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.
Located within Forest Lodge’s Tramsheds complex, near the former site of Chase Kojima’s Simulation Senpai, is the Osaka Trading Co, a day and night time Japanese restaurant with an extensive Japanese-focused bar menu which we did not at all partake in.
I’ve not got much experience with Lotus Root Chips ($6), but thought that these ones were pretty good. They crispy at room temperature, and had a good umami flavour to them. They were served with a shichimi chilli spicy mayonnaise dip, which I felt was a bit superfluous as the chips were good on their own. My learned colleagues JZHW and WKS had other opinions, however, having grown up on lotus root chips during their time as Asian youths. They thought that these chips were just middling, and could have been better a bit warmer. I really don’t know. I liked them.
The Tempura Corn with Wasabi Mayonnaise ($14) was good! It’s difficult to go wrong with deep fried corn, and even more difficult skill when wasabi mayo is added into the equation. This wasn’t a planned addition to our meal, but when we saw our waitress walk past us with a dish of this destined for another customer we knew we had to have it as well. Lightly battered and fried, I can recommend this dish.
The Tuna Tartare with pea puree, pea sprouts, wasabi olive oil ($22) was a letdown to say the least. There was nothing particularly wrong about the diced tuna or the accompanying sprouts or pea puree, but also nothing special. The taste and feeling of the dish can be best described as mild and cold. This was a pretty miniscule amount of food for a pretty significant price, and I can’t imagine anyone would be satisfied by it.
The Miso Ramen ($18) was also a disappointment. The bowl featured much corn, some wood ear fungus, and only a single slice of chahsu pork. While additional pork can be ordered for a small $3 fee, there was no mention on the menu of just how little pork would be available in the base bowl. This was a damaging oversight, in my opinion, as many unsuspecting meat fans will leave disappointed. In addition to this, the taste of the broth was a bit dark and bitter rather than a pure miso taste. I suspect this was due to the presence of black garlic oil, however other ramen restaurants like Crows Nests’ Ramen Kaio seem to be able to pull off a black garlic ramen much better.
VERDICT Though Osaka Trading Co’s share plates start strong, there’s much left to be desired by their bigger ticket items of tuna tartare and ramen. I suspect it may be more of a vibe at night with a few drinks, but nonetheless I wouldn’t go back.
My partner and I are big fans of Dopa – Devon’s offshoot donburi restaurant in Darling Square. We’ve been going regularly over the past few months, however it had been a long time since we had dined at the mothership in Surry Hills.
We went suckered in by pictures of uni laden foods on instagram, and I made my partner promise me that she would let us leave and eat somewhere else if they had run out (as is often the case at Dopa, I’m sick of being baited and switched).
We dined on a Sunday morning in an empty restaurant, much different to how it was like when we had last dined in 2019. As predicted, they were out of uni, however a craving for a pork katsu sandwich prevented us from leaving.
My partner had a matcha latte while I, as an inferior Asian, had an iced matcha soy latte. While I can’t speak for my partner’s drink, I can say that my iced matcha soy latte was not as good as the one that I had at 101kissa. There was just something so powdery and nice about the iced matcha soy lattte from 101kissa, whereas this one was a weird blend of sweet and bitter that didn’t tickle my tastebuds in quite the right way.
Devon’s pork katsu sando ($16) is cut into two portions and served in a cardboard box. The sauce is spread evenly through the sandwich, which is a selling point, however this is where the compliments end. I felt that the pork itself was not as juicy or tender as in the pork katsu sandwich I had at Cafe Kentaro. I also felt that the sandwich was overbreaded, with the bread to filling ratio too great, adding an unneeded and unwanted blandness to the taste. The size and construction of the sandwich halves were also inferior to the three pieces at Kentaro, and made the sandwich difficult to eat.
While Devon’s pork katsu sando probably stands fine on its own to a person who has never had a good pork katsu sando, it fails in comparison to that at Kentaro, a few kilometres away.
I didn’t enjoy the salted egg yolk cheesy curly fries ($13). Perhaps it’s because we’ve had just so much salted egg yolk foods in the past few weeks that I’m sick of it, but I think the more likely reason is that these chips were oily but dry. Their thinness did not help, as the higher surface area to volume ratio increased the radiative heat loss from the food, making them too cool and yucky too quickly.
My partner ordered the omurice with salmon sashimi in ponzu sauce. We were quite surprised to find that the omurice was served separately to the salmon. The salmon was cold but the omurice was warm. While the omurice itself was quite delicious with its mushroomy gravy, I don’t think it really worked as a combination. I wonder if it’s the responsibility of the wait staff to sway you away from bad choices. Either way, that was not what happened here. What happened here was a thoroughly noncohesive dish.
