Sai Koh Sushi – Japanese –

Other day I had a chance to go to this Japanese restaurant in Canning Vale.  It was kind of a farewell dinner for one of my colleagues, but very casual.  We all just went there after work, and ordered few dishes.

The owner was so friendly, and kind enough to treat us with free special Sai Koh roll.  (one of my colleague is an acquaintance of his)

(Excuse the quality of this photo :p  It was taken by my mobile.)

Despite the shape, those rolls were quite nice!  There were few things that I couldn’t figure out what they were inside of the rolls.  It was crispy, so maybe some kind of deep-fried meat?  Anyway, the flavour over all was really nice.  I liked it.  (By the way I was surprised by the amount of wasabi they put on the plate…)

We ordered karaage, soft shell crab tempura and beef tataki for entree to share, and main meal for each.  Well, we thought they were entree!  When we are served with those food, we were shocked. “??  are they entree??”  Karaage was served with salad and rice, and soft shell crab was served on a 30cm plate.  I don’t know if it was owner’s treat again, or normal serving size… but karaage with rice was pretty big volume.  They tasted fine though.  🙂

Because of the entree we were already full before the main meal, but food kept coming…  Teppan dish came in a bento box!  and interestingly, there was one empty space in the bento box…  why they don’t even bother to fill up the space??  I was wondering quietly in my head…  Few seconds later I knew why.  A waitress brought a bowl of miso soup and put it into the empty space.  Huh that’s why :p

The dining experience there was fun.  Not a bad meaning!  Really, the food was not bad at all.

I may go back there for the Sai Koh rolls 🙂

Shop 11, Ranford shopping centre (214 Campbell Rd) Canning Vale

PH: 08 9456 1388

*** The owner has been changed and it is now called Sakura Sushi***

Satsuki Japanese Restaurant

Both my fiance and I have been very busy over the last few weeks, so we agreed to take a break and have a relaxing dinner out.  We both like any cuisine, but I felt like something “Japanese”.  Not like “teriyaki set” or “tempura set”… real Japanese food!  After thinking where we should go, we made a phone call to Satsuki Japanese restaurant to book a table.

I’m glad that I choose this restaurant.  The staff was so kind and polite.  When I was making a reservation on the phone, the staff kindly told me “there is one table available for two, and counter seats.  The available table is actually at between 2 large group bookings, so it may be little noisy.”  After her suggestion, I booked counter seats.  It was a great decision as those large groups were quite loud.

At the restaurant, we ordered Beef Tataki, Deep-fried Spicy Tuna Rolls, and Slowly Simmered Pork Belly.

Deep-fried sushi rolls sounded interesting to me.  Did they really deep-fry sushi rolls??  … yes, they did!  The tuna inside of the rolls was still raw as “sashimi”, and the tuna and spicy chili powder were well matched.

I loved the way they arranged the food on plates.  They use chic looking dishes, and the garnish is well presented.  The crispy lotus root chips, garnish for Beef Tataki, were lovely.

They close on Sun and Mon, and I recommend to make a booking on weekends.  You can browse their food and drink menu from here.

Mr Samurai

This Japanese fast food restaurant is located in the centre of Perth city, and popular among people of all ages.  They have been one of the cheapest place to eat around Perth, and it’s always crowded with students and office workers during lunch time.  Their signature dish is Fried Chicken: deep-fried chicken pieces with bone, served with steamed rice.  Considering the price, there is no question about the fact that people keep coming back to this place.  (Before: $4.00~$5.00, Now: $6.00.  still cheap 🙂 )

They have special chili sauce and chili powder on each table, and my fiance is crazy about this sauce.  We don’t have this type of chili sauce in Japan and it’s obviously not a Japanese thing, but it goes well with this fried chicken 🙂

I also recommend Katsu Curry, Oyako Donburi, and Special Combo.  They have Special Combo A, B and C, and A seems to be the popular one.  I believe that the price range around $6 ~ &7.

There is another reason why this place is always full of people.  They have a notice board near the entreace, and this notice board is used for classified advertising.  (mostly for Japanese people)  Most of the information are in Japanese, and Japanese people in Perth go to this place to get some information for share house, job, community activity and more.  If you are looking for Japanese sharemate, it’s probably a good idea to put the ad in Mr Samurai.

They are closed in the Weedends and that’s been a big disappointment, but Good News!  Mr Samurai will open on Saturdays from 31/Jan/09 🙂

As I mentioned above, this restaurant is kind of fast food, takeaway type of place.  The best place to get quick lunch.

83 Barrack St. Perth

Wagamama Fremantle

Recently I had a chance to go to this newly opened Wagamama restaurant in Fremantle.  It was my first time to try their food whilst Wagamama Subiaco has been there in Perth for a while.  

It was actually pre-opening launch party and all the food I had was free!  (even though there was a limit of “1 entree & 1 main per person”, seven of us ordered different dishes and shared all) Free food… nothing is better than this:)

The atmosphere was great – casual layout and friendly staff, although I noticed that the cuisine is not really a Japanese.  These are the food we ordered↓↓↓

We started with freshly squeezed juice as a waitress strongly recommended them to us.  The left is mixed fruit juice and the right is apple+mint+lime.

We ordered 3 kinds of Gyoza: Duck, Chicken and Ebi (prawn).  Only the sauce for Duck gyoza contains Hoisin sauce because of its strong taste and flavour: the other sauce (for chicken, ebi and yasai (vege)) are normal Gyoza sauce. (which is soy sauce based, with dash of sesame oil and sometimes with ra-yu)

Tori Kara Age (Deep-fried marinated chicken) is normally larger pieces of chicken but I guess this is Wagamama style.

A kind of Yakitori dish.  (negi = spring onion)  They tasted ok!

The dipping sauce was lime syrup!(with a slice of fresh chili)  Fusion of spiciness and sweetness.

Chicken Kare and Ebi Kare Ramen.  They are definitely not Japanese food as this Kare (curry) contains coconut cream and tasted like Laksa soup.  If you eat it as some kind of Asian noodle, it tastes great.

Yaki Udon (stir-fried udon noodle) is one of my favorite:)  The plain Yaki Udon came with a sprinkle of fish floss on the top.

Slices of beef steak was nicely cooked (medium) and delicious, though the noodle was little too soft and it wasn’t to my taste.

(traditional) Japanese cuisine doesn’t use coconut, chili, coriander, Hoisin sauce, red onion, bok choy etc….  Very different.

The first Wagamama was established in London few decades ago by a Hong Kong business man, and now there are about 50 Wagamama restaurants in London, few in France, Dubai, Holland, Australia… and more!  Amazing….

 It’s interesting that there is no Wagamama restaurants in most of Asian countries.  The target marketing must be non-Japanese people.  I don’t think this Wagamama restaurant can survive in Japan either:p  Different market.  But I think the food and atmosphere are great for a casual dining experience 🙂

Eat Out in Perth – Japanese Food –

Wagamama in Frementle   

Mr Samurai   

Satsuki    

Sai Koh Sushi     

Fusion of French and Japanese   

Ramen Restaurants in Perth    

A Little List of Japanese Restaurants in Perth    

Japanese Restaurants in Perth Voted by Men and Women    

Another List of Japanese Restaurants (Just Opened)   

Sakura Sushi