For DS’s birthday this year we thought we’d sort of re-live our honeymoon in Japan and head to Sasaki. In my opinion, it’s pretty much as close as you’ll get to Japan in Sydney!
The whole place is incredible. Starting from the fact it’s pretty hidden in a tiny laneway near where Berta and Cre Asion cafe are! The decor is so simple but that’s all you need really. Even the food is simple, often made with just a handful of ingredients or less.
The menu is divided into simple, clear sections. There’s meat, seafood, vegetable, side dish and dessert. We tried to order a bit of everything, starting with the Egg & Crab ($11) and a Kingfish, mandarin and fennel special from the Seafood section. The egg & crab is your standard chawanmushi which both DS and I love. The kingfish was great too, but out of all the dishes we found it most underwhelming.
From the vegetable section we got the Cauliflower, potato & corn ($19) which was a bit different to what I expected. It was more like a soup! Very hearty and warming. I guess that’s the fun thing about menus that just list the ingredients, you never know what shape or form the dish might take!
We ordered two of the side dishes, which mainly went with the meat dishes we ordered. Both the miso soup ($10) and the salmon & rice ($12) were small portions and I’d recommend ordering one each. I loved the miso soup in particular and how it was packed with all sorts of vegetables and tofu. So much better than the standard miso soup with a few strings of wakame floating around! The salmon & rice was a great accompaniment to the meat
The meat dishes were really the highlight in a lot of ways! We got a duck special which involved slices of duck as well as duck meatballs. Personally, I found the duck slices a bit under-done and eating pink meat like that kind of freaks me out. The Pork, salt & daikon ($26) was another example not being sure of what a dish would look like given its ingredients! It turns out the pork was cooked in a shell of salt dough, with the daikon on the side in a bit of sauce. It’s a huge portion, which we didn’t expect, and also very salty, so the daikon really works to balance the flavours out.
We loved Sasaki! It reminded us so much of Japan. I loved the variety of the dishes and I know their menu changes frequently so I’ll be keen to check it out again. To be honest, I think we ordered too much. It meant that we didn’t get to have dessert, which I’ve heard great things about. There’s always next time!
Sasaki
102/21 Alberta Street
Surry Hills
sasaki.com.au
