this post is filed under Cuisine - Japanese, Location - Sydney
Japanese food in Sydney is pretty interesting. An odd, takeout-style sushi has developed that I've never really seen before. Basically, there are a bunch of mall-style stalls (in malls and also on the streets) that mass produce sushi rolls. They're filled with all kinds of random things, from tuna to tempura to beef teriyaki to tonkatsu. They're pre-made and stored in a deli-style display fridge, and cheap as dirt. You can buy like 3 rollls for $6, etc. I tried them once or twice, and to nobody-'s surprise, they're basically crap.
Of course, there are proper Japanese restaurants as well. At the top of my list of places to find was a good, solid, sushi counter - something like Ino back home. Unfortunately, it appears sushi counters aren't exactly all the rage in Sydney, and I had a hard time finding places that actually focus on sushi. Most of the restaurants seem to be the normal across-the-board Japanese food restaurants, often with just a few so-so sushi options. Luckily, I did eventually find a few sushi-centered places. Tsukasa is one of them. Known best for its simple sushi bar offerings, the restaurant is a pretty simple-looking place in East Sydney. The front of the room has a sushi bar (which was full when I went, sadly), with a decent-sized dining area in the back. Dan and I got a table, but I ordered sushi anyway...
tekka maki, uni, salmon belly, kingfish, ocean trout belly, toro
unagi avocado maki
The whole plate, ordered a la carte, was A$26, which I guess isn't too bad. I was pretty stumped by the sushi list at first - they have a bunch of stuff we don't really see. Kingfish appears to be an Australian species of yellowtail - some kind of hamachi or kanpachi. It was very tasty, with a nice, slightly bouncy texture that reminded me more of kanpachi than hamachi. Ocean trout is also very common, and at times pretty easy to confuse with salmon. In fact, I'm not even sure I remember which one is which in the photo. They taste somewhat similar as well, though I actually think I liked the ocean trout at Tsukasa more. The uni was bad, which I would later find out is not unusual in Sydney, and the tekka was standard (I ordered it before I realized they had any toro). The piece of toro was alright as well, but hardly anything special. The unagi roll was on par with what you'd find at home.
I ended up only going to Tsukasa once, but in hindsight I probably should have gone there more. I was too busy exploring other restaurants, and it wasn't the easiest place to get to from where we stayed. The place had pretty good, solid sushi for a decent price.
dude you forgot the best part...me eating natto! mmmm soo good.
posted by Daniel on February 17, 2006 12:25 AM
Yeah, when I started writing the post I was totally thinking about that, but somehow as I wrote it I completely forgot to mention it.
Dan likes natto. It's amazing. I saw him eat it. Seriously, he likes it.
posted by Arthur on February 17, 2006 08:16 PM
OH MY GOSH!!!! SUSHI LOOKS FRESH!! I Love Toro~~ ^^ Please take more pics of Toro plz
posted by Mina on February 24, 2006 07:20 PM
There are in fact many sushi counter places in both Sydney and Melbourne, some much better than this restaurant.
They're quite good for what you get in Australia but then again the fish varieties are different, not to mention limited. However some fishes eaten raw here aren't eaten in Japan as well, its weird. They don't have great Hon-Maguro OToro most of the time, but sometimes when they catch one its pretty awesome.
Anyway, I've lived in Japan for a bit of time and have to say, nowhere beats Japan for the best fish unfortunately.... a few Hong Kong or Taiwan places are starting to get on par though. And some sushi places in Japan are utterly crap as well.
Please try Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo next time. It is the no.1 sushi restaurant in Japan right now, it even made it into the best 50 restaurants list in the world a few years back!
posted by Kelvin on August 4, 2006 03:15 PM