Sokyo, Sydney

Grain fed Rangers Valley sirloin with hon shimeji mushrooms and a lime black pepper jus

Chef Chase Kojima helms the counter at this slick new restaurant in Pyrmont, Sydney. It’s clear that his time working at Nobu restaurants around the world have been a strong influence on him as he brings modern Japanese cuisine to Sydney

The staff in this buzzy restaurant are attentive and knowledgeable and they selected dishes for us to be shared at the table. Our waiter explained that the dishes would follow the order of the menu – starting with sashimi, then tempura, grilled dishes from the robata, and finally sushi (we skipped soup and salad).

Hokkaido scallop sashimi with yuzu honey dressing and crunchy miso

Our waiter either clearly knew what we wanted from chatting with us, or all the food served there is outstanding. I like to think a bit of both.

Kingfish ceviche with green chilli and crispy potato

We started with Kingfish miso ceviche and scallops. I guess with great access to superbly fresh seafood, both of these were going to be great anyway, with the Kingfish a classic ceviche, marinated in lemon and green chilli and topped with crispy potato strips. The scallops came thinly sliced, dressed with yuzu honey and topped with crunchy miso. The citrusy yuzu dressing and the saltiness of the miso brought out the sweetness of the beautiful Hokkaido scallops.

Snapper tempura with black pepper and green chilli vinegar

Next up was the tempura. One of my favourites of the evening was lightly tempura’d snapper fillets that came with an insanely good black pepper and green chilli vinegar dipping sauce. We also had asparagus with a truffle poke sauce and edamame dip.

Beef short ribs with caramalised eschallots and kurubota pork belly with spicy shirodashi and yuzukosho

From the robata, beef short ribs with caramised eschallots and a BBQ terriyaki sauce, tsukune chicken with shallots and a pineapple ginger sauce, octopus with a Peruvian glaze and sirloin with foie gras, fig and a plum wine soy. To be honest, the sauces here I think overpowered the dishes, but each of the meats was so perfectly cooked. I particularly remember the melt in your mouth texture of the short ribs and how tender the octopus was. We also had kurubota pork belly, with spicy shirodashi and yuzukosho (a paste from chilli peppers, yuzu peel and salt), grain fed Rangers Valley sirloin with hon shimeji mushrooms and lime black pepper jus and a classic, miso cod. Yes, we may have ordered too much.

“Queensland roll” – spanner crab, spicy avocado sushi wrapped in soy paper

We then moved to the sushi course of “Queensland roll” – a roll made with spanner crab, spicy avocado, and soy paper, and spicy tuna with crispy rice, truffle salt and a spicy mayo. Maybe I am partial to seafood but I love that the food ended on something lighter. Both these again let the seafood shine, especially the crab in the Queensland roll.

The meal finished with a selection of desserts all of which were great (my favourite was the fondant). I think desserts deserve a separate post, each a little piece of delicious art. And a wonderfully sweet way to end a fantastic meal.

Sokyo
Ground floor, the Darling
The Star
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Tel: 61 2 9777 9000

Lunch: Fri-Sat 12pm – 2.30pm
Dinner: Mon-Thu 6pm – 10:15pm
Fri & Sat 6pm – 11:15pm
Sunday closed

Takumi Tokyo

Sashimi plate at Takumi Tokyo

A friend of mine lives at Keppel Marina and one evening we decided to go local and have dinner at Takumi Tokyo. It’s a lovely space, with a great view of the marina, and I was surprised there was so few people dining on a Friday night (we later found out people around the area like to drink vs eat, and Privé, the bar downstairs was absolutely mobbed).

There are three areas to sit, matching types of Japanese cuisine – teppanyaki, robotayaki and à la carte. I always love to sit at the counter, so we chose the teppanyaki counter and ordered from that menu, along with a few from the à la carte menu.

