Tora Sushi

Over the past few years, I've really only been visiting the same places over again. Same cafes, on rotation.

I decided it was high time I branch out and try a few new things, and so far, my food and coffee discoveries have been great!

Then I noticed Tora Sushi had opened, a place with signage I had noticed while visiting Abacus coffee, but not open yet, until I read about it again in the news a couple of weeks ago. I am fairly certain that this is the first omakase sushi restaurant in Perth (Nobu notwithstanding?), and it feels very much like the omakase boom vibe that Sydney has right now. Which actually made me a little nervous - is omakase so ubiquitous these days, is it even an "experience" to chase anymore?

The price point was also "low" at $150 per person for food. I think these days the cost of an omakase sits roughly at the $250 mark on the east coast for some really high quality and luxurious ingredients. I don't think $150 is bad, but I was curious about how the menu would be constructed based on the price. It was also supposedly booked out for 2 months straight, but in a moment of serendipity I managed to find an empty spot one day while randomly checking their website, so here we go!

I booked at 6PM timeslot, and still carrying some shame from being (unavoidably) late to my Minamishima booking all those years ago (because of a tram breakdown), I made an effort to be slightly early. If I remember correctly, at Minamishima, they track each diner separately so each person starts as soon as they arrive, but at Waku Ghin it may have been a synchronised start. Alas, one of the guests was running super late! The staff were pretty confident we would still be able to complete the meal even though we would be starting 15-20 minutes late.

Here's the first dish - Coffin Bay oyster with kombu and finger lime. During the introduction, the staff explained that for now, they were showcasing a wide range of dishes, and would fine tune them as the seasons changed. That was good, I like getting an idea of a restaurant's culinary range!

Hokkaido scallops with jerusalem artichoke chips! Ah I don't miss the days of attempting to make my own chips! I love the crispness of the chips against the softness of the scallops!

Yes, it's chawan mushi time! I love any restaurant that features a chawan mushi, and this one tasted great! Great texture too. I think it was a clam broth chawan mushi, but what was interesting about it was that inside was a piece of chicken. I was totally used to and expecting prawn, crab, or other type of seafood, so seeing the chicken was unexpected. It still tasted good, but I was starting to see where the $150 price tag comes from!

Before serving the sashimi course, the chef showed the tray of fresh fish fillets to everyone. I didn't take a photo of it and I wondered almost immediately if the chef was expecting me to take a picture, which may have been why he displayed it? I almost felt bad, but then the people next to me did take pictures. Sorry, it's just that I've taken so many photos of sushi and fish that I guess I wanted to try and not be too intrusive. I've even mostly streamlined my camera plus phone snaps to take as little time as possible.

Anyway, this was really yummy! Tuna, kingfish, and goldband snapper. I love white fish where I can actually feel the sinew (am I weird for that?), so the snapper was actually my favourite bit! I love that chew! I also ate the seaweed garnish because it's so hard to get that kind of seaweed!

Here's something interesting - the wasabi, I discovered, was not hot at all! I could pile it on and not get any kind of burn or nose fuzz. I didn't really think much of it, except that I did want some of that burn that never came.

Here we go with some nigiri! They space out the nigiri throughout the meal, which was quite interesting! The selection was small and simple, and definitely from local fish - again, reflective of the price point. Red emperor, and tuna.

The chef made a special mention that this tuna was aged for two days, which was interesting to note! It was definitely much more tender than the sashimi version.

Here I learned more about why the wasabi didn't pack the punch I expected! The nigiri was made without a dab of wasabi under the fish. Instead, the chef asked if I wanted wasabi on top of the fish. Turns out, he himself doesn't like the spiciness from wasabi so he checks in with everyone and adds accordingly!

Look at this cute little teapot! This was a lovely warming soup, and the format here actually resembles what I had at Komeyui! I really love soup "intermissions" though I guess these are actually so good that I shouldn't really call them intermissions. It was a bit awkward to dig out the food inside the teapot so I asked before I did it, but apparently that's the intention!

Wagyu nigiri time! This time with a yuzu kosho topping.

