did you know?

Pacific Place has a real-sized sail boat (floating on a miniature lake) inside the mall!

Rating for Mottomoo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 50k – Rp 80k for main

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Pacific Place Mall, 5^th floor

Jl Jenderal Sudirman, SCBD, Jakarta

+62 21 5797 3026

Mottomoo on Facebook

Feb 17, 2017
Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant Review:

When I get back to Indonesia, I always ask my friends and families to recommend me a new restaurant to try. This year, my brother recommended me to go to this week’s restaurant, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ. There are quite a few of them in Indonesia already and we tried the one in Tunjungan Plaza 4, Surabaya.

They have three types of menu: a la carte, standard, and premium all you can eat. The premium all you can eat costs almost twice as much as the standard one. However, it does come with wagyu beef, prawn and soft shell crab. On this occasion, we chose the standard one because almost all of their main dishes are included in the standard version, at around $23++ (tax and services).

Meat

The standard version came with three types of beef cuts, two types of chicken and assortments of sausages. The more important thing to order here is the condiments that accompany these cuts. They have spicy miso, garlic and butter, and cheese sauces. They really enhance the flavour of the meat.

Staples

We usually stay away from rice and the likes in an all-you-can-eat restaurant. However, if you really must order, they have four different kinds of rice, a ramen, and a few soups. We tried the Gyu-Kaku rice because the menu mentioned it should go well with karubi beef.

Cooked for you

They have a few deep fried stuff, vegetables, and quite a lot of salad.

Seafood

The seafood section is almost non-existent in this restaurant. The standard menu only has squid and the premium one has soft shell crabs, prawns, and fish cakes.

Desserts

Milk pudding and vanilla ice cream are the desserts for the standard version. There is only an extra sweet potato for the premium version.

The final verdict for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Their standard buffet menu is a great value for money. The quality of their meat was pretty good and the condiments made it even better!

Did you know?

Gyu-Kaku is apparently an American restaurant chain. Looking at the American website, their menu is significantly different than the ones offered in Indonesia.

In Jakarta there are two types of Gyu-Kaku restaurants, the normal one and Gyu-Kaku prime.

Gyu-Kaku’s interesting feature is its grill that sucks up smoke and pushing it downwards. So, less smoke sticking on your shirt!

Rating for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $23++ / $40++ all-you-can-eat

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

Tunjungan Plaza 4 Level 5

Jalan Basuk Rachmat 8 – 12, Surabaya 60261

+62 31 546 8349

Indonesian Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant’s facebook page

Jan 31, 2017
Japanese Dining Bar by Shinsen

Shinsen Review:

Japanese Dining Bar by Shinsen is a new-ish restaurant (I’m pretty sure they were just opened at the beginning of the year) in Ashfield. Interestingly, they opened up the shop right next to another, and more established, Japanese restaurant in the area.

They have quite an assortment of Japanese dishes in their menu

Teriyaki Salmon dinner box – $12.80 – comes with edamame, salad, deep fried, sushi rolls, inari, Japanese pickles, miso soup and rice

They have a special menu, a variety of bento box for dinner. They charge a flat fee of $12.80. It was a very good value for money considering you got a few tempura pieces, sushi and the main dish.

It is seriously the best value for money for any bento box I’ve ever ordered in Australia.

Crab Don – $11.80 – Crispy soft shell crab with cod roe cream on rice

Soft shell crab is generally served in Japanese restaurant as entrée. I love how they combined the crab with others to make the main dish. The portion was bigger than your normal Japanese dish.

Sukiyaki Nabe – $14.80 – Sliced beef, fresh vegetables, taro noodles, and tofu in sukiyaki sauce with udon

Their sukiyaki nabe was also quite large and could probably share it with a friend. It is a great winter dish or if you want something warm.

Sushi

They have quite a large selection of sushi. A lot of them are fusion-type sushi. The following images are the sushi that we have ordered from our previous visits to Shinsen. They were quite comparable to good sushi restaurants in the city in terms of price and taste.

Aburi Salmon

Volcano

Salmon and Ikura

Dragon Roll

Crunchy Salmon roll

The final verdict for Japanese Dining Bar by Shinsen

Japanese Dining Bar by Shinsen is a great place to have your daily fix of Japanese food.

Did you know?

Ashfield is more famous for the many Chinese restaurants in the area. They are also the place of one of the more famous kebab shops in Sydney.

Rating for Japanese Dining Bar by Shinsen:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $12.80 Bento Box for dinner

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

215 Liverpool Road, Ashfield 2131

+61 2 8021 8051

Nov 17, 2016