Sokyo - Bringing Tokyo in Sydney - Birthday Treats Part 2

Just one week ahead of my birthday I had a pleasurable problem to solve – to decide on a restaurant for the family birthday celebration dinner. After some vigorous research I found the perfect place to cater for the family’s love for Japanese food and my passion for trying something out of the ordinary.

The Star (aka former Star Casino) is shimmering with the addition of dazzling eateries such as Momofuku Seiobo, Black by ezard and Adriano Zumbo Patissier. After reading some exhilarating reviews, I set my eyes on Sokyo, where stylish Tokyo meets vibrant Sydney.

We surpassed the buzzing dining area on the top floor and headed to the more discrete dining area downstairs. The restaurant is fully occupied, the lighting is dim, the music is loud and food is ridiculously good! At a young age of 29, head chef Chase Kojim has led Nobu kitchens all over the world including Dubai, London, LA and Bahamas. With his experience and creativity, he’s changing the games for Japanese food in Sydney.

The menu is divided into several sections including sashimi, sushi, tempura, robata (meat, seafood and vegetables grilled on white charcoal) and “essential dishes”. Everything is beautiful but there are some exceptional standouts, like the enoki mushroom tempura (in fact all tempura items are brilliant – lightly battered so that they are crisp and flavoursome) and the beef short rib robata with caramelised eshallots that are so succulent, sweet and appetizing. They also serve fantastic cocktails - Miss J commented on her plum wine cocktail being the best she's ever had.

The waiting staffs are proficient and made good recommendations on what and how much to order. We ended up spending around $120 pp, which is how much it would be if we had gone for their degustation. Of course I much prefer having control of what will end up on our plates (ok, I'll admit again, yes I'm a picky eater :P) so I would encourage going in a big group so that you can try the variety of yummy dishes they have on offer. I won’t ramble on as I'm sure the pictures will speak for themselves.

Entrance to the bar-like restaurant

An extremely heavy teapot

Some good looking clay tea cups

Coffee Beer

Two-ended chopsticks – how ingenious! 

Sashimi Platter

24 pieces of mixed traditional sashimi

L Loves... Enoki Mushroom with Sokyo tempura sauce and

Pumpkin Tempura with Poblano, rocoto sauce

Tempura - Moreton Bay Bug with sambal mayo, grapefruit salsa, 

Sand Whiting with curry salt, apple aioli, layu and 

Cuttlefish with chilli de arbol, tarragon ponzu sauce

L Loves... Beef Robata

Short Rib, caramelized eshallots, BBQ teriyaki

L Loves... Beef Robata
A closer look at those delicious juicy beef short ribs

L Loves... Hokkaido Scallops

Wasabi shitake pepper sauce

L Loves... Baby Corn
Burnt sweet soy, shichimi pepper butter

King Prawn

Enoki, pancetta, green chili sauce

Crowd Pleaser: DengakuMan

Caramelised miso cod, Japanese salsa, celery croutons

Wagyu +5 T-BONE 610 grams

Sokyo dipping sauces

Wagyu +5 T-BONE 610 grams

Sokyo dipping sauces

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice Nigiri

Crispy nigiri, truffle salt, spicy mayo

Crowd Pleaser: Salmon Belly Aburi, Ooma Maguro Toro (Premium Tuna Belly), 

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice, Braised Sea Eel Nigiri

Goma Street

Caramelised white chocolate, sesame ice cream

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondant

Vanilla ice cream 

Look at that gooey peanut butter centre!

Donatsu

Pineapple mascarpone filling, crème fraiche ice cream

Pouring that lovely berry sauce over the Donatsu

The discrete entrance inside The Darling
 in The Star - don't miss it!

L's Verdict:

·     Taste: 9/10

·     Ambience: 3.5/5 (trendy, but a bit too loud and dark for my liking)

·     Value: 3/5

·     Service: 3.5/5 (proficient, but had to ask repeatedly for our drinks order)

·     Creativity and other WOW factors: 4/5 

Overall rating: 23/30

Sokyo

Level G, The Darling, The Star

80 Pyrmont Street   

Pyrmont, NSW 2009

Ph: 1800 700 700

Lunch: Fri-Sat 12pm-2:30pm

Dinner: Mon-Thu 6pm-10:15pm

Fri & Sat 6pm-11:15pm

Visited June 2012

Friendly advice: Sokyo is all about the quality and not quantity, so expect to pay ~$100+ pp to walk away full. That being said the food is top notch. If you don’t want to overspend, after tasting some of those delicious food in Sokyo, you can hunt for more good food at Café Court inside The Star, including Flying Fish & Chips (inspired by Sydney’s iconic Flying Fish), Din Tai Fung (world famous dumplings from Taiwan), Adriano Zumbo Patissier (for yummy desserts & macarons) and Messina Gelato (for the ultimate gelato – believe me they are the best in Sydney!!). 








Updated photos from Din Tai Fung, Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier and Messina Gelato...

