Sakana-Ya, Crows Nest | Penguin says Feed Me! Penguin says Feed Me A Sydney food blog Skip to content ← The Falconer, Darlinghurst Rainbow Vanilla Buttercake → Sakana-Ya, Crows Nest Posted on December 9, 2009 by Jacq Feeling like going out for dinner somewhere close by, Sir D and I headed out to Crows Nest to eat at Sakana-Ya on a Thursday night. The menu was so extensive that we took forever to decide what to eat and spent a great deal of time staring at all the types of fish. Tuna tartare with raw egg – $14.00 The first dish that arrived was the tuna tartare with raw egg which was one of today’s specials.
Duck on skewers (2 skewers), choice of salted, plum or wasabi flavour – $9.50 Next up were two skewers of duck which had been grilled and lightly salted. Sashimi and tempura mixed platter – $29.00 Our mixed platter of sashimi and tempura arrived next with 6 thickly cut pieces of sashimi + scampi, and an assortment of seafood and vegetable tempura. Nimono yellowtail – $12.00 Lastly we ordered the nimono yellowtail fish. Sakana-Ya. Out of my kitchen: Sakana-Ya. 336 Pacific HwyCrows Nest, 2065 Whilst not hidden away in Crows Nest since it is on the rather busy Pacific Highway, Sakana-Ya is almost anonymous along a very busy strip restaurants competing for dining dollars. On looks alone, the exterior and interior could be described as "plain as an arrowroot biscuit" which may be harsh but accurate.
However, like many things in life, appearances can be deceptive and in the case of Sakana-Ya very deceptive. Kingfish Sashimi The menu of Sakana-Ya would lean towards Izakaya style dining and as soon as the small plates come out one could almost be convinced they were in Tokyo. The first plate of Sashimi Kingfish was brilliantly plated almost looking like a mini Opera house. The fish was ultra fresh and high grade, definitely top class and certainly not arrowroot biscuit plain! Yakitori - Chicken Balls & Chicken L: Kingfish in Soy & Mirin R: Tempura Crab Sakana-Ya - 13.5/20. Exceeding expectations at Sakana-Ya. Crows Nest is littered with eateries, especially Japanese ones, and you’ll find Sakana-Ya just down the road from Ju-Rin. With its unassuming and slightly dated entrance, it is hard to gauge what style of Japanese food Sakana-Ya serves within and what type of market they’re catering for. But venture through the blue curtains and the sliding glass door, and I can guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
The décor within matches the doorway and is somewhat non-descript with wood panelling halfway up the walls and dark brown café-style furniture. Apart from the paper lantern light fixtures and the odd fishing rod and paper fan affixed to the walls, it could just as easily be an eatery which serves neither Japanese nor seafood but rather a different cuisine altogether. However the aromas upon stepping in are unmistakably Japanese – being those of pickled ginger and sweet sukiyaki sauce. We are seated and served small complimentary dishes of edamame, each containing several pods.
Sakana-Ya. Street Food: Best of Sussex Centre Food Court ~ Chinatown. A list of our faves after trying every stall in the Sussex Centre Food Court. Of the Chinatown foodcourts Eating World and Dixon House get most of the attention, but Sussex Centre is also highly recommended. And it's the cleanest of the three, which is a plus or a minus depending on your point of view. The windows at either end are great people watching spots, it's a bit more upbeat, and the loos are far less toxic than other foodcourts.
If you asked us which was our favourite food court we'd say 'all of them'. Here's a few of our Sussex Centre favourites... Stewed Pork Leg from Yummy Thai - lovely slow cooked pork balanced with fresh veggies, pickled veggies and a googie egg. $10.90. Fish Set from Yummy Thai - a whole fried fish with rice and a small tom yum soup on the side, very well cooked and amazing value - $14. Anything from Ramen Ikkyu (Japanese) - this joint is flavour of the month at the time of writing. For something a bit different... Caysorn Thai - Haymarket - Restaurants. The more you learn, they say, the less you know. Take Thai restaurants in Sydney: just when we were getting a handle on the growth of Isaan food, from Thailand's northeast, along comes Caysorn, possibly the first place in town specialising in the cuisine of the southern part of the country.
