YEBISU IZAKAYA - SYDNEY CBD

Yebisu Izakaya
Shop 7-10
Regent Place
501 George St
Sydney CBD

Yebisu Izakaya is of course a Japanese restaurant - and a popular one at that with decent sized queues at the entrance (but they move quickly so don't be put off). We were astounded by just how many people they managed to calmly move through and feed - it's a slick operation that doesn't seem rushed at all.

Service is quick, and if you like using modern technology then this is your place, with touch screens everywhere for you to place your orders. However the system was easy to navigate with good descriptions of each dish (and pictures of course) and the food arrived surprisingly quickly. The beauty of this system is you can order more if you need an extra dish - or if there's one you desperately want!

We started with pan fried prawn gyoza with ponzu dipping sauce. They arrived hot - in fact still steaming - which was great. The gyoza's arrive in a serving of five - so you can fight over the last one when there are two of you dining - but I won this time! Resting them on some bean sprouts was a good idea as they didn't stick to the pan. They tasted good with a very subtle flavour - and plenty of other tables around us were ordering them as well which is always a good sign. 

Next up were the crab claws. As Mlady loves croquettes - and these are very similar - she instantly gravitated towards ordering them. No surprises there at all and they were crisp and tasty - especially with the tangy salad.

The flying fish roe gunkan sounded great and looked so impressive. It also turned out to taste just as good too. Whilst it's a little hard to eat as you try not to disturb the roe - it's well worth ordering!

I chose the pork belly teriyaki basically because I love pork belly. It came on a skewer and the meat was tender and tasted good. It lived up to what I was hoping for.

The shitake mushrooms teriyaki was Mlady's choice - even though I managed to steal one.

Even though I love pork belly we both agreed that the mushrooms were the pick of the two.

Who loves chicken karage? If fact, who doesn't love it!

We were always going to order this dish - even before we found it on the menu.

We were looking for it and weren't disappointed. As expected, it was crisp on the outside and moist and tender inside. We loved this dish and it was a decent sized serving as well.

Have you tried sake? It's an unusual taste that some people love and others don't. I don't mind it but it wasn't something Mlady loved. This version was sweet sake - and it's poured into a glass that sits in a small wooden box. They keep pouring even though the glass is overflowing - until half the box is full. They also ring a bell whenever anyone orders sake which is a nice touch. 

We didn't realise just how many teriyaki dishes we'd ordered until we went back through it to update this page.

The chicken thigh teriyaki sounded like it would be tender and tasty - and it was.

It came in two skewers on a decent pile of cabbage squares.

We'd ordered most of our dishes and finished them all, but felt the urge for just one more.

The fresh spring rolls with salmon and avocado sounded very nice - and looked absolutely spectacular. This is a sea of colour on a plate, with great flavours as well.

This dish is a bit hard to eat but well worth the challenge.

Yebisu Izakaya is clearly doing a lot of things right - the queue at the door says it all. We enjoyed our meal there - the service was friendly, the food arrived quickly and the touch screen was a fun way to order. The whole place also has a fun, funky feel to it.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Yebisu Izakaya. Thanks to Sana Motoyama from SD Marketing for arranging our visit.

THE FLYNN - SYDNEY CBD

Lil 'Damita
(inside The Flynn)
2a Bligh St
Sydney CBD

Named after the flamboyant and often scandalous Errol Flynn, The Flynn is a long and surprisingly large place that is almost as deep dark and mysterious as its namesake.

It's clearly a popular place judging by the crowd there. Initially they have higher bar tables, then a casual area, then finally a nicely sectioned-off restaurant with proper tables for meals and comfy chairs.

Its a very cavernous place, but not in the open and hollow sense - it's just big and goes in a long way. There are plenty of different spaces inside though catering for a wide number of different groups without having then crowd each other out. The food of Thuong Dang is also a drawcard.

It always seems appropriate to start a relaxing evening with a cocktail and this evening was no exception. I decided to try something a little different - the Crystal Head blue cheese martini. It certainly sounded unusual - the thought of blue cheese in a cocktail both intrigued me and almost scared me - but hey, you only live once! It turned out to be very nice - with only a subtle cheese taste. Mlady had another tasty treat called Le Gurk - picked by Luke Reimann who created most of the bar list.

Our first starter was the zucchini blossoms stuffed with Gorgonzola, ricotta and Parmesan.

They had very good flavours, textures and combinations that worked well together creating a lovely dish.

They were big too - and there was plenty of rich, gooey, tasty filling inside that oozed out as we cut into them.

Mlady loves beetroot - particularly the freshly cooked variety.

The roast baby beetroot came with buffalo mozzarella, vellutata, wild rice puffs and basil.

Mlady thoroughly enjoyed this entree and the matched cocktail (see above) did not overpower the dish but nicely complemented it.

I couldn't resist ordering the Riverina lamb.

Described as lamb rump, tomato fondue, eggplant puree and potato dauphinoise it was also one of the recommendations, so it pays to listen to the experts!

The lamb was in several good sized segments and had a nice fruity taste to it with the sides. It was beautifully cooked and nicely pink and tender. I loved it.

Mlady loves her fish for dinner so the hiramasa kingfish caught her eye.

It came resting on a bed of carrot and ginger puree with spinach, seed mustard dressing drizzled around the puree and apple salad nestling on top.

