Japanese restaurants aren't usually happy places for vegetarians - which is a shame as our vegetarian half used to quite like eating in them in their pre-vegetarian days. Akin to the loathsome vegetable stack found all-too-frequently elsewhere, the standard sole option available is usually a similarly undesirable tempura vegetable dish. Wasabi though, a tepanyaki place in Dickson, has put a little more thought and care into the feeding of non-meat eaters, and presented us with a number of delicious treats on visiting last week.
Order the Vegetarian Banquet for a sequence of treats, beginning with miso soup, through sushi, and other dishes of seasoned tofu, baked eggplant, rice, soba noodles (and a desert we didn't stick around for). Usefully, they were also happy to serve this option for one, rather a usual minimum of two diners for the rest of the banquets. We were also told that a tepanyaki variation could also be served. Our meat-eating half also ate well with a scallops and salmon dish as a main, preceded by tempura prawns.
The place was full early on a Friday evening, and we were very lucky to get a table without a reservation, with a number of people arriving after us being turned away, although it did empty out a bit after 8:00.
Overall, tasty, not too expensive, and recommended.
Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sushi Sushi
Malls and franchises, no matter how hard they try to suggest quality and sophistication, are not often known for their culinary excellence. In the world of eating, certain individual food products aside - typically sweet or preserved things - mass production and homogeneity very, very rarely lend themselves to tasty meals. Against this background, we were happy to recently find Sushi Sushi, in the Canberra Centre.
Located where the Flaschengeist outlet used to be, across from Supabarn and the deli, Sushi Sushi does perhaps as good a sushi experience as could be hoped for from, what we suspect, is a chain, in a mall in a medium-sized Australian city. The food is freshly made (prepared seemingly by Just-In-Time production methods), with the individual rolls not being wrapped in plastic, and the ingredients we've had are also notably fresher than comparable places elsewhere around town.
Unless you really detest sushi, this is probably your best option for a cheap and quick lunch the next time you find yourself in the mall that slowly seems to absorbing Civic piece-by-piece.
Located where the Flaschengeist outlet used to be, across from Supabarn and the deli, Sushi Sushi does perhaps as good a sushi experience as could be hoped for from, what we suspect, is a chain, in a mall in a medium-sized Australian city. The food is freshly made (prepared seemingly by Just-In-Time production methods), with the individual rolls not being wrapped in plastic, and the ingredients we've had are also notably fresher than comparable places elsewhere around town.
Unless you really detest sushi, this is probably your best option for a cheap and quick lunch the next time you find yourself in the mall that slowly seems to absorbing Civic piece-by-piece.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Notes on Adelaide
Back from a quick trip to Adelaide, where of course we had to keep on eating, if whilst sometimes wistfully thinking of Mount Ainslie and properly chilly mornings.
Along with the observation that if you've seen one vineyard, you've seen them all (made after a day in the Barossa), two meals stood out. Both were consumed on Melbourne Road, within North Adelaide, a Red Hill-like enclave of privilege, segregated from the outside world by parks and ring-roads.
The first, at The Himalayan Kitchen, was accutely disappointing. Perhaps extremely small portions of tasteless food may be authentic Nepalese-Tibetan cuisine, but we doubt it. Plus they had the gall to price a Coopers Sparkling Ale for $6.80 and Heineken for $7.50. Plus the front-of-house staff member (who appeared to be a privately-schooled hippy) was entirely unmoved by our protests, suggesting lazily that "you can't please everyone". Walk on by.
The second meal, from across the road at Yakatori Takumi, was at the complete opposite end of the satisfaction scale. Delicious, well priced food, served by supremely polite and cheerful staff. More generally, in the aftermath of this comparatively delightful experience we were also struck by the thought that yakatori is almost always what tapas is inevitably not - tasty, cheap treats, that are the perfect companion to drinking. Canberra would definately benefit from more places like this - preferably within walking distance of our home.
Along with the observation that if you've seen one vineyard, you've seen them all (made after a day in the Barossa), two meals stood out. Both were consumed on Melbourne Road, within North Adelaide, a Red Hill-like enclave of privilege, segregated from the outside world by parks and ring-roads.
The first, at The Himalayan Kitchen, was accutely disappointing. Perhaps extremely small portions of tasteless food may be authentic Nepalese-Tibetan cuisine, but we doubt it. Plus they had the gall to price a Coopers Sparkling Ale for $6.80 and Heineken for $7.50. Plus the front-of-house staff member (who appeared to be a privately-schooled hippy) was entirely unmoved by our protests, suggesting lazily that "you can't please everyone". Walk on by.
The second meal, from across the road at Yakatori Takumi, was at the complete opposite end of the satisfaction scale. Delicious, well priced food, served by supremely polite and cheerful staff. More generally, in the aftermath of this comparatively delightful experience we were also struck by the thought that yakatori is almost always what tapas is inevitably not - tasty, cheap treats, that are the perfect companion to drinking. Canberra would definately benefit from more places like this - preferably within walking distance of our home.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Izumi
We've been meaning to write about Izumi for a while, but haven't really had occasion till our motivation was jogged from a visit last week on a evening when we didn't feel like cooking.
Like a lot of other former and present ANU students, Izumi has at times been something of stable stand-by in the feeding of ourselves, being the closest off-campus food outlet, and open in the weekend and evenings. We've eaten there on chilly Canberra winter evenings when the neighbouring carpark seems particularly cold and barren, and at midday in mid-summer, eating Bi Bim Bab while hopelessly trying to swat away the thousands of swarming and fearless black flies.
The food is OK, slightly greasy, but yummy Korean staples. The signage says that it's also a Japanese place, but I've told by people who know the nuances of the these two cuisines that this later claim is really just marketing. In the past things appeared to be overseen by an older couple who we haven't seen for a while - with things now seemingly passed over to students who unfortunately can be a bit surly, and also have had a tendency to cut back on the size of the servings. Overall, while certainly not the-best-place-ever, it compares very favourably to almost anything on offer at the ANU.
Like a lot of other former and present ANU students, Izumi has at times been something of stable stand-by in the feeding of ourselves, being the closest off-campus food outlet, and open in the weekend and evenings. We've eaten there on chilly Canberra winter evenings when the neighbouring carpark seems particularly cold and barren, and at midday in mid-summer, eating Bi Bim Bab while hopelessly trying to swat away the thousands of swarming and fearless black flies.
The food is OK, slightly greasy, but yummy Korean staples. The signage says that it's also a Japanese place, but I've told by people who know the nuances of the these two cuisines that this later claim is really just marketing. In the past things appeared to be overseen by an older couple who we haven't seen for a while - with things now seemingly passed over to students who unfortunately can be a bit surly, and also have had a tendency to cut back on the size of the servings. Overall, while certainly not the-best-place-ever, it compares very favourably to almost anything on offer at the ANU.
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