Chikyu-Ya, Bondi Junction

So what do you do when you are at home by yourself? My husband tends to finish work quite late, so I usually reach home before him. I normally start my evening by preparing dinner and once I finished, I will find something to entertain myself, let it be watching TV, reading, photo editing, browsing or blogging! So today, while waiting for him to come home, I chose to do some blogging. 

Today, I'd like to share one of my favourite neighbourhood restaurants in Sydney.  I'm quite confident to say that this place has one of the best Chicken Karaage in Sydney, definitely the best for me and my husband!

The Karaage is a cross between Japanese fried chicken and Kentucky! Yes, you read me right...It's the Japanese version of Kentucky. It never fails to amuse me how tasty their karaage is. So what is the magic behind this tastiest chicken?  I wish I have the answer. But, just like Kentucky they definitely have their own secret herbs and spices that they use to marinate the chicken. 

I'm not sure about their other dishes, but if you are a big fan of chicken Karaage, then this is a MUST VISIT place for you.

Seaweed Salad  $8.00

Gyoza (5 pcs)  $7.00

Fresh Sashimi  (9 pcs) $10.00

Chef's special dinner box (serve with rice and miso soup)  $20.00

*Drum roll* And here comes my favourite chicken karaage with curry sauce.

 Chicken Karaage with Curry Sauce $14.00

Overall, I think Chikyu-Ya is a must visit place for their Chicken Karaage. 

Exceptional flavour with reasonable price.

Sushi-ya, Artarmon

Sushi-ya is a hidden gem tucked under Artarmon train station. Even though the restaurant is quite small and squeezy but luckily, the tasty food compensate for it. This place offers traditional Japanese cuisine with an affordable price.

I love the sushi here, the ingredient is fresh and the sushi rice is sticky.

 Unagi Sushi (Grilled Eel Sushi 8 pcs)  $18.80

Potato Croquette Sushi

My friend said the miso soup was the best he has ever had. The broth was thicker than usual.

Complementary Miso Soup

The thinly cut battered calamari served with hot chilli sauce was a great entree too.

 Spicy Calamari Tempura $13.80

One of the most popular dishes here is the Chicken Teriyaki. The chicken was really crispy marianted in a sweet dark soya sauce.

Chicken Teriyaki $15.50 (Main) and $17.50 (Set) 

All set menu is served with Miso Soup and Rice

The generous serving of Teriyaki Beef was another delicious dish worth ordering. The sliced prime beef was marinated in teriyaki sauce serve with side of salad.

Teriyaki Beef $ 15.50 (Main)  $17,50 (Set)

We also had the Unagi Rice, where the grilled eel was served on top of a bead of rice.

Unagi Rice $17.90

Being a Teriyaki lover, we had the Teriyaki Salmon. The fresh salmon fillet was perfectly grilled and marinated in teriyaki sauce.

Salmon Teriyaki $17.50 (Main)  $19.50 (Set)

Of course, I won't be fully satisfied without dessert to close the meal. This place is very famous for their green tea tiramisu. This is also one of the reasons I came here for dinner. But, I can't remember how much exactly the dessert, if I'm not mistake it was around $9 each.

Green Tea Tiramisu

We also had the Taiyaki (Fish Shaped Pancake) with red bean filling. This reminded me with what we had in Japan. I wanted to have green tea ice cream on the side but they ran out of it (very disappointing), so we went for lycee ice cream instead.

Taiyaki (Fish Shaped Pancake)

Overall, I love the food here. With their amazing value and generous serving, this lovely little restaurant definitely worth a visit. They also have another branch in Chatswood.

Sushi-Ya

10 Wilkes Ave

Artarmon NSW 2064

Ph: (02) 9411 1377  

174 Victoria Ave

Chatswood NSW 2067

Ph: (02) 9413 3300  

Ten Japanese Restaurant, Randwick

Before eating, Japanese people say "itadakimasu," a polite phrase meaning "I receive this food." This expresses thanks to whoever worked to prepare the food in the meal.

Ten Japanese Restaurant is located in Randwick. I've been asking a few friends (who live in Randwick) about this restaurant, but so far the feedback that I got were not very impressive, mainly because it is slightly pricey. However, my husband and I decided to give it a try because we were craving for some Japanese food and their menu looks pretty extensive, with wide varieties of dishes to choose from.

  

Being a big fan of Bento Box, we had around 13 different bento boxes to choose from. We decided on Teriyaki Chicken and Unagi (Eel). We found the service was a little bit slow, but still acceptable for me. However, the food did compensate for the slow service. It was delicious, sashimi was really fresh and portion was generous too, so in the end we didn't have anything to complain.

Bento Box 1: Chicken Teriyaki.  $25.50

Bento Box 2: Unagi (Eel) Bento Box $30.50

Each bento box comes with Salad, Prawn and Vegetable Tempura, Fresh Sashimi, Takoyaki, Gyoza and Salmon & Avocado Sushi. 

Overall, Ten Japanese Restaurant has a pretty nice decor and ambiance to dine in, but they don't put too much effort on service, what they do offer is delicious Japanese cuisine with slightly higher price but big serving.

After eating, Japanese people once again express their thanks for the meal by saying "gochiso sama deshita," which literally means "it was quite a feast."

Ten Japanese Restaurant

80-82 Belmore Rd

Randwick, NSW, 2031

Ph: (02) 9398 4878

Mizuya + Chinatown Night Market, Sydney

Could E-ordering Be The Next Big Thing In Restaurants?

Most Sydneysiders should have heard of Mizuya Japanese Restaurant and Karaoke by now, a place where you can have a unique dining experience and karaoke at the same time. With this new era of Technology and Eshopping, Mizuya has also adopted the concept of E-ordering with their touch screen menu. I personally think it's a very smart way of improving speed and efficiency of the restaurant but also allows customers to take their time deciding on what to order without having the pressure of someone standing waiting for us while we make up our mind.