The quality of the seafood at Takumi is fantastic, and overall the food is great but I’d stick to the basics – sashimi, momotaro – fresh fruit tomato, although we also had fried conga eel bones which were a deliciously crunchy snack that went well with the Hakata sake we were drinking.

Uni and scallops with a paprika sauce cooked on the teppan

We ordered two dishes from the teppan – butter salmon which was good – simply prepared teppan fried salmon in butter, and then we made an error and got fancy – scallops with sea urchin and paprika sauce. Not sure what I was really expecting but sea urchin disintegrates when cooked and I think the scallops on their own would have been better. I am so used to fresh sea urchin and that fresh sweet flavour of the uni was completely lost.  The paprika sauce seemed to overpower the delicate flavour of the scallops as well.

I am not complaining – I don’t have access to fabulous sashimi a stone’s throw away from me and I’d be keen to try their robotayaki counter next time. Or perhaps relive my Kyoto teppanyaki experience with wagyu steak.

Takumi Tokyo
2 Keppel Bay Vista, #02-01
Marina at Keppel Bay
Singapore 098382
Tel: +65 6271 7414

Open:
Monday – Sunday
12:00pm – 2:30pm
6:00pm – 10:30pm

A quick weekend in New York

Doesn’t look anything like the picture on the cart – but it was yummy nonetheless

I was recently in New York for work, and I was lucky enough to squeeze a weekend of eating and drinking in that fabulous city.

I ate the whole gamut of food – from pizzas and hot dogs from street vendors and at a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, to  black miso cod at the divine Nobu, with Pastis and Balthazars in between. I was in heaven.

Fresh Fluke sashimi with dried miso

My first meal was at Balthazar where I was reacquainted with exceptional service – having lived in Asia for the last five years, it’s apparent that my standards have been lowered…attentive but never intrusive, our waitress knew what we wanted before we did. Awesome. And it didn’t hurt that the food there was delicious as well. It was far too dim to even bother taking photos but their chicken liver and foie gras mousse (which I have to say it did look a little scarily on the red side) and their lobster with black truffle risotto that I had were both super smooth and rich, and utterly delicious.

One of Nobu’s signature dishes – black miso cod

Nobu was my next dinner. Marrying his training in Tokyo with influences from his time spent in Peru, the chef served up yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos, fluke sashimi with dried miso, rock shrimp tempura and black miso cod, all of which were the ultimate in Japanese cuisine – using only the best produce with a perfect balance of flavours and textures.

French onion soup at Pastis

Pastis was my last lunch before I had to head to the airport. The brasserie is full with people squeezed into tables so close together they may as well join in your conversation, but once you settle in, it all becomes a nice buzzy blur and you can just enjoy your food with your friends. I had a random meal there starting with French onion soup and followed by pancakes. Don’t know really why, it’s just two dishes on the menu that I felt like that day (it might have been a left over from a few too many champagnes at Beauty and Essex bar in the Lower East Side the night before !). It all worked to close off a very busy week in the Big Apple.  Love it.

HY California

The very dramatically presented soft shelled crab maki at HY California

Wanting to catch a light bite while at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Conference Centre, I went in search of Hide Yamamoto’s HY California sushi bar.  The mall is absolutely enormous, and very poorly signaged (it didn’t help that the interactive shopping guides were all out of order) so it took us a while to find the sushi bar, which is outside the mall, facing the marina.

Tuna and squid sashimi

HY California really functions as a bar, that happens to serve sushi for you to snack on while you drink.  Kind of cool, reminds me of a rainy day my friends and I spent holed up in a robotayaki in Tokyo, where we basically sat and drank sake all day, with food ordered and served from the grill as and when we wanted.

The very friendly sushi chef behind the counter who took our order had just arrived from Japan, didn’t speak very much English, nor was he familiar with the menu. We ordered with another chef and shortly after, our dishes started arriving.

California roll

The menu is limited, but as I always say, a short menu usually means that what they offer, they do well. Nothing fancy, and we ordered our “standard” sushi – soft shelled crab maki, tuna sashimi, spicy tuna rolls. Everything was fresh and delicious, although the rolls could have had a bit more firmness so the journey from plate to mouth wasn’t as messy (and my chopstick skills are pretty good!).

Tuna and avocado maki

I know this isn’t Yamamoto’s flagship restaurant – it’s casual dining, but it’s not at all what I expected, and the whole American rock feel of the place seemed to clash rather than complement the traditional sushi counter.  Would I go back again ? Not really sure. There are certainly other places I would much rather go to, but around the Marina area, I guess if I wanted a fresh and quick sushi hit.

HY California
Bay Level, L1-86
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
Tel: 6688 7426

Open Daily 5.30pm – 11pm (last order 10.30pm)

Standing Sushi

Shiro maguro (white tuna) and sake (salmon) sashimi

Standing Sushi is one of the best places to eat super good sushi in Singapore.  Their shiny new premises at Marina Bay Link Mall are a bit more difficult to get to than their now-closed outlet at OUB Centre, but I quite liked eating somewhere that wasn’t 2 feet away from the crazy hustle and bustle of lunchtime at OUB Centre/Raffles Place MRT.

The menu was very simple – sushi, sashimi, donburi, salads and maki – I don’t recall any cooked food.  One of the recommendations from the friendly waitress was shiro maguro -white tuna – something that I have not ever heard of before.

The chef served this sashimi style, marinated for 5 hours in his secret blend of sauces before slicing and serving on a plate with equally generous slices of salmon.

The texture is smooth with the same softness of fresh salmon sashimi and has a slightly salty taste (presumably from the marinade).  It was absolutely delicious and I wonder how different the texture and taste would be when the fish is served unadulterated and fresh.

Sashimi platter with prawn, squid, octopus, salmon, tuna and white tuna

We also had the sashimi plate and the sashimi salad.  Every piece of seafood, from the usual salmon and tuna, to the more unusual prawns and squid and scallops was wonderfully firm and sweet, needing just a little dip into our soya sauce with wasabi.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat fantasticly fresh seafood, this is the place to go.  It’s not situated in the main corridors so looks out for it – it’s behind the Four Seasons Gourmet Market.

Standing Sushi Bar
Marina Bay Link Mall
8A Marina Boulevard
B2-51 Marina Bay Link Mall
Tel: (65) 6634 7068

Opening Hours – Mon-Sat 11.30am – 9.00pm
Closed on public holidays and Saturdays following public holidays on a Friday

Oooh…Kinki…@ Customs House

Snapper carpaccio with truffle oil 

Having a drink at Oyster Bar on a Monday night, a friend and I decided to try our luck at Kinki without a reservation.

It’s at Customs House with entry via an elevator at street level. A hostess greeted us, asking us if we had a reservation and then escorted us up to the second floor where another waiter asked if we had a reservation.  A bit of overkill ?  Perhaps, but then Kinki isn’t the sort of establishment that is understated, starting from the crazy Japanese graffiti on the floor and walls as you enter, to the grand view of Marina Bay Sands as you walk to your table.

We had prime position at the counter, and the friendly chefs recommended what was a stunning dish – thinly sliced snapper carpaccio with ponzu sauce and drizzled with truffle oil.  He actually asked “do you like truffle oil” – is there anyone that doesn’t ???

The snapper came sliced so thin you could see the glass plate it was served on.  Wonderfully fragranced with the truffle oil, the fish was sweet and delicious.

As for the rest of the meal…I have to say that they do try hard in terms of presentation, but for the price that you are paying, I have come to expect a much higher standard.

Sashimi plate – kingfish, sea urchin, salmon, swordfish and tuna

We started with a selection of sashimi – what sort of fish we left to the chef, which usually means you get the best of what they have that day. There was kingfish, uni (sea urchin), salmon, swordfish and tuna (which was hidden behind the shiso leaf) and whilst the uni, salmon and kingfish were freshly firm and sweet, the swordfish and tuna, which I expect to taste rich and almost creamy, had a disappointingly watery texture.

