Sunday, August 22, 2010

Masa

Had a really bad day that day. So to make myself feel better I told Robin I wanted to have sushi and sashimi for dinner. That's why we ended up here. This restaurant was mentioned in the SMH not long ago and it's only about 10-15 mins away from home. 
Started with a simple Seaweed Salad - $8.50. Wonder if anyone knows how to make those japanese salad dressing. Really liked the dressing. 
We thought Takoyaki - $6 for 5 pieces was a bit expensive, so maybe there's something unusual about it. Turned out nothing unusual. We actually had to have them remade because the first time the takoyaki was still icy cold inside. Then they sent us another bowl. Nothing special, it's just that they were very generous with the octopus inside. Each ball had like 2-3 big chunks of octopus and the texture of the batter was very smooth. 
Favourite of the night Agemochi - $6.50. Deep fried rice cake with light sauce. Looked exactly like agedashi tofu, but it's mochi inside. First time having mochi done this way, it's so sticky and chewy and went surprisingly well with the savoury sauce!! Really really liked it. 


Deep fried flounder served with ponzu sauce - $12. We thought they would serve a whole flounder, but actually not. It was served in pieces. Taste was good, but some of the thicker bones weren't crispy enough to eat. 
Flat head tempura - $10 . It was on the special menu, so we thought we should try it. Not too bad actually. Batter was thin and crispy, fish was very fresh too.
Now, the sushi + sashimi combo - $35 that I wanted. They came in those 2 tier containers. Here's the sashimi and the other 1 was the sushi. 
Didn't look really spectacular, but they didn't disappoint me since that's the whole point of visiting. At least there weren't any stringy pieces and all of them were fresh. 

Didn't really have many choices for dessert, so we didn't order any. Also, we couldn't find that yellowtail sashimi that was recommended in SMH on the menu. Overall, I'm very very happy that I've finally found a decent Japanese restaurant in Sydney south. Moved here for few months already and this was the first decent Japanese restaurant that we don't have to travel at least an hour for. 

Masa Japanese Restaurant
28 Princes Hwy
Sylvania NSW 2224
Tel: (02) 9522 6995
Note: Booking in advance is highly recommended. It's not a big restaurant and we went there on a Monday and it was full and really busy (only 2 person working in there). 


Lighting wasn't too bad in there, just a little cramped. 

