Uogashi Nihon Ichi

My love of sushi is pretty well known, so when I was back in my old stomping ground in Tokyo for a day, my friend and I stopped in at the local standing sushi bar for lunch. This branch of Uogashi Nihon Ichi is located on one of my favourite streets in Tokyo – Kagurazaka-dori. It’s an old geisha quarter, now full of traditional stores and restaurants, and is a bit of an institution – the street even has its own annual festival! On entering Uogashi, we were shown to a space along the standing bar. Like a sit down sushi bar, each station has its own cup of tea, soy and hand towel, just no chair. We ordered a range of different pieces, including tuna, salmon, kingfish and a couple that I had no idea what they were, but tasted amazing! The sushi-san gives you the option of soy (shoyu) or salt (shio) to put on the piece, and there are different recommendations for different fish. Each piece was reasonably sized, although a bit smaller than the nigiri at Sushi Zanmai. As usual, my favourite was the aburi (seared) tuna, but really, it’s all good!

Uogashi Nihon Ichi, 1F PORTA Kagurazaka 2-6 Kagurazaka Shinjyu-ku Tokyo  http://www.uogashi-nihonichi.com/english/

Tha Fish Restaurant

It’s pretty much impossible to go to Cairns and avoid seafood – a group of us decided to embrace the inevitable seafood feasting and booked in to Tha Fish. With the fancy esplanade location, we expected great things. We ordered a dozen natural oysters to start, which came with chilli jam and Asian-style fried onion crisps. The first oyster I had was fresh and flavoursome and enlivened by a drizzle of lime. Each of the following ones were a little less tasty than the first, but still satisfied my craving. Choosing a main was tricky – the menu has so many options – but in the end I picked a fillet of barramundi served with cous cous, dukkah and labne. The cous cous was moist and suited the barramundi, which was quite large and cooked to perfection. The crunch of the dukkah and the creaminess of the labne really brought the best out of the fish – definitely a winning combination. The staff were very attentive and the service was excellent, although fair warning, good fish does come with a high price tag – in this case it was well worth paying.

Tha Fish Restaurant, Pier Point Road, Cairns QLD        http://www.thafish.com.au/

Sushi Zanmai

Not everybody is a ‘sushi for breakfast’ person, but if we’re talking Sushi Zanmai, I absolutely am. I dragged my colleagues out to Akihabara bright and early, promising that sushi at 7am was something they wouldn’t regret. Sushi Zanmai is open 24 hours and you are always met with a chorus of ‘irashaimasen’ to welcome you. Here, seating at the bar is best, so you can watch the sushi-san work and have a chat. The staff are super friendly and are always happy to give you their recommendations. On this occasion, we were the only people in the restaurant, and had a sushi-san to ourselves, so we started the nigiri feast with salmon, followed by tuna, mackarel, scallops, and unagi (eel). We tried the ootoro (top grade fatty tuna), but all found it a bit too fatty for our tastes. The highlight was the aburi tuna, which had sprigs of spring onion on top and just melted in your mouth. I’m pretty sure that piece alone managed to convince my colleagues of the wisdom of eating sushi at 7am. A must visit for a real Tokyo experience – although not necessarily for breakfast!

Sushi Zanmai, 1F Yodabashi Camera building, Akihabara Tokyo     http://www.kiyomura.co.jp/ (Japanese only)

Shoya

A lot of my friends are foodies. This usually works out well for me, especially when I visit cities they’ve lived in. Shoya was a fancy dinner choice booked by a colleague, and I feel like I now owe him a very good Adelaide recommendation in return. For me, the dinner at Shoya was all about the sashimi. Yes we had other things, including some excellent ageashi tofu, my first taste of abalone and some very tender, tasty beef.  But having visited my favourite sushi bar in Japan recently, finding some good quality, well-sized pieces of raw fish in Australia was such a delight. Each piece was perfectly cut and melted in your mouth – the tuna was a particular highlight and I think I ended up eating more than my fair share. In fact, when it came around to ordering dessert, I looked at my friends and meekly suggested another sashimi plate instead. Luckily they agreed, and we all left with very happy tummies.

Shoya, 25 Market Lane, Melbourne VIC                                         http://www.shoya.com.au