I’m sad to say that I didn’t really enjoy our trip to Devon. While I love their rice bowls at their Haymarket offshoot Dopa, our trip back to the mothership was disappointing.
We went to the Sydney Fish Markets after already having had brunch, and having made this mistake nothing really tickled our fancy.
We ended up at Peter’s Seafood’s sashimi bar. On display are pieces of seafood, sold by the kilogram and sliced to order for either takeaway or eating in on their disgusting unwiped tables. Wasabi and soy sauce incur an extra fee.
We had some kingfish sashimi ($70/kg) and toothfish sashimi ($100).
The kingfish sashimi was fresh. The cuts unfortunately not very even, and the thicker slices were much less appealing.
The toothfish sashimi was just a bad idea. Toothfish is one of my favourite fishes to eat cooked, however eating it as sashimi just doesn’t bring out the best parts of the fish. Sashimi toothfish has the same flaky texture as cooked toothfish, but instead of being good it is bad. The fish was quite chewy, and we each only had two pieces before throwing the rest away for the pigeons. Just not good.
Peter’s Seafood Shop 4 On the Waterfront,Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont NSW 2009 (02) 9552 2555
Chippendale’s Gyusha is a mixed-service restaurant and meat-focused grocery store. Their restaurant business offers a selection of meats for yakiniku and shabu-shabu, as well as a less core selection of sushi and sashimi.
Gyusha’s yakiniku meats can be ordered as part of teishoku sets or on their own. It was only a few dollars extra to add a lot of extra accompaniments to our order of chicken thigh, and so we ended up going with a chicken yakiniku set ($18.80), which along with its core offering of chicken thigh marinated in soy and spicy sauces (150g each, 300g total) came with a bowl of miso soup, some agedashi tofu, pickles, rice, tamago, edamame, and a small garden salad.
The chicken thigh meat was marinated well , but not too overmarinated. My pick was the soy marinated chicken as it had less sugar on it to burn. The rest of the teishoku set was actually quite delightful, and we loved the variety and fun flavours on offer to us at such a cheap price.
If I had one complaint about the yakiniku experience it’s that our grill wasn’t changed during our time, and it did get quite encrusted with burnt marinade towards the end.
The shabu-shabu hot pot with 300 grams of sliced wagyu beef also came with its own set of accompaniments – thought not as complete as the chicken yakiniku set. This set was without miso soup or agedashi tofu, which was a shame as the miso soup bowl ended up being the bowl we had that was really suitable for eating the shabu shabu. The flavours were light and good, and there was plenty of mushroom and vegetables (and just a little bit of tofu) to go with our meat. Additional meat for the shabu shabu could’ve been added on at the same price as yakiniku, and indeed the meat was interchangeable as we did grill some of the shabu shabu meat.
VERDICT We had quite a nice time at Gyusha. Their teishoku set menus are quite aggressively priced and provide a really nice array of different flavours. The yakiniku and shabu shabu components of the meal consisted of high quality meat at a reasonable price. I thought it was odd that the guy kept calling me “young man”.
I can definitely recommend giving Gyusha a try.
A4.5
Gyusha Shop 7/6 Central Park Ave, Chippendale NSW 2008 (02) 9304 0451
Kurumac is one of the first Asian cafes I ever visited, and one of the ones that got me hooked on the concept. An inner-west spin off of Kirribilli’s cool mac, Kurumac delivers some of the best and only Japanese-focused breakfast and brunch in the city, with the added benefit of not having to rub shoulders with the sleazy political types that haunt its North Shore sister. While most Asian cafes do their best to fuse both Asian and Western flavours, Kurumac proudly serves a focused Japanese meal.
Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup
The Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup ($19 when eaten in June 2020, now sadly $25 in December 2020) is a revelation. It was the first and still one of the best sashimi bowls I’ve ever had. The top layer of salmon sashimi is lightly grilled and slightly sauced to perfection. The salmon roe is delicious and it is clear that they took effort to source some high quality produce. The scallops are sweet and fresh, as are the cooked prawns. The miso soup was the perfect accompaniment to the remaining rice at the end of the dish. While not mini in size, I would consider this a mini-version of Simulation Senpai’s Hoseki Bako, very high quality but missing some of the luxury elements.
Grilled samlon congee, salmon skin
The grilled salmon congee with crispy salmon skin ($17) was so good that we had it twice. The congee is warm and wholesome, with a nice serving of grilled salmon and a topping of delicious salmon roe and shallots. The grilled salmon provides a umami flavour that permeates the entire congee, while the crispy salmon skin on the side adds a delightful crunch with an additional burst of salt. The preserved vegetables on the side are more sweet than salty and thus help to add balance to the dish.
