Omakase has been a huge hype the past few years, leading to inflated prices and impossible-to-book restaurants. But finally we’ve found our spot – Gou Sushi. They serve an amazing 20 course omakase for a reasonable price of $118. The catch…. they have to shut their doors at the end of January 2024 due to rent. We are praying they find a new venue in time so they can continue their amazing work.
When we sat down for our service, Chef Rio was welcoming as he prepared our first dishes. And we all got a glass of sake 🙌🏻
When we sat down for our service, Chef Rio was welcoming as he prepared our first dishes. And we all got a glass of sake 🙌🏻
Omakase
Our first dish was Gou’s 4 kind of sashimi and wow! It was so creative and beautiful.
The royal red prawns were our favourite because of how sweet and succulent they were. This was elevated by the shaved prawn head powder. The tuna pieces were rich, thanks to the creme cheese. The cut squid sushi was so pretty, and tasted tender and sweet too.
Our first bite was a traditional kingfish. This was light and refreshing, with a touch of sweetness and citric from the yuzu sauce.
Next was trevally. It is normally an oilier fish but I don’t know what the chefs did to give it a very refined taste here, making it more enjoyable and delicious for us. It also had a crunchier texture.
This was kobachi, a traditional Japanese ‘small bowl’ entree.
From left to right, we had pickled Chinese brocoli with mushrooms and bonito flakes. This was a mild savoury and earthy bite. In the middle was a spicy fish roe and blue swimmer tamagoyaki and yummmmm, the umami flavours oozing out of this was divine. And on the right, we had saw fish with tartare sauce on a biscuit.
From left to right, we had pickled Chinese brocoli with mushrooms and bonito flakes. This was a mild savoury and earthy bite. In the middle was a spicy fish roe and blue swimmer tamagoyaki and yummmmm, the umami flavours oozing out of this was divine. And on the right, we had saw fish with tartare sauce on a biscuit.
This was our first time trying boar fish. It had a mildly sweet flavour with a texture similar to kingfish, but meatier.
This was bass grouper (kombujime), a delicate fish with an oily flavour.
This was king fish and oyster with dashi white butter. It was warm, creamy and flavourful. It healed our souls 🤤.
This was ark shell that had been marinated in dashi stock. It had a soft-crunchy texture which was sooooo interesting.
This was a unique tsuke tuna in a tataki style with pickled radish.
This was tsuke scallop with kano miso and boyyyyyy, it was sooo creamy and filling. I asked for a second serving for this ($6!!) 😍.
This was a warm tempura flathead with onion sauce. It was savoury, umami, in a sweet thick sauce. It had a Chinese taste to it.
This piece surprised us 😍. It was an eggplant with marinated yuzu miso and WOW, who knew you could make egg plant taste so flavourful and give it such a fish-like texture. It was delicioussss!! Mick asked for a second serving of this ($6).
This was sasa-leaf steam eel sushi (chimaki) and again, flavourful, tender and delicious 😍.
This was a tuna tar tar on crispy rice. The creativity was off the charts. We loved this piece, with the contrasting textures.
Next was an interesting sea eel (anago) and quail egg in a totoro kombu and dashi soup. Creative and delicious!
This piece was the seared paradise prawn and ever since, all we ever want to eat is this sweet, creamy crustacean.
We ended it with a seared salmon belly: filling, fatty with a perfect caramelised skin.
The dessert was a Bailey’s panacotta. It was light, mildly sweet and well balanced.
Service
Chef Rio Lau was originally from Hong Kong so it was no surprise his dishes were a delicious fusion of impactful flavours (Hong Kong) and precise techniques (Japan). We loved the service: staff were attentive and fast enough (for 16 diners), and Chef Rio was very animated and grateful for our knowledge.
Review
This was one of the best omakase experiences we’ve ever had. We were so sad to hear about their impending closure that we have been inviting our friends out to try this omakase asap.
– our next reservation is tomorrow!! I’m so excited to re-live this experience again.
Hopefully Gou Sushi will be able to find a new venue.
In the mean time, thank you for reading! Happy eating!
Hopefully Gou Sushi will be able to find a new venue.
In the mean time, thank you for reading! Happy eating!