Yakimono time! This was actually unexpected for me - grilled rankin cod with maple miso. When I first saw it, I thought, it must be some kind of miso toothfish dish, cause that's what everyone does. The rankin cod comes in significantly cheaper, but I reckon it was a very good choice, I really enjoyed the texture of the cod, and the sweetness from the maple made it quite unique too! Now I want to try making my own maple miso foods!

Ah yes the big wagyu beef dish! I'm sorry - when I was eating this I was reminiscing about the steak I had at Chaco Bar instead of this. Komeyui's beef dish was also a standout that stopped me from fully appreciating this dish. Nothing on Tora, it's just, I've been extremely spoilt with beef. I was even giggling on the inside at myself because I was the only person who ate the beef first and then moved onto the lotus chips and salad - everyone else left the beef for last. Pyschologically, they valued the beef more so saved it, where as I ate it first? My own mind is fascinating.

The end of a meal usually ends with a tamogoyaki or a temaki, here it's temaki! A great combo of tuna, uni, and ikura!

And of course, dessert. This two toned matcha panna cotta was really cute! And I'm so glad they added mochi balls because I love mochi!

Overall this place satisfies my omakase cravings, so any time I want to eat Japanese art, I have a place now instead of always pining for my next Sydney trip and how to get into Sokyo. It's close, and it's relatively affordable. I am definitely keen to go back and see how the menu changes over the seasons!

Komeyui Melbourne

I only really wanted to choose one restaurant to book while in Melbourne, and Komeyui has been on my list for several years and seems to regularly pop up as a great restaurant to visit. Some of the research I did shows that this omakase would be interesting, since they also offer kaiseki options, so I wanted to see what dishes they'd have on offer!

Autumn sunset - fresh oyster, scallop, grapefruit, scampi caviar

Hello scampi caviar, I haven't seen you in so long! So many of my favourite things in a combo I haven't had before!

The Jewel of Heard Island - cured toothfish, shaved qukes, yumepirika tart, miso oroshi ginger sauce

Okay this plating is so fun and interesting too! I definitely love the way the dishes are presented here. This is my first time having cured toothfish too, and it was nice! The yumepirika rice tart was very crunchy, which was a great contrast to the fish.

Onsen Tenaga Ebi - steamed scampi, soy curd skin, ginger ankake

This was the cutest dish of the night! Look at it! An adorable little scampi complete with flower decoration! Of course, I took multiple pictures of it as a result. The chef also recommended to scoop the brains out of the prawn to mix into the ginger ankake. How fun and tasty!

Konnichiwa Wagyu-san! - Seared Mayura MB9+ wagyu, truffled creme fraiche, shaved shiitake

Even the menu description is excited! This doesn't look like much but it was my favourite dish of the night! I thought it would be the scampi, but as soon as I bit into the beef, I knew. The truffle oil and the shiitake made it nice and aromatic, but it was the bite of the beef that sold me. It was tender, but there was this lovely hint of resistance, like sinew? But not chewy - I don't know how to describe it exactly but it's my favourite kind of texture where it gives a little, before it gives way. Sooo good!

And then came the 10 piece nigiri selection!

Snapper, alfonsino, tuna, and Salmon with fried radish (I think it was fried radish) were the first in the lineup. The salmon was actually a pleasant surprise because that fried radish?? was very crispy and the texture worked so well! It's something I haven't had before in that combo so I was very happy with it!

Josper Wagyu Bouillon - Josper grilled MB9+ wagyu soup, cherry tomato, shallot, pumpkin.

Soup time! What a cute little soup! It took me a while to remember what a Josper was, but I recalled it being a super fancy oven! This was a light, clear soup that was perfect to have between courses.

The last few nigiri were kingfish, scampi, otoro, wagyu, scallop, and anago. I was curious as to how this wagyu would taste, considering the previous wagyu dish was so good. The seared wagyu and shiitake from earlier was definitely a clear winner!

What's also interesting is that I seem to recognise anago! The size and shape is different from that of unagi! It was good to have this as the final piece!

Born in Kochi-ken - matcha gateau, adzuki red bean paste, yuzu panna cotta.

