Toko Sydney is a Japanese restaurant located in Surry Hills, Sydney, offering “izakaya” style dishes. They have a really extensive food and cocktails menu, with tasting options. We got the sora tasting menu last night, for $98 per person.
All these photos are heavily edited to bring out what we saw that night 😂
All these photos are heavily edited to bring out what we saw that night 😂
entrée
To start, this was the traditional edamame, which was soybeans sprinkled with Maldon sea salt. We ordered this on top of the tasting menu but it was a bit hefty in price at $7.20 so it was hard to justify this side. If you didn’t know, you can buy 1 kg edamame beans at Costco for $10 – bargain!
The start of the sora tasting menu was the nama gaki no tosazu to issho ni; half a dozen pacific oysters with tosazu. We loved the sauce as it was not as overly sour as a vinaigrette. It created a mildly sweet profile for the creamy oysters.
This was kangaroo no taru taru, with kangaroo tartare, pepