Thursday, February 12, 2015

Tokyo Bird, Surry Hills


It's with much anticipation that we finally visited Tokyo Bird last week.  We first heard of it over Instagram when it was still in its planning phase and we knew we had to go check it out.  It combines two of our favourite things - our love for Japanese food and C's love for whisky (and in particular Japanese whisky).  

Tokyo Bird is a short walk from Central Station.  It has a cosy, casual feel and over the course of our visit, we discovered how friendly and down to earth the owners are.  They spent time chatting to their diners, checking that everything is in order - attentive, down to earth but not overbearing.  


We'll start with a review of the food selection and then onto the whiskies.

For the meats - we tried the chicken meatballs (tsukune), pork belly and katsu nuggets, and the chicken and shallot skewers.  The highlights were definitely the chicken and shallot and the katsu nuggets.  The katsu nuggets are crunchy on the outside whilst still moist inside.  Dipping it into a bowl of kewpie mayo - it's a perfect bar snack.  The chicken and shallot is really well marinated, had the perfect amount of charred-ness and the shallots are a nice fresh crunchy balance to the saltiness of the poultry.  We had to go back for seconds on this one!

Chicken meatballs
Pork belly skewers
Katsu nuggets
Chicken and Shallots
We then opted for the Japanese cheese sausage skewers and grilled scallop skewers.  Don't be fooled by the appearance of those sausages - these were YUM! You get a burst of melted cheese as you take a bite into it...super tasty and moreish - albeit a little on the salty side (but perfect to pair with your Japanese beer!).  The scallops were well cooked - still soft and raw on the inside.  Can't go wrong with fresh scallops.
Japanese sausage and scallop skewers
Open charcoal grill
For our "daily dose" of vegetables we picked the shitake mushrooms, the eggplant with miso and the fried lotus root chips (yes those count as vegetables too....).  The highlight was the shitake mushrooms, the umami flavour of the mushrooms, charred but still juicy. The lotus root chips came with a spicy mayo for dipping which was quite addictive.

Shitake mushrooms
Eggplant and miso
Lotus root chips
Now onto the drinks!

C first went for the Hibiki 17.  This is probably one of the first whiskies that K has finally been able to appreciate.  K found it to be incredibly smooth, with a subtle caramel taste and no alcohol burn.  C found the whisky a bit too smooth and wanted more punch. However, if you are new to whisky, or prefer something with less of a burn, this is a great option to go for.
Hibiki 17
Now whilst C enjoys drinking his whiskies neat (i.e. with no water or ice), K convinced him to order one with ice because we knew that Tokyo Bird shaves their own spherical ice balls.  Here's a collage of photos showing the skill that goes into getting ice perfectly round before it melts - it was quite cool (excuse the lame pun...):
For his second, C picked the Hakushu Distillers Reserve.  This one is definitely not as smooth nor sweet as the Hibiki 17, and has a herbal aftertaste. It might have been due to drinking it with ice, but C definitely preferred whisky from its brother distillery, the Yamazaki Distillers Reserve.

The spherical ice ball! (and the Hakushu Distillers Reserve...)
We also tried this Japanese beer which we had never heard of before - Yona Yona Ale. This is an American pale ale but brewed in Nagano.  "Yona Yona" means "night after night", signifying the brewery's goal that this flagship beer will be enjoyed by people time and time again.  It is quite light, but still with bold flavours, tastes of grape and a refreshing sweetness to it.

Overall, whilst the menu at Tokyo Bird is not particularly extensive, all the food that they do offer is well executed and a perfect companion to an after-work drink.  The concept of combining yakitori with Japanese whiskies/beer is exciting and novel in Australia but definitely something that will grow in popularity with time.  






Tokyo Bird on Urbanspoon

Monday, February 2, 2015

Toriciya, Cammeray


It's been a super busy 2 months for us and we've been guilty of neglecting this blog.  Christmas and new year seems like a blur and before we know it...we are in February!  Where did January go?! Thank you to those who asked us why we haven't posted anything for a while...keeps us on our toes and it's nice to know that people actually read these posts!  Here's to many more blog posts in 2015. :)

Our first post for 2015 is about a little local gem we discovered recently when our friends came to visit from HK.  Toriciya is a small, traditional looking sake and yakitori restaurant nestled in a quiet suburban street in Cammeray.  Unassuming and cosy, the restaurant surprises you with its high quality food and attentive service.

There are a lot of photos this post so I'm going to just let the photos do most of the talking.

Not being sake experts, we asked the in house sake sommelier to recommend a few for us to try.  He chose 3 different sakes for us, starting with the fruitest options to start.  It's a nice way for novices like us to taste and appreciate the different varieties of sake.
Baked savoy cabbage
To start, we had the baked savoy cabbage.  It looks like a simple dish but the aroma of the dish is intense and gets you salivating.  Not sure if it actually has truffle oil in it but we could definitely smell what resembles truffle before the dish even got to our table! 
Slow cooked Hokkaido scallops with white soy sauce
Next we had the slow cooked hokkaido scallops with white soy sauce.  The melt in your mouth scallops paired with the milder white soy sauce...pretty amazing!

Being a yakitori place, we were blown away by the freshness of their sushi and the freshness of the rice.  We've decided we are definitely going to go back to try their sushi omakase menu!


Crab cream croquettes
A little on the indulgent side...but who can say no to a home made crab cream croquette and deep fried tempura lobster? Although if you want to try as many things as possible on the menu, we would recommend you share one croquette between two.  
Tempura lobster
Agedashi Tofu
By this stage, our stomachs were starting to feel a little full but we hadn't even gotten to the actual yakitori...
Deep fried chicken cartilage
First up we had deep fried chicken cartilage. Crunchy and moreish - yum! 
Chicken meatballs
We then had the chicken meatballs - half in just a salt dressing and half in a sauce dressing.  These were a little disappointing overall - from our experience in Japan, we were expecting it to come with a raw egg yolk for dipping.
Pork belly
Moro miso Wagyu beef steak
The wagyu beef steak was perfectly tender and matched well with the sweet chutney dressing of some sort.

Chicken and shallot yakitori
Charcoal grilled eel
The eel was pretty special - not the usual frozen supermarket kind that you often find at Japanese restaurants.  We were told the eel came fresh from Tasmania; freshly grilled on a open charcoal flame, it had the tasty charred flavour with a nice texture - worth giving it a try, although for $12 - you only get one skewer so it's a little on the pricier side.
Chicken wings
Can't go wrong with chicken wings.  These had a charred crusty outside whilst retaining the moisture inside.  

Although it is on the pricier side of most non-fine dining Japanese restaurants, we found the food quality at Toriciya top notch.  Every dish was prepared with care and the service was also tentative and polite in true Japanese style.

Toriciya Japanese on Urbanspoon