The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Koku Culture is home to one of the best brunches I’ve had all year. I’ve never been shy about my love of Japanese-fusion breakfast and brunch foods, and Koku Culture’s tiny Ashfield store fits the bill completely.
The Torched Confit Ora King Salmon Fillet with 63 degree egg ($24+$2) was sublime. Ora King Salmon is always a treat, featuring a rich oiliness and delicate mouthfeel far beyond your average grocery store Tasmanian Atlantic salmon. I try to order some Ora King salmon every now and then from the popular online fish delivery services, and even when cooked inexpertly by me at home the difference is noticeable. Koku Culture’s torched confit king salmon fillet definitely lived up to expectations – tender inside with a slight char on the outside reminiscent of aburi sushi. The miso dressing was tasty but not overpowering, and the green tea soba salad surprisingly refreshing, especially with the egg (a $2 supplement but important) and miso mixed in. This has to be a must-order dish from Koku Culture.
This Crispy Rice Cheeseburger ($15) with Chips and their secret sauce was also fantastic, but in a completely different way to the salmon. Where the salmon felt clean and healthful, this was perfect in terms of sheer debauchery. The rice “buns” were perfectly cirspy and fried out the outside, with a light but slightly sticky texture on the inside – a bit “QQ” as we would call it in terms of Chinese food. The seafood was similarly crispy, enjoyable and not merely for decoration. I opted for an extra patty ($5)(probably wasn’t necessary in this case, and I’d just stick with a single patty in the future) , and both beef patties were cooked to a delicious level of juiciness, mixed in with their special sauce and fresh lettuce. Even the chips were good.
The matcha affogato, which I can’t see on their menu any more, was pretty OK. The ice cream was good, the coffee was black. Mixed together it remained a bit black for my taste.
That’s a good Matcha Brownie right there.
COMMENTS I enjoyed Koku Culture. Definitely worth a visit, but make sure you budget in some time for the queue outside.
UPDATE These guys are now closed forever, before the publication of this review. This is part of why I’ve pushed this review far into the future in terms of scheduling – they’re not going to get more dead. Hopefully Kenji Okuda and Donna Chau can bless us once again something good.
Koku Culture 1/355 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131 0402 697 475
My partner’s younger brother took us to his favourite Korean-run Japanese BBQ restaurant in Sydney. We had the $89 pp deluxe BBQ buffet with a 70 minute ordering window and a 90 minute seating time and access to the restaurant’s full selection of meat and non-meat foods. The meat quality was good, and he ordered a literal kilogram of wagyu straight off the bat, which was definitely too much, and kept us well occupied throughout the entire meal.
Alternative meats were of course available, and we did sample some pork jowl as well as some duck. I didn’t love the duck, which I found chewy. but respect that this could’ve been a result of my poor cooking skills.
We did eat other things. We had an unusually large amount of aburi wagyu nigiri (too rare for me), aburi salmon nigiri, one single slice of salmon sashimi (my partner had difficulty understanding the ordering quantities), some mushroom, some garlic butter, and all of the available desserts, of which the calpis jelly was our favourite.
It was overall a good experience, though I have a major complaint about this seemingly unnecessary charge for a new grille. Rather than pay the $2-3 per BBQ grill change on top of our already $267 bill between three, we just chose to have more cancer.
Why nickel and dime?
Suminoya 1 Hosking Pl, Sydney NSW 2000 (02) 9231 2177
Kyo Sushi Bar is a small sushi-train restaurant with a surprising variety of dishes and an even more surprising selection of premium tuna cuts on their specials menu.
The chawanmushi egg custard ($5.90) was delicious, silky, and full of umami, a great warm way to start our meal.
This gunkan ($4.30), I want to say lobster salad, was unmemorable except for the quantity of mayonnaise, which as you will read is a recurring theme at this restaurant.
The salmon uni open roll ($8.40) was really heavily mayonnaised and I don’t think had enough uni to even mention. I would recommend a strong avoidance of this.
The soft shell crab hand roll ($6.30) had a good quantity of crab, but sadly also suffered from the restaurant’s habit of over-mayonnaising.
Why does the grilled salmon nigiri ($4.70) come with mayonnaise?
No complaints about this spicy chicken karaage ($4.70), which came with spicy mayo but appropriately. Pricing was reasonable for the portion size, which I’m glad was small because we really didn’t need this on top of all the other food we had.
In amongst all of the low-tier mayoed-up sushi was this gem of chu-toro nigiri ($10 for 2 pieces), which came with real wasabi and huge slabs of tuna with excellent taste and mouthfeel. Incredible.
The toro nigiri ($10 for a single piece) I actually didn’t find to be as pleasant as the chu-toro, owing to the higher amount of connective tissue. Call me an uncultured fool, but in my opinion the chu-toro is where the price and quality intersect peaks.
OVERALL THOUGHTS I don’t understand how the same restaurant can serve so much badness drenched in mayonnaise, but at the same time serve such good quality fatty tuna from their specials menu at such a good price. Kyo’s Sushi Bar is definitely a restaurant worth visiting, but with a strong caveat. (Though perhaps you can just ask for your food to not be so mayonnised.)
Kyo’s Sushi Bar 2 Burroway Rd, Wentworth Point NSW 2127 (02) 8866 1044
Some restaurants deserve a wholeheartedly lukewarm response, and in my opinion Block145, a cafe we drove half an hour to eat at, is one of them.
We were tempted by the Salmon Okonomiyaki ($20) and a desire to relive some good meals we had overseas. Unfortunately the gap between expectation and reality was quite large in this dish. While the grilled salmon was well cooked with a crispy skin, that was the first and last superlative of the meal. The okonomiyaki itself I found disappointing, with a high flour content. It was sadly not what I was looking for.
After a recent success at Cafe Mckenzie in Randwick we decided to go for yet another Toastie with truffle oil, honey, and parmesan ($14). Sadly this particular toastie was far less exciting than the benchmark set by its competitor, with no great feeling of substance to it. It was quite small, and I would have much rathered more toastie than a salad I didn’t ask for.
These crispy smashed potatoes ($10) continued our breakfasts’ trend of being completely unsatisfying. I don’t really see what made them crispy or smashed. They really were essentially regular roast potatoes with a sprinkling of salt.
Pictured above, a photo of a bloody mary that I did not have. My partner did.
THOUGHTS I’m sad about my trip to Bloc145. Their menu has so many wonderful looking items I am left wondering if I simply chose the wrong things, or if my experience would have been like this regardless of what I chose. I wouldn’t go back.