I was super amused at the olive branch in the middle, only because my pigeons love olive branches haha! The waitstaff recommended alternating between the two desserts, but I had a clear favourite, the yuzu panna cotta.

There was also a most delicious matcha and soybean tea that was served at the end! Funny story, I tried to order this at the beginning, since I saw it on the menu, but I was told that coffee or tea was included at the end, so that I could choose another drink if I wanted. The tea turned out really tasty, and it was so good that I got an extra pour of it!

Overall it was quite enjoyable, and I liked the variety of dishes. It's been so long since I've done any kind of fine dining and this was a great experience!

And we're not quite done yet. On the way to the bathroom, I noticed the photo on the wall. Wow, pigeons!! Haha I can't believe they'd have a photo of pigeons! I found that adorable, but was also puzzled that someone would actually print a photo like this! I mean, I took a similar photo in Sydney lol, maybe I can "publish" a pigeon photo!

Omakase Room by Tatsu

There are lots of sushi places in New York, and Japanese food overall does seem pretty popular. There are tiny ramen joints every few blocks and all of them looked good. However, I was after something specific by deciding to try a sushiya in New York. I was hoping to try out ingredients that are abundant on this side of the world, and not to have the same things as I would in an Australian sushi restaurant. I had a few choices, and my original one was a place called Gaijin. My friend had a bit more of an extensive list though, and after browsing and doing a very small amount of research, I settled on Omakase Room because it felt more like what I wanted out of a New York sushi experience - I didn't actually want a crazy New York experience like Sushi on Jones, and I certainly didn't want to fork out a stupid crazy 600USD at Masa. Omakse Room seemed to be the perfect price point with the kind of atmosphere I had in mind.

This was the only restaurant that I didn't scout out prior to the reservation itself. It has an address, I have a hipster sense, how hard could it be to find? Well, it turned out it's only the second restaurant that I've been completely baffled by the entrance of (the first being Waku Ghin even though the door was 100% obvious)! I'd spent the whole time looking up for a sign, that I didn't think to look down for a sign! And finally we went through the curtains into a wonderful, very traditional looking sushiya.

I believe this is only an 8-seat counter, but nevertheless, I was impressed that the staff greeted me by name! It was very much like Waku Ghin, the only other place that's done that. It makes me wonder though, does that mean you could walk in pretending you were someone? We were the first people in the restaurant, and got seated closest to the door.

This is chef Tatsu, and his sous-chef. I don't actually know if sous chef is the correct term. Is it more like an assistant or apprentice? I wish I knew more about how the cook hierarchy of these places worked! We were offered a choice of drinks, and I chose sencha, even though normally I don't like Japanese green tea, but hey, I was at a Japanese restaurant. It was kind of a must! The good thing is, the one drink cost does include all refills during your meal (I'm always worried that I'll accidentally end up at a place where they charge per cup)!

I asked the chef if photos were allowed, and he was okay with it. However, when I took out my camera, it was the waitstaff who spotted this and let me know that cameras weren't allowed, but phone cameras were. She seemed a bit apologetic but I thanked her for letting me know! I think that a full camera was probably intrusive and wouldn't have really been respectful to the art of sushi anyway, unless you'd specifically contacted them for a photoshoot, so I was definitely understanding of why she said it! As a result, the photos here aren't as good as I was hoping to take, but it's not the images here that count, it's what actually happened in the restaurant, that made the best memories; the photos really are only a way to trigger those memories!

Right at the beginning, the chef started grinding fresh wasabi into paste, and I was already excited! I can get quite gushy and vocal at restaurants (in hopefully a very polite and ladylike way), so he explained that this was wasabi from the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan.

Our first course was yellowtail from Japan. The thing that I noticed from our first piece of sushi, was the rice! Red rice vinegar is used here, which is cool since I'm pretty sure all my other experiences involved white rice vinegar. For the first time, I also chose to eat all these by hand instead of using the chopsticks, just to make the experience even better!

Aji came next, and I love mackerel! I liked this one better than the yellowtail.

Oh yeah, scallop! I love Japanese scallops cause they're massive and sweet!

The first locally sourced piece was this fluke nigiri. Not too bad, but a lot of white fish taste the same to me haha.