It was elegantly presented and the skin was deliciously crisp. It was a truly flavoursome dish that she thoroughly enjoyed.


As a pairing with dessert I also had a rum chocolate Manhattan - which was recommended again by Ben and was another unique drink that was worth choosing!

The sticky date pudding was another recommendation - and we were so glad we took their advice! It comes freshly made so it takes a few minutes longer (but not many) and is served with poached rhubarb, butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream.

OMG - this was amazing! It was so nice - steaming as we cut into it and full of flavour. The butterscotch sauce was also a winner and it was nice to see rhubarb on the dessert list - as I grew up with it!

Mlady has become a real affogato fan lately - so once she spied it here it was (almost) a given.

Listed in the menu as espresso, vanilla bean ice cream, pistachio biscotti and frangelico - it had all the major food groups she desired - especially the frangelico which she loooooves.

She swirled it all together into a rich, creamy indulgently delicious dessert - and then devoured the lot!

The Flynn  was a surprise - a nice surprise! It looks like another busy popular bar from the outside, but it also stretches inside quite a way, through casual areas and on to a lovely restaurant with great food.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of The Flynn. Special thanks to Luke Reimann, Thuong Dang and also Jess and Katie for looking after us so well on the night . Thanks also to Sneha Dave of Shake Appeal for arranging our visit.

PAPER PLANES - BONDI BEACH, SYDNEY

Paper Planes

178 Campbell Parade
Bondi Beach, Sydney

We were out and about in beautiful Bondi Beach for Flickerfest recently and searching for somewhere interesting to dine - without a booking.

Fortunately it was early enough to find space in most restaurants - and even more fortunately we found Paper Planes.

It's Japanese food with a few twists as well - and yes they do have paper planes there too!

We grabbed an "outside" table in the laneway and sat back and enjoyed what turned out to be a lovely meal.

We started with edamame beans with sea salt - although you can have them with chilli salt as well. Aren't these such a great nibble starter for a Japanese meal! These ones were nicely cooked and had plenty of sea salt on top. They disappeared quickly.

We then moved on to a serving of salmon tartare nachos - quite a unique dish that we all loved even though we weren't 100% sure what it was when we ordered it. The inner bowl, that was resting on a bed of ice, had the salmon in it which was mixed with wasabi miso dressing, chives and tobiko.

Surrounding the whole lot were prawn crackers to heap the salmon mixture on to - like you would with nachos. These were so nice - extremely light and fresh and delicately tasty with a slight bite to them.

Quite possibly the dish of the night for us was the chilli salt calamari with yuzu aioli. In fact this was so nice we ordered a second plate after we had finished all our other dishes!

The calamari was so light and tender - and there was certainly plenty of it to for an entree!

We seemed to literally fight over this dish which probably explains the need for a second serving later on in the evening.

We are huge fans of crispy chicken when it has been done well. So with this in mind we eagerly chose the crispy kara age chicken that came with a side bowl of lemon ponzu and was garnished with shallots. The chicken was nice and crisp on the outside and juicy and tender inside. We weren't disappointed.

We then had sashimi in three varieties - tuna, salmon and kingfish. It came beautifully presented on a leaf draped across a bowl of ice. It also had wasabi and pickled ginger with it. We love sashimi and this was delicious.

 

It's hard for us not to get a few crispy things when having Japanese food and tempura is always a must. We tried the seasonal vegetable tempura that came with a light soy and daikon dipping sauce and a sprinkle of seaweed salt. It was light and crisp and so tasty.

The next dish of tempura soft shell crab with chilli salt and coriander served with fresh lemon and wasabi mayonnaise was just as good. The crab was so juicy and tender - again lovely.

Paper Planes was a wonderful discovery for us. We hadn't planned where to go before Flickerfest but we were so glad we found Paper Planes and gave it a go.

The food was light, fresh, very tasty and beautifully presented. Service was friendly and there's a nice relaxed but interesting feel to the place. We'd certainly go back again.

As for Flickerfest - one of Australia's top short film festivals - it was again brilliant. It's a festival that has become very popular and understandably so based on the films we saw. We even heard from some of the film makers about their motivation and inspiration - which was very interesting.

Well done to the organisers!

 

WASABI - KNIGHTSBRIDGE, LONDON

Wasabi Sushi and Bento

56-58 Brompton Rd

Knightsbridge, London UK

Wasabi is actually a chain of fast sushi, tempura and soup shops. They have gone for a clean crisp look - almost sterile - with lots of white and translucent green. It certainly looks clean at least -but a bit stark.

We had been doing some mandatory shopping in Harrods and needed refuelling. Wasabi was nearby so we popped in. Turned out to be a reasonable decision.

The first thing you need to do in a Wasabi eatery is to get a table. These can go quickly and are in scarce supply.

To be honest they could add quite a few more tables in this place without impacting on any ordering queues - and they may well get a lot more customers inside.

Some people came in, saw that all the tables were taken and left again.  

Eating alone may make this a difficult exercise - grabbing a table and also going to order - but as there were two of us we were ok.

The next step after grabbing your table is to go and have a look at the food options and decide what you want, grab it and join the queue to pay. The food here is fresh and service is fast - even if there's a bit of a queue.

We were quite satisfied with what we had to eat - and it was dirt cheap too.Wasabi is a good option for a quick tasty meal at budget prices. It filled us and it was dirt cheap.