The Pickled mustard, Cod Roe Omlette, Rice, Tonjiru Pork and Veg Soup ($19) is the weakest of all of the dishes I’ve had at Kurumac. The top half of the egg was nice, but it wasn’t immediately obvious that the cod roe would be in discrete parcels of saltiness and spiciness rather than mixed in with the egg – this led to lost opportunities as it was quite a while into the dish that I found them. The soup of strong onion and radish taste was a bit too salty and tasted a bit too agricultural for me. I wouldn’t recommend this dish.
Spicy cod roe melt
The spicy cod roe melt ($12) is an expensive but delicious piece of toast with a huge amount of heavy, rich spicy mentai mayo on top. This was one of the dishes that rekindled my interest in cod roe, and I actually tried to recreate it at home to much less success. Not Kurumac’s healthiest dish, but well worth a try.
Japanese Style White Toast, Seaweed Butter
While the spicy cod roe melt is a heavy and decadent piece of bread, the Japanese Style White Toast with Seaweed Butter ($6) is much lighter. This is a simple dish of a very thick piece of toast (in my opinion it is too thick) and a small bowl of seaweed butter. The seaweed butter provides a nice umami flavour, but in my opinion is a bit too mild to enjoy with such a large quantity of bread, even when fully spread over the toast. This would suit individuals with a more delicate palate.
L: Seasonal Milkshake, M: Latte, R: Matcha Latte
The seasonal milkshake ($9.50) changes with the season. Mine was a large kiwifruit milkshake made with gelato from Newtown’s Mapo (one of my favourite gelato stores). It is huge and expensive, served within the metal milkshake tumbler. I would recommend the Hojicha Milkshake, available for the same price, if available.
The Latte($4) is just normal coffee.
The Matcha Latte ($4.50) is quite good, served in a nice little stone cup. It is not sweetened.
UPDATE APRIL 2022
Time moves on, and the chirashi bowl has again increased in price, now to the very premium $3X range in April 2022. I chose instead to have the nori ben ($25) this time around, a fish-based collection of crumbed yellowtail, fried mackerel, grilled salmon, two types of pickles, and nori on rice along with a small cup of miso soup. I really enjoyed this meal, though it was a little bit heavier compared to most of Kurumac’s menu. The crumbed yellowtail was nice, warm, and moist, and the battered mackerel had that nice sweet and sourness that is characteristic of the fish. The tartare sauce was a bit odd – really more of a mayonnaise in my opinion, with large chunks of egg white mixed in – but not bad. The two types of pickles were standouts in my opinion, and went great with the soft nori and bed of rice. It was in the end a bit much of the same to eat for one person even despite the high level of variety in the ingredients, and I only wish that my partner were with me eating rather than sleeping at home (it would be unfair to expect her to eat a meal only available after 11AM if she’s starting work at 7:30PM) so that I could’ve had half of two meals instead of one of one.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2022
Today’s seasonal milkshake ($10) is strawberry. Still made with Mapo’s unbeatable gelato, and still good though quite filling and probably stopped me from eating as much of the curry and mazesoba as I wanted.
The mazesoba ($25) was happily though surprisingly different and better than the dry ramen that we had at cool mac back in 2020. The pork in this case was chashu, which was happily a bit fattier and tastier than what I remember. The broth had a lightly spicy and overall umami taste, aided by a load of delicious and tender bamboo shoots, as well as nori, sesame seeds, coriander, and a soft egg. The noodles were al dente. Genuinely quite good.
The ox tongue curry ($40) was really quite expensive for a lunch at a cafe, but brought with it a reasonable serving size as well as quite good flavour. Contained within this bowl of thick non-spicy Japanese curry were huge 3-dimensional chunks of ox tongue, very tender but still with good texture, koshihikari rice, and happily bright pickles. On the side was a serving of mentaiko mashed potato (I could not appreciate the mentaiko) and a green salad with cherry tomatoes, foliage, and sprouts. The ratio of rice to curry and meat was perfect, and the flavour and texture of the beef was good, although I would think twice about the value and level of necessity of the sides, and if the dish as a whole would be cheaper and yet just as good without them. The chirashi bowl by this point in late-2022 is now $35, and I think if you’re getting lunch at Kurumac and you’re only able to get one item, it would still be my recommendation.
CONCLUSION
You may be able to tell that I really like Kurumac. It’s one of my favourite cafes in Sydney, and I expect that as time passes and their menu changes you will also see new items added to this review.