I took a few general shots too, just because I could. By this time, other diners had entered. I believe it was a group of four men. I think they initially came in as a group of three, for a reservation of five. Then, one more came in so that they'd fulfilled four out of their five person reservation, but that last person couldn't make it? Whatever they'd done, it'd confused the two waitstaff a lot, and chef Tatsu didn't look happy when they were all trying to figure out exactly what was going on and how many people to expect. I wasn't very impressed either, mainly at the way the guests had let it all unfold - no advance notice, no apology, they just kind of treated it in such a way that didn't reflect the place they were dining at! It pains me because of how much I appreciate restaurants as a business, not just a place of eating.

Service continued for us, and it was tuna time! Spanish bluefin tuna, marinated in soy to give it that cured-ness on the outside. This wasn't my favourite piece of tuna, I think that still belongs to Tetsuya's all those years ago, though I'm pretty sure I have a close second from one of the omakases I've been to recently too. Also, this is specific to akami tuna and does not cover otoro, for hopefully obvious reasons!

Whoops, I think my list got messed up sometime between the visit and now. I seem to be missing a piece somewhere, but I'm going to say that this one was the kinmedai.

My records don't seem to have this bite listed, but I'm pretty sure it's prawn, and on this side of the world, most likely a langoustine of sorts. Not quite as crazy good as Minamishima's scampi trio, but also still very tasty!

Woah a smoker! Yeah! I was very excited to see this come out because I love just... seeing things lol. Chef Tatsu even told us to get ready to take a video!

And behold, the smoked spanish mackerel nigiri! While I couldn't get too much smokiness from the sushi itself (I have a really bad sense of smell), there was still a very light waft of smoke lingering around, so I closed my eyes and kind of just took a big sniff in the air and just enjoyed the thought of the smokiness when eating the fish.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the lady waitstaff laughing! I'm pretty sure she was giggling at me! I didn't mind if I looked silly, I just smiled because she probably knew I was enjoying the experience a lot!

Yes! That's right, it's springtime! This is the season for hotaru ika!!! Woah! I'd totally forgotten this is a super seasonal treat, so this was super exciting! Sadly, it didn't have the cutesey eyes that I totally adore looking at before popping the whole thing in my mouth, but this was seriously the best (and only) firefly squid I've had! I know I ate a similar baby squid in my last trip to Japan, but I just feel it wasn't THE type of firefly squid I was after, as it was a different colour and shape, so I consider this the first time I've properly had it. I actually had a disastrous attempt at tasting this squid when I bought some frozen stuff from my local Japanese shop but had no idea how to prepare it, and it was just unpleasant fishiness as a result. However, this had a great flavour, no gutsy/squid innard thoughts formed in my head while eating it, it was just a nice savoury oceany goodness, with a lovely burst of shiso!

Otoro! Yep, I've been spoilt. My favourite two otoros are still from Sokyo (not the omakase version) and Daiwa Sushi, but it's a really high bar to clear! This was actually super delicious too, especially once it started melting in the mouth, but for some reason the impact/memory of the others was a lot stronger.

What's this funkly ugly looking blobby thing? Wait, is that what I think it is? Oh, it's an oyster! An oyster from Washington! I didn't recognise it in its "naked" form because 99% of my oysters are eaten when they're cosy in their shells! It's weird, I have this perception that oysters taste better when they're in their shell, and this bite totally proved me wrong! It was big, it was sweet, and tasted like the pacific oysters we get here in Aus!

I felt like my tastebuds on this were correct because I wasn't the only one who mentioned to the chef that this was great, the old men dining next to us did the same! Yay my opinion was validated by random rich men who just talked about Hudson Yards and sounded like they had money to throw around and sort of ate at a few restaurants which I could tell from the vocabulary used but were quite clueless with some things I was used to, like they mistook scallop for clam and I'm like how do you even do that???

More tasty treats. Nice, my shima aji is served "millefeuille" style! Three thin slices piled on top of each other so elegantly, I never get enough sushi made in this style! Also, I'm pretty sure this was an accidental shot, but I gotta change up the angles and keep it interesting, right?