What's more, food fans, if this any indication of things to come, then we have plenty to look forward to. It's a part of the world known for its heat, and if that's what you're after you won't be disappointed with Caysorn's menu. Kanom jeen - a vermicelli-like noodle made, traditionally, with pounded fermented rice - is offered in several versions (including lime leaf-fragrant nam ya fish curries with and without coconut milk and a green chicken curry with eggplant and bamboo). There's a self-serve station stocked with beansprouts, pickles, chopped snake beans and Thai basil.
Nam priks are also a focus. It's not all incendiary stuff. This is not to say the food that isn’t hot isn’t worth the effort. Lynn Shanghai, Sydney. I have noticed Lynn Shanghai sign ‘coming soon’ many times now and it has finally arrived! Opened for about two months, Lynn is located in the heart of CBD on the ground floor of the Castlereagh Club which is on Castlereagh Street. I was meeting ‘The Mother’ for dinner – date night – and I suggested this place as I know how much he loves dumplings and I wanted something different to Din Tai Fung. The place was relatively busy by the time we got there, but thank goodness there were no queues and we were seated straight away. The name behind Lynn is that the owner didn’t want the typical Chinese restaurant names such as golden, palace, kingdom and etc for the restaurant.
They chose Lynn because it is a name both in Chinese and Western culture. We started with the baked sesame pocked with sauteed minced chicken and preserved vegetables sprinkled with pine nuts ($16.80). ‘The Mother’ couldn’t wait to dig in, baked hollow ‘bread’, you put the filling into the sesame pockets and eat them. LYNN Shanghai Cuisine, Town Hall | Excuse Me Waiter. There’s no doubt that Sydney has been going through a Shanghainese dumpling craze in the past couple of years, with all sorts of restaurants like the famed Din Tai Fung from overseas and local competitors Taste of Shanghai and New Shanghai popping up everywhere. But it’s time for the older players to move over – Lynn offers everything you could possibly want in a dumpling restaurant all in one convenient location close to Town Hall station. They have impeccable service, no ridiculous queues, gorgeous decor and cheap, tasty dumplings in reasonable serving sizes! For those not in the know, Lynn is a little hard to find as it is tucked inside the Castlereagh Club rather than facing out onto the street but once you walk into the foyer of the Club you will spot the entrance ahead.
Lynn also has helpful signage outside on the street to guide people to come inside if you’re having trouble finding it. Xiao Long Bao (steamed pork dumplings) – $8.80 Shallot Pancake – $6.80 Like this: Like Loading... Earlybird. Sushi Hotaru, Town Hall | Excuse Me Waiter. Sushi trains are awesome because you can eat as much or as little as you feel like, and the food is pretty much instant since you can just pick up whatever looks enticing off the train as it comes around. But what makes Sushi Hotaru even more amazing is that most of the dishes are only $3! Yes, even the scallops and other usually more fancy seafood sushi are all the same price, which makes it much easier to make your decision about what to eat – without having to keep referring to the colour coded plate system to think about how much each dish costs.
Genius. You can either sit around the main counter area facing the sushi train or you can sit in the booths further back in the restaurant next to the sushi train. Tonight we are seated at the booths but it’s too early in the night for them to have extended the sushi train to our area of the restaurant, so we just have to order on the iPad located in every booth.
Grilled scallops with mayonnaise Spicy salmon sushi Normal salmon nigiri sushi. Top 5 one-dish wonders of Flemington, Sydney | ChopinandMysaucepan. Sydney’s multicultural and cosmopolitan lifestyle have blessed Sydneysiders with some of the most diverse cuisines found in and around so many food suburbs of our city. Leichhardt is known for its old world Italian pizza and pasta, Petersham is a Portuguese hub with its fame bacalao and the array of fine dining Cantonese and chinese seafood restaurants in Sydney’s chinatown is second to none in the city. Vietnamese food has become so popular that Vietnamese beef pho has become a staple diet for many who like noodles in a bowl of flavoursome and tasty broth. Flemington is 14km to the west of Sydney and this suburb is home to a melting pot of Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian cuisine to name a few. Predominantly Vietnamese, the locals enjoy the convenience of Asian grocery stores, Asian butchers and fish shops as well as a host of restaurants serving some of the tastiest and most flavoursome dishes of any restaurant in Sydney.
Crispy prawn spring rolls $8 Fresh red chilli and soy sauce 2. 3. 4.