Dinner at Sake
It’s been a while since I’ve had a fantastic meal out in Sydney, so this blog is way overdue for a restaurant post. I’ve the pleasure recently of meeting some fantastic females outside of work and there is definitely no better way to celebrate new friendships than by going out to fun meals. Sake is a Japanese restaurant in the Rocks district of Sydney which can be a bit touristy, and the fact that it’s part of a big nightclub complex means that I will immediately doubt its authenticity, but I was pleasantly surprised in that it was probably one of the best Japanese food meals I’ve had in Sydney since I moved here. The fish was really fresh and the menu was fun and innovative. The best part was that we were sharing among 4 people so we could sample a ridiculous number of dishes. It’s definitely the best way to dine out in Sydney to ensure you can sample lots of food and not end up totally broke at the end of the night. 🙂 Also, the fact that we were all into sharing desserts meant a truly excellent end to the meal…
Sashimi appetizer – simple and delicious
Panko rice balls – basically a Japanese-inspired version of arancini. Rice with mushrooms that was then fried in a little ball. Delicious.
Fantastic tuna ceviche with really fresh cherry tomatoes and cucumber and fried onions on top. Loved the citrus dressing and the different textures here – this was probably my favourite dish
Alaskan king crab salad with avocado and fantastic thinly shaved white radishes
Tempura in the front and a sushi platter in the back with tuna rolls and various fish. The tempura included avocado which I found slightly odd but rather pleasant.
Amazing desserts! This was a matcha kit kat bar with a little piece of chocolate on the top that looked like seaweed. I also loved the raspberry coulis and little gelatin squares on the side. So creative!
This was definitely the star of the desserts though. It’s a miso chocolate fondant that had valrhona chocolate but a miso caramel centre and caramel sauce. I loved how the miso made it a bit saltier and brought more depth of flavour to the chocolate. Such a creative way to incorporate the whole salty sweet theme. The white chocolate ice cream went great with it as well.
A dessert bento box! Some of these were a bit hit or miss, but overall I loved the idea. There were pistachio biscotti over fairy floss (which is like the Australian version of cotton candy) and amazing homemade salted caramels (in the front). There were these cool little coconut mango sorbet balls (on the right) as well. The misses for me were the weird pink goo and the ice cream on the right, which basically tasted like sesame oil. However, when paired with the caramels, it was definitely an interesting texture sensation. I LOVED the kalamansi sorbet on the left – such a reminder of the Philippines for me! I miss kalamansi and you really can’t find it anywhere except the Phils, so that was great.
Overall, I loved the freshness of the fish and the really creative presentation of desserts in particular. For a special occasion Japanese themed meal, Sake is definitely a worthy option (and better than sushi e, or so I’ve heard)!
merrifood 