Perhaps then the dish we had after was poorly ordered but we ordered a dragon roll and a spicy tuna roll, and I almost felt like I could have ordered the same thing from a sushi chain like Sushi Tei.  Nothing special at all about it, and the rolls were very loosely rolled so everything fell as you tried to navigate it from plate to mouth.

The place is buzzy and fun, and the chefs behind the counter are all friendly and chatty but I got a feeling that this place lacked authenticity – perhaps I am more accustomed to Japanese sushi chefs who are almost sombre when they are preparing their food – their concentration is so great.  Add that with the sashimi dish, I am glad I finally went, but think it will be a once off for me.

Makoto, Sydney

Scallop and salmon gunkanmaki

A colleague recently took me to Makoto in Sydney.  It was the perfect plan.  We were both a bit frazzled from being in a full-day meeting, so the intent was to grab some quick sushi, which we both love, then back to the hotel.

What I didn’t plan on was just how delicious the sushi was – which made us stay a lot longer than we originally planned to.

Soft-shelled crab handroll

Makoto has got to be one of the best sushi trains I’ve been to.  The sushi trains you get here in Singapore don’t even compare. OK, Makoto has the benefit of fresh seafood from Sydney, but it really ups the ante with “regular” dishes like lobster or abalone gunkanmaki where the rice is wrapped in seaweed and the topping is placed on top, and dishes like soft shelled crab handrolls use beautifully crisp, lightly battered crab that you can actually see – not the usual soggy oily mush you get in Singapore sushi trains.  I

I left all the ordering to my colleague and why not, the dishes kept coming, each one of them a delight.

Get there early though – we did, and nabbed the last two seats at the counter.  An hour later there was a queue outside the door, and Liverpool street is not a very nice place to stand.

Makoto Sushi Bar
19 Liverpool Street (World Tower, corner Liverpool and Pitt)
Tel: (02) 9283 6767

Lunch
Mon to Fri 11:30am – 2:30pm
Sat to Sun Noon – 3pm
Dinner
Mon to Sun 5:30pm – 10pm

Kuriya Dining – Spring season kaiseki

Sushi course – toro, scallops with umi, mackerel and tamagoyaki

Ah…great Japanese food. Nothing beats it.

Except enjoying great Japanese food with a good friend.

My friend K and I spent many hours at the counter of Kuriya Dining last night. It being the first time we had been there, we were disappointed that the counter is positioned in front of the chefs, but much lower, so you cannot see the action that goes on behind the counter.

This mattered little on the night as we were distracted from the lack of a view, by the many dishes that we sampled from the Spring kaiseki menu – seasonal produce, served with such delicate flair that it is (as with most Japanese food) a feast for all the senses.

Always going to be ordered in future – Japanese tomato served with Japanese mayonnaise and salt

As I was running late, K had already started with a single Japanese tomato, served simply sliced with Japanese mayonnaise and salt to dip. My first Japanese tomato eaten like this, this experience was like eating musk melon for the first time – it’s almost as if the piece of tomato that you popped into your mouth simply could not contain that much flavour.  And the teeniest amount of salt seemed to enhance these flavours exponentially.  Again testimony to how good food needs to start with amazing produce.

Our appetiser

Our kaiseki started with bracken, Mozuko seaweed in a vinegared sauce, wagyu steak rolled in fresh beancurd skin, pickled cucumber and simmered octopus.  The bite-sized portions were all so delicious that it left you wanting more more more of everything on the plate – a total tease of what was to follow.

Second course was three types of sashimi, followed by grilled mackerel and broad beans, and alaskan crab in a spicy roe sauce.

