This last year has been a little challenging for me. With a constant stream of assessments to juggle alongside full-time work and my dear hobby of blogging about my obsession with food, time is often short and I always breathe a sigh of relief when I’m one assessment down.

It was a typically cold Sydney winter evening when I completed yet another exam for my post-grad studies and so the Sister, her fiance and myself decided to have a late dinner in Neutral Bay. I had visited Sushi Samurai on a past occasion B.B (Before Blog), and was interested in a return visit.

Sushi Samurai is located on the bustling Military Road of Neutral Bay. It’s a modern-furnished restaurant, with soft lighting and both outdoor and indoor seating. There was quite a few waitstaff, most of whom were very attentive.

The Sister’s fiance ordered a Sapporo beer to start off, which was a bargain at $5 a bottle.

The extensive menu had us uhhhming and ahhing a fair bit, but we eventually made up our minds and placed our order with the waitress. The food mostly all arrived at once and we were a tad overwhelmed, afraid that we may have ordered too much. Surprisingly though, with a slow and steady pace all three of us managed to polish off our large dinner, which was a stellar effort.

First to arrive was the Wagyu Beef Okonomiyaki ($14.80), or a “Japanese-style pizza”, which arrived hissing and spitting charmingly on its hot plate, the bonito flakes curling and undulating on top.

It was wonderfully doughy, saucy and savoury, with a variety of different textures with the crisp bean sprouts, flaked bonito and the softness of the pancake, but none of us could significantly discern any pieces of wagyu, which was a bit of a let down.

The Grilled Seafood Avocado Salad ($15.80) was the next to arrive, a large pile of healthy fresh greens.

With generous slices of creamy avocado and piles of grilled salmon and white fish pieces, the whole lot was drizzled with Kewpie mayonnaise and was a refreshing salad to eat over our dinner.

If you’re interested in something a little more traditional though, the Aburi Sushi Mix ($17.80) was a pure joy to look at when it arrived:

This sushi mix was a little on the exxy side but was presented beautifully. There was a piece each of aburi scallop, salmon, and a white fish which I guessed to be kingfish. Deliciously fresh and faultless sushi.

The dish we had been looking forward to the most all evening arrived. We had ordered the Ramen Hot Pot for 1-2 people ($25.80), and were staggered at the size of the pot that arrived at our table, complete with a self-controlled gas burner.

The broth was a pork-based broth with a chilli oil (and maybe a bean sauce) that gave it that distinguishable orange hue. It was spicy, warming, and simply the perfect thing for a chilly winter’s evening. The soup was full of bean sprouts, tofu, pork and a lot of cabbage which was extremely tasty as it had soaked up all of the flavours of the soup. It was perfect for ladling over your yellow ramen noodles and slurping up noisily.

I love Japanese food! A plentiful and extremely satisfying meal and quite good value for the sheer amount of food that we had ordered. Definitely a place to add to the ‘regular favourites’ list.

Sushi Samurai
197 Military Road
Neutral Bay NSW 2089
(02) 9953 4059
www.sushisamurai.com.au