It was squid time! Oh no it's the thin squid that I don't like. The cutting on this was super cool though, because both sides of the piece were scored! I've only ever received single-side-scored squid before, so that was actually a really nice thing to watch the chef do! That being said, yep, I definitely like chunky squid better than thin squid. I've just come to accept this as a fact of life and that no sushi chef can change my mind about this haha.

Yes! Oh my goodness yes! It's uni time!!! Three morsels of sea urchin from Maine, tidily arranged on a bed of rice. This was super nice, sometimes I get worried that the species chosen for a meal is the iron-tasting kind, but these were the sweet kind, so i was really happy!

WHAT WOW OH MY GOODNESS A DOUBLE WHAMMY but this was a MASSIVE tongue of urchin that was so big that it's actually chopped in half to fit the nigiri hahahaha. It wasn't until after I finished my meal that I learned that chef Tatsu actually watches your reaction when eating the sushi to determine what to serve next. That means my face must have really kind of said "I love uni" on the previous course! This was a californian sea urchin, so I feel like I just did a sort of east coast to west coast uni adventure! I liked this one a lot more, I feel like there was just more oomph in the sweetness and creaminess of this one!

Actually, him reading the reactions of us diners makes sense. I couldn't figure out why the old men dining next to us received different items, but this now makes sense! Also, I'm really glad that we didn't receive the salmon nigiri because salmon is such an Aussie thing and I'm all Aussied out - I don't want that stuff while in New York!

Salmon roe on the other hand, yes! I can't get enough roe. It's so good, so tasty!

Ah, this tuna hand roll must indicate that I'm getting close to the end of my omakase session!

A lovely miso soup served as a good, warming break from all that sushi. I had to ungracefully use my chopsticks at this point to pick out the tofu that ended up being stuck at the bottom of the bowl though, because I always seem to not be able to slurp up the tofu when drinking the soup, so they end up getting left over in the bowl.

And our lovely sous chef person pops into action! He helped out a few times during the course of the meal, but I felt like most of the time he was just standing there. My friend noticed that he was leaning against the wall at times, so we were wondering exactly how Japanese-culture-like it would be if he stood to attention the whole time we were there! It still takes a lot of self discipline as he was attentive, since his job was to do things like heat up the miso soup at exactly the right time so that we were served this without needing to wait too long between courses, and here, he's grilling up one of our final bites.

Anago was the last piece in our omakase, and it was cooked perfectly! I really liked this, and I'm glad it wasn't unagi because that's everywhere. This was nice for a change!

I also didn't realise this until after we'd finished our meal, but tamago, which I was used to being the actual final bite, is available on request, but he doesn't seem to provide it by default. If only I'd knew at the time, or decided to foolishly ask! But now I know for next time, always ask for tamago if it isn't served, as it's likely that you'll get one. I also think we were asked if we wanted any other custom pieces, but I was pretty full at this point, and couldn't think of anything I really, really wanted to repeat, since I knew I had plenty more crazy good tasty things to eat during this trip.

At the end, the lady waitstaff came over and presented me with Tatsu's book, Kowadari by Omakase Room. WOAH. HIS BOOK. IN MY HANDS. WhaT. Isn't this usually something sold for $50 or more??? And Chef Tatsu just wanted me to have it? Oh my goodness I didn't know what to say! I've never owned a chef's book before, or any restaurant book, so this was a major honour! Wow! I will treasure it so much! Except I can't find if it actually has a price, so what if he does this for all customers? Hahaha. Either way, it doesn't matter. I totally wasn't expecting it, so the very gesture, the experience and conversations I had with all the staff made receiving the book far more memorable than just simply purchasing it or being given it for no reason, it was the entire experience from start to finish, that really defines the value of the book. I'm so happy!

This is definitely a lovely place to experience Japanese sushi. Sometimes I crave sushi but I can't fulfill it, and it wasn't until the days leading up to this trip that I realised why I couldn't bring myself to go to any sushi shop when I wanted to eat sushi. It's because the craving I had was for the artform, not just the ingredients. That's what makes all the difference for me, so this definitely hit the spot!

Hooray for a wonderful experience!