Sushi-Ya

The little strip next to Artarmon station is known as little Tokyo. There are 2 Japanese groceries, and Sushi-ya shares the food stakes with a noodle bar.

Food

As soon as we were seated, some Oto-shi (cooked bean sprouts) were delivered to our table. I enjoyed the highly fermented taste and soft texture while pondering the menu, consisting of mainly sushi and sashimi offerings, and all the typical things you find on a Westernised Japanese menu. Their specialty is sushi and sashimi, so that’s what we picked, but first, something to whet the appetite.

Out of about a dozen entrees, we chose the beef tataki ($8.90), which comes with either ponzu or “special” sauce. We chose the special sauce, but it tasted surprisingly like ponzu – citrus and sweet and sour. The beef was thinly sliced, and paired very well with the sauce.

Our sashimi main ($16.70) was great value for money. There was not a LOT of fish, but our tuna, salmon, kingfish, octopus and squid were all fresh and juicy. The presentation was pretty nice too. Well, the great presentation continued in the Special of dragon roll ($10.90), which was laid out on a curved path, with the sauce drizzled in lines around the plate. The flavour here is a bit more subdue, but that let the thick and juicy eel shine through in the roll. We washed it all down with green tea ($1 p.p).

Apparently the hot food is not so great, but with such good value sushi and sashimi, you really don’t need to order anything else.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

Somewhere above a food court, but below a restaurant. The décor is pretty sparse, with little Japanese touches. The inside is quite small, and was packed as it was the coldest July for about 50 years or something, so we had to sit outside. They had the heaters going but it still wasn’t that warm, so we didn’t really hang around. On a less cold night though, the outside area would be a gem.

Rating - 1.5

Service

They were so quick! The beef tataki arrived within 3 minutes of us placing the order. The sashimi followed not long after, and the dragon roll arrived last, but was still faster than the speed of an average sushi place.

Fortunately, the food didn’t suffer because of the speed.

The waiters were super keen as well, they wanted to take our dishes as soon as we picked the last piece off it. Service was fine by us, speedy, efficient, but we didn’t get the Japanese warmness.

Rating - 3

C-factor

Great value for a local feed and for the great quality sushi.

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 13.5

Info

10 Wilkes Ave
Artarmon
NSW 2064
Phone (02) 9411 1377