Masuya, Sydney

Masuya, situated in a heritage listed building at 14 O'Connell Street, Sydney. It was in fact, right next to the Radisson Hotel, where we were staying for the duration of our Sydney trip. So Masuya is where we had our first dinner, together with a few friends. Now, there was something I really regretted doing during our meal and that is not ordering the Ootoro sushi (fatty tuna) during the tuna festival that was taking place at the time. The sole reason for this is because my friend didn't eat raw fish (no way right?) and Yuye and I decided that we can come back a few days later to enjoy it. Little did we realise, the tuna festival ended that day. :( Even with this biggest regret ever, our two meals at Masuya were thoroughly enjoyed.

First visit

My friend was late for the meal and since Yuye and I were very hungry, we decided to order a few a la carte sushi for ourselves first. The ones we ordered were (I think) grilled kingfish belly and (possibly) flathead. My memory does not go back far enough and I know nothing about white sea-fish. :S They tasted as expected - fresh, deliciously fishy on top of nicely cooked rice. The rice on sushi is actually very important - each grain of rice has to be distinguishable (so can't be too soft), the right amount of sushi vinegar has to be used and the right proportion of rice to fish is important too.


Even though I said my friend didn't eat raw fish, I couldn't help myself but order the Masuya's Sashimi Boat ($78) anyway :D so Yuye and I ate almost all of it by ourselves. There was a great variety of sashimi on it, including the usual yellow fin tuna, salmon, kingfish, oysters and beef tataki (although this probably doesn't usually feature on sashimi platters), and also the less common scampi, scallops and hokkigai. I may have missed a thing or two on the platter, but the most important thing is, it was a wonderful mixture of fresh seafoods arranged in the most appetising way. The colours were so vibrant to match the lovely taste! :D It was quite a good value platter I thought.



We also ordered, of course, dishes for the not so fortunate - for my friend who didn't eat sashimi. Ok, I admit, I ate and liked these dishes too :P. One of them was the Eel Bo Rolls (unagi/eel) for $17.80. There were quite a few pieces, as you can see, there were 8 altogether, but I really only got to eat…..one. I couldn't complain though since I ate a lot of sashimi :D. They tasted sweet and eel like - as expected. I've never had bad eel and most eel dishes taste similar (since you can buy them in a pack and all), but I'm not sure if Masuya buys or makes their own eel sauce.



We also ordered a spider roll dish for $17.80. This consisted of soft shell crabs with crab sticks, avocado, cucumber and mayonnaise. Again, I only ate…one. I was getting deprived! It's ok, I wasn't left hungry for the night since we had pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks later :). This dish was similar to Makoto's spider rolls and was crunchy, flavourful and definitely worth getting. I like the long plates the rolls come with :D I think I should get some for my kitchen…



The last dish of the day was the Katsutama Pork Loin for $21.80. It was just basically deep fried pork covered in eggs and onions. I think I would have liked my katsu dry - i.e.. not drenched in that sauce and making it all soft but I couldn't complain since I didn't get to eat any of it really :S, so I can't really comment about the taste, although from the photo it does look quite flavourful doesn't it? :)




Second visit

Yuye and I visited again about 2 days later in hopes of getting the ootoro mentioned above but unfortunately we missed out. :( We had to make do with these other dishes (which were all fantastic mind you).

We decided to get some entrees. First up was the Chef's Entree for $14.80 which changes ingredients weekly. Our plate consisted of wagyu, deep fried oyster, marinated salmon roe, marinated raw salmon and grilled kingfish wing. Most of these are part of larger dishes that can be ordered separately. I must say, these small appetisers were all very nice, but wasn't anything that special.



We also got a special of the day tempura fish with beans - I can't remember what type of fish or how much it cost. I thought it tasted average, although I really liked the yuzu infused salt we were provided with, it was sour salt!. We ended up keeping the salt and dipping all our other food in it :D.



The main dish of the day was the Sapporo Hot Pot ($45) for 2 people. The pot was really enough for 3 people as we struggled to finish it and ended up leaving a whole lot of very yummy soup behind….oh no! The ingredients were almost overflowing when it arrived and included salmon, blue swimmer crab, scallops, oysters, chicken, fish balls and veggies served with soy milk (the Australian ones available in supermarkets) and sweet miso paste soup. We actually tried to make this at home a few times and tasted quite similar, perhaps I will post about it some time :D.

I wasn't a bit fan of cooking oysters in this way, I would rather have eaten my oysters raw with some lemon. What I found the coolest about this dish was the utensils and how we had to do the work ourselves, I always think having to do that gives the whole eating experience more enjoyment. Well, with that said, most hot pots require work and same goes with tabletop BBQs. On the top left side is a small dish containing chilli and coriander and underneath it was a whole jug of soy milk. Mmmmm…



Look at this one boil over….so delicious!! The soup had such a creamy and sweet aroma, plus the seafood, chicken and veggies….I was so upset at having to throw away the soup! If I wasn't staying in a hotel, I would have told them to take it away. :P



Naturally we had no stomach for dessert after that hot pot. It was all worth it though, I will leave my dessert indulgences till next time.

Overall, Masuya was a very good restaurant. On both occasions, it didn't fail to impress me and my companions. The highlight for me was the hotpot and second was the sashimi boat, but really, most of their dishes would be good to order I think. :)

Masuya
Phone: (02) 9235 2717
14 O'Connell Street, Sydney 2000
http://www.masuya.com.au/en/masuya/index.html


Masuya Japanese Seafood on Urbanspoon



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3 comments:

  1. Sounds absolutely awesome and will definitely check it out when I'm next in Sydney

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  2. That sashimi boat looks absolutely brilliant! I can't believe how huge it was! :o

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  3. @EmmaK, thanks for your comment! It's definitely worth checking out if you're in Sydney. :)

    @Not Quite Nigella, I know! It was huge! I can't believe Yuye and I ate it almost by ourselves...but with sashimi that good, can't really get enough of it :P

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