Some of the reasons why I like Mizuya are the fact that they have small little cubicles that separate each table, also the fact that service is really fast and they serve delicious Japanese food.

Yesterday after work, me and my husband had around 3 hours to kill before heading to Entertainment Centre for a concert. So our first stop was Mizuya.

 

 

(Left) Pork Belly Kushiyaki $5.80

(Centre) Garlic Shoot with Beef Kushiyaki $5.80

(Right) 2 portions of Chicken Fillet Kushiyaki $4.80

Chicken Karaage $6.80

Spicy Soft Shell Crab $7.80

I think their Marbled Beef is my favourite in Mizuya. Served on hot plate, the meat was really tender, sweet and buttery in flavour.

BBQ Marbled Beef Steak $14.80

We also had the simple Takana Pickles Fried Rice that was a good accompaniment to the dishes.

Takana Pickles Fried Rice $10.90

Dinner was finished and we still had almost 2 hours to kill, so we decided to slowly make our way down to the Chinatown night market with a mission of getting their Japanese pancake that I've been craving for.

Queueing in front of the stall and with a Takoyaki  & Okonomiyaki Stall just beside it,  I felt like I was suddenly transported to Japan. As much as I wanted to try the Takoyaki too, the queue was just impossible, there was minimum 25 people lining up all the time. Maybe next time...

 There were many flavours to choose from, such as green tea, taro, custard, cheese and red bean. The choice was obvious it gotta be...

green tea. 

Then, we continued exploring the night market before heading to the concert.

Mizuya Japanese Restaurant & Karaoke

614 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9266 0866

Chinatown Night Market

Open every Friday from 4pm to 11pm

Find out how to get there here

Ocean Room, The Rocks

"The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet." (Judith Martin)

The first time I came to Ocean Room was probably five or six years ago, as far as I remember I had a pretty good experience back then. I've recently found out that the restaurant has been newly renovated end of last year, this has inspired me to come back even more. 

The moment I set my foot in, I was charmed by the beauty of the curvy ceiling and wooden chandelier that made of over thousands of hanging wooden tubes. I absolutely loved the theme and the blending of colours, it was simply astonishing. In addition to the elegant dining room, we were lucky to be seated in front of the floor to ceiling window with a magnificent view of Sydney's iconic Opera House right in front of us. We couldn't ask for a better place to bring our parents for a dining indulgence.

Ocean Room is a Japanese restaurant with a twist. The chef cleverly designed the food with traditional Japanese approach that combines with a contemporary culture.

Natural Oyster

We picked the green shio basil sorbet and salted konbu sauce to go with the oyster. These icy cold oysters were really fresh and appetising. I could almost taste the purity of the oyster. It was so delicious that it left me wanting for more

Natural Oyster  $4.5 (each)

Japanese Tapas 1: Tuna Cornet

The marinated blue fin tuna tartare was wrapped in nori rice cracket cornet. The tuna tartare was really soft, it kind of melt in your mouth. The rice cracket cornet tasted like the Chinese egg roll. I thought it was a good match and it certainly made a good entree.

Tuna Cornet $5 (per piece)

Japanese Tapas 2: Soft Shell Crab Taco

The spiced soft shell crab was served with pickled vegetables and wrapped in a crispy taco shell. This was the favourite entree of the night. The crispiness of the taco and the crunch of the spicy soft shell crab, with a dab of mayonnaise and salmon roe is the perfect example of a modernised approach to the traditional deep fried soft shell crab.

Soft Shell Crab Taco  $6 (per piece)

Entree 1: Wasabi Prawn

The crispy king prawn was served with wasabi aioli and petit wasabi croquette. It was a decent entree with a very light wasabi flavour aioli to complement the crispy prawn.

 Wasabi Prawn $19.00

Entree 2: Tuna Creation

We were told that this is the Ocean Room's signature dish. It consists of five different types of tuna (cut into cubes) with five different condiments. The staff explained that each condiment is designed to complement each type of tuna. Because we ordered  this to share, I only get to try the 'Fresh raw akami with black salt, jalapeno and yusu zest'. It was certainly different to what I've tasted before and my dad absolutely loved the 'Marinated akami with truffle salt, fried garlic and fresh chilli' that he had.

Tuna Creation  $23.00

Sushi Roll: Tassie Roll

A crispy ocean trout sushi roll, topped with ocean trout sashimi and roe.

 Tassie Roll  $15.00

Main 1: Chilli Baby Snapper

The roast chilli spiced whole baby snapper was accompanied with micro herbs and dressed with shallot oil.  Even though the meat was cooked perfectly well, but I thought the flavour was pretty mediocre, it was nothing unexpected. I was expecting  more, I was expecting to be blasted away by the fish.

Steamed rice is available for $3.00 per bowl

 

Chilli Baby Snapper $39.00

Main 2: Aburiyaki Wagyu

Thank goodness! I thought I will be dissapointed again, but the wagyu had me blasted half way to the moon! The Wagyu Harami was divine and the meat itself was sweet. This was definitely the highlight of the night. A dish I would come back for. We were given a small charcoal grill to further cook the wagyu to our preference.

 Aburiyaki Wagyu  $45.00

Main 3: Shiogama Pork

This was the last dish we had. The pork belly was tender and tasteful, served with spicy Korean kochuajang sauce, pickled nashi pear and citrus. 

Shiogama Pork $37.00

There's certainly a plus and minus in terms of the food, but Ocean room is certainly a fabulous restaurant with a view to die for.

Ocean Room

Bay 4 - Ground Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West, The Rocks

Sydney NSW 2000

PH: (02)9252-9585