Entree, main and desserts from Din Tai Fung:
Xiao Long Bao (Steamed pork dumpling), Fried rice with shrimp,
Golden taro bread, golden red bean bread

Fried rice with egg topped with black pepper beef cubes

Shrimp & pork wonton tossed with spicy sauce

Xiao Long Bao (Steamed pork dumpling)

Din Tai Fung
Cafe Court 80 Pyrmont St   
Pyrmont, NSW 2009 
Ph: 02 9000 0000

L Loves... Delicious Zumbarons:  Watermelon & Orange, Salted Butter Caramel,
Peach Ice Tea, Popcorn, Pancake & Maple Syrup, Custard Crunch

L Loves... Delicious Zumbarons:  Watermelon & Orange, Salted Butter Caramel,
Peach Ice Tea, Popcorn, Pancake & Maple Syrup, Custard Crunch

  
Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier

Cafe Court 80 Pyrmont St   
Pyrmont, NSW 2009 

L Loves... Gelato takeaway tubs from Messina Gelato

Messina Gelato

Cafe Court 80 Pyrmont St   

Pyrmont, NSW 2009 

Monday to Thursday: 11am to 11pm
Friday and Saturday: 11am to 11.30pm
Sunday: 11am-11pm

Quarter Twenty One - Birthday Treats Part 1

Birthday for me means sharing of good food with close family and friends and this year is no different. There are a couple of restaurants on my bucket list but Quarter 21 shouts out the most for a couple of reasons: it’s part of my favourite restaurateur Justin North’s empire, it’s convenient (located inside Westfield Sydney) and it’s perfect for groups. The booking process is simple via email and I received confirmation straight away.

The evening commenced with cheerful waiting staffs serving us drinks. Then they served us some wonderfully warm breads that are crunchy on the outside yet fluffy inside. The bread is freshly baked from Becasse Bakery right next door, and after we made our orders, all the girls at our table ran out to buy some of their yummy bread for breakfast tomorrow. The waiter tempted us with second round of breads but I had to save room for entrée, main, and of course desserts!

For entrée I ordered scallops that are well seasoned and seared perfectly. For main I had the dry-aged beef, which is hanged at the entrance of the dining room. At the entrance you can make a few choices, turn left for the restaurant dining room and right for a gourmet food retail store. Inside the store there is also a workshop kitchen for cooking classes. This means you can cook, eat and buy food all at Q21 – brilliant isn’t it?

Back to the beef that has been cooked in two ways - the braised beef are melt-in-your-mouth tender. The serving portions are generous here but somehow I still managed to find room for desserts. The passionfruit & vanilla bombe has the ideal balance between sour and sweet, comfort and not too guilty :P

I had an extremely enjoyable evening thanks to my dear friends and the team at Q21. The service at Q21 is fluent and the food is packed with flavour. As I am writing this post I came across some gloomy news: http://www.afr.com/p/national/north_becasse_calls_in_administrator_I0OWV6C1SASNVnrDcS5PVO

I hope Justin will find a way to continue running his magnificent empire (especially my favourite restaurant Becasse and Etch). All the best Justin!!

I also encourage all my friends and readers to go out and dine mid-week. A few benefits of mid-week dining are: it gives you something to look forward to during the week and makes weekdays go faster, restaurants are less busy during weeknights so you are likely to get better service and some restaurants even offer mid-week dining specials. Enough of me talking, here comes the good food - enjoy :)

L Loves... Complementary warm crusty bread

Sydney rock oyster 

Lightly cured ocean trout, crab, cauliflower, radish & buckwheat 

Salad of heirloom carrots, Hindmarsh goats’ curd, hazelnut & cocoa 

L Loves... Seared scallops, boudin noir & crisp pig’s tail, 

charred leek & Jerusalem artichoke 

Red wine poached hapuka, sea urchin butter, beetroot & watercress 

Blanquette of skate, yabby & veal sweetbread, 

spring onion, navet & noilly prat 

White polenta, organic egg, wild mushroom persillade & cavolo nero

Roast & braise of Riverina lamb, sheeps’ milk yoghurt, 

almond, broadbeans, artichoke & cardamom 

L Loves... Dry-aged local grass fed beef, bone marrow, parsley, mushroom, glazed onion & red wine 

L Loves... Passionfruit & vanilla bombe, yoghurt, candied macadamia, rhubarb sorbet 

L Loves...  Passionfruit & vanilla bombe, yoghurt,
candied macadamia, rhubarb sorbet 

Soufflé du jour
Quince soufflé with ginger beer ice cream 

Single Origin tea served with petit fours    

L's Verdict:

·      Taste: 8/10 

·      Ambience: 4/5

·       Value: 4/5

·       Service: 4/5

·       Creativity and other WOW factors: 2/5  

Overall rating:  22/30

Quarter Twenty One (Closed as of 15 July 2012) 

Level 5, Westfield Sydney

Cnr Pitt St Mall and Market St
Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9283 3440

Lunch: 7 days from 12pm
Dinner: Mon-Sat from 6pm

Visited May 2012

Friendly advice: Q21 is normally packed during weekends so go there on a weeknight. For groups of 10 or over, Q21 offers a well thought-out group dining menu at a reasonable price of $75 (+ 10% service charge) for 3 courses.