Friday, August 13, 2010

Jurin

You know how I put in my info that I try not to repeat any restaurants in the same year? I broke my own rule with this restaurant. We liked it so much that at the end of the first visit we made booking on the spot for the next visit in less than 2 weeks time. So there will be many photos in this post, that doesn't mean I ate THAT much in 1 meal, that's simply because it's combination of 2 visits (2 different groups of people). I was given the task of making the orders on both visits, so I could deliberately not order the same dish unless it was something nice that I thought should be introduced to the 2nd group of people. Anyway, let's start looking at the nice food!! 
Assorted Sashimi ~7 kind of fish~ - $35 Everything was so fresh, absolutely nothing to pick on here. 
Grilled Premium Duck Breast - $15.80. Fat juicy duck breast meat with some pretty pink colour salt. Nicely grilled with yummy juice bursting out with each bite. 
Udon Noodle Salad Sesame Sauce - $13.50 I thought the sesame sauce would be very rich and heavy, but it's actually not. Quite refreshing in fact. Sauce was served separately (i.e. the black bowl of sauce in the background) and we mixed at the table. 
Grilled Beef Tongue - didn't get the price.  Looks a bit boring and dry I must say, but it's actually not too bad.  First time having beef tongue that was so thickly cut. Usually those that I had at Jap/Kor bbq, they were all thinly sliced.
 Spicy Salmon Roll - $12.80. Even though it said "spicy", I didn't really find it spicy at all. Little bit disappointed at that. 
Squid & Scallop Steamed Dampling [sic] "Shumai" - $11. 1 problem with Jurin was that their menu had quite a bit of spelling mistakes. Seeing the menu like that, Robin decided to order everything on the menu that had a spelling mistake just for fun. Glad that we did!! This was actually 1 of those nice dishes that we ordered again the in the second visit. 
Jumbo Roll - $25. This is something you might want to order just for fun - just to see how HUGE a sushi can get :) However, because it's so big, eating it was a little bit 'tricky'. 
Deep Fried School Prown [sic] "Koebi" - $9.50. There you go! Another spelling mistake spotted. Again, glad that we did order this! Very very crunchy school prawns, seasoned very well. Something that would go very well with some beer. 
"Tonkatsu" Ccrumbed [sic] Deep Fried Pork Cutlet - $18.90. Another dish on the table because of spelling mistake. Very nice!! Crunchy crust outside, very tender inside. 
Kasuzuke - $15.50. It's sake marinated fish. Can't remember what sort of fish that is though. Strong smell of sake, the texture a bit different from usual cooked fish. It's a bit softer and smoother. I quite enjoyed it.
Eggplant with Miso "Nasuden" - $13.50. Sister ordered it thinking it was like an eggplant dish that she had somewhere else. Turned out to be something totally different. Tasted alright, I just thought a bit too much sauce. 
I really like the bamboo sake container that they used. Looked so cool! And before serving the sake, the waiter brought a tray of cups out for us to choose. There were all sorts of cups to choose from. Different colours, made of different materials, different shapes and etc. 
Torched Salmon with Avocado Sauce - $15.50  I was hoping for the smell of torched salmon, like those seared salmon on sushi, but the salad dressing has covered the charred salmon smell. Little bit disappointed. Still tasty nonetheless. 
Salmon & Cream Spring Roll "Harumaki" - $7.80 This was definitely different from the usual Chinese spring rolls that I had. The shape was different, sauce was different and the filling was different too! Yummy stuff!
Salmon Lover - $32.50 Yup! That's me. I like my salmon sashimi and sushi and aburi. A bit disappointed with the torched salmon though. Just not quite what I was expecting. 
Scallop and Prawn saute with Lemon Soy Sauce. I know couldn't really see any scallop or prawn in focus, but they were certainly there :p Sorry! Bad photo... The eggplant that's in focus was really good too actually :) 
Deep Fried Octopus "Takokara" - $9.50 We actually wanted to order the deep fried school "prown" again, but they ran out. So we got the octopus instead. Just as good! But because the pieces were bigger, it felt like we had less octopus than we had prawns. 
Assorted Sushi - $32.50 Just ordered this to make sure that everyone got some sushi and got some rice to fill them up. Good that all the fish were fresh and yummy :) 
Grilled Taraba Crab - $26.80 This was so so so good!!!! So fresh and so sweet! A must order, especially if someone is a crab fan. 
Soft Shell Crab Roll - $12.80
Lobster Tempura Roll - $13.80 Didn't feel like it was lobster though. It was good, but tasted like prawn to me :p Both the rolls were quite nice.  
Chirashi (Large) - $29.50. Not bad, but I think I still prefer Sakana-ya's barasushi though. 
Pipi - $12.50 made with lots and lots of butter! The butter smell was incredible. Didn't taste oily or anything though. Just had the smell of butter, taste of butter but didn't feel too heavy or oily. 
Assorted Tempura (with additional prawns) - $30.30 How pretty was that prawn tail?? They tasted just as good as they looked. 
Chestnut - $3.50 I ordered this simply for pure curiosity. I liked those packet chestnuts that I bought from chinese grocery. No need to peel the shell or anything. However, with $3.50 I think I could get 2 packets, probably 60 of them instead of 3. However, THIS WAS SOOOO WORTH IT!!! They were really big chestnuts! Still don't know how they made it, but they were all so so sweet and soft. I would swap 10 packets of those chestnut from chinese store for 1 of these anytime. 
Sakura mochi - $3.50 This was disappointing though. Were hoping for those round chewy mochi, but this not exactly round blob of sticky rice came out instead. Had some red bean paste in it, but didn't think there's anything special about it though. 
Mixed Ice-cream - $6.50 Creamy and rich ice-cream, just nice to end the meal with. 


There you go. Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I did enjoy the meal at Jurin. Highly recommended restaurant. My favourite Japanese restaurant now. Service was very good too! 1 of the Japanese waiter was very nice and funny. We had to wait for our table a bit, while waiting he said he would give us something 'special' to compensate. He actually gave us some extra sake for the table. Some very nice special 1 which I didn't get the name. Conclusion, good food, good service and a menu that's got lots of spelling mistakes :p 



316 Pacific Hwy
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Tel: (02) 9966 5811



Lighting wasn't too good for photo there at dinner time. A bit dark. Not much room to move around too. It's a small restaurant with as many tables and chairs as it could possibly fit before getting too uncomfortable for the guests.