Braised bamboo shoot, sakura ebi tempura, tofu and wakame sauce

Next up was freshwater shrimp tempura with braised bamboo shoot and tofu, over which was ladeled a rich wakame seaweed sauce. The balance and contrast in flavours and textures made it my clear favourite of the evening.

This was followed by assorted sushi: toro – tuna belly, scallops topped with one succulent tongue of umi - sea urchin roe, and mackerel.  Each one almost melted on your tongue with that wonderfully fresh taste of the sea.

We finished the evening with a creme brulee served with an assortment of fruit and creamy vanilla ice-cream.

By this stage we had only got through half of the enormous bottle of sake we had ordered.  Guess our eyes are much bigger than our drinking legs  so we promptly made another reservation to bring our other halves back to finish it, and sample more of the wonderful creations from Chef Tsuzuki.

Kuriya Dining
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-28 Great World City (Office Tower)
11.30am to 2.15pm (last order), 6.30pm to 10pm (last order)
Tel: 67360888

Redemption at Inagiku

Seared swordfish and salmon roe sushi

In the need of redemption after our recent disastrous visit to Itacho Sushi, we decided to visit our failsafe Japanese favourite, Inagiku at the Fairmont Hotel.

It was one of those Fridays where we just wanted to eat top quality Japanese food and drink sake, so we chose the seasonal set – that way the decision as to what we would eat would be left to the restaurant and we could focus on the eating and drinking part.

(from left to right) Swordfish, tuna belly and salmon sashimi

To start with we were served delicate home made tofu followed by our sashimi – slices of mackerel, salmon, toro or tuna belly and swordfish.  Ah…the joy of really good sashimi – that clean taste, accompanied with that rich/buttery flavour of the sea.  It’s so hard to put into words just how good it is but let’s just say my faith in Japanese food is once again restored.

This was followed by our sushi dish – swordfish again, but this time seared lightly, tuna and salmon roe.  Seated at the counter, we got to watch the chefs make the sushi, from slicing to hand-moulding the rice, to arranging the fish on the rice, which I think helps you appreciate the skills required to do this.

Teppan-grilled Australian wagyu fillet steak

Australian wagyu fillet followed, perfectly medium rare and served with grilled vegetables and a delicious steak dipping sauce.

Final course before ramen and ice-cream was the tempura.

A little bit of everything, done to perfection, with slightly over-attentive wait staff (who were always on hand to top up our empty sake glasses) meant that we left very happy and slightly drunk.  Wonderful.

Inagiku
3rd Floor, 80 Bras Basah Road
Fairmont Hotel
Tel: 6431 6156

Itacho Sushi

Tobiko and toro sushi – flying fish roe and tuna belly sushi

Itacho sushi, a Hong Kong Japanese cafe chain has just hit the shores of Singapore, with one opening at our local shopping centre at Bugis.

Our standards for Japanese, especially after our recent super-gastro trip there, are probably ridiculously high, but I was hopeful that there would be a solidly decent Japanese restaurant which we could easily walk across the road on a Saturday for a quick lunch.

Boy was I wrong.  Itacho offers food that looks and sounds fantastic on the menu, but looks vastly different when it appears on your table, and the taste is … disappointing to say the least.

We started with the prawn tempura, where the batter was quite nice, but the prawns were clearly soaked in soda bicarb, giving them that odd crunch.  We also ordered seared tuna belly sushi, which tasted like it had come from poorly frozen fish and tasted watered down, and tuna sashimi.

Itacho claims to fly some of their fish direct from Japan, and the tuna sashimi was one those that was marked as such in the menu.  It was served to us in thick, unevenly slices, atop grated daikon and with a shisho leaf, but with no other presentation at all.  It was almost like they just chucked the slices on to a bowl.

The tuna tasted remarkably better than the tuna belly, but again, had that watery taste in your mouth.

Proof that all the advertising in the world will bring the customers the first time around but definitely doesn’t guarantee a return visit.

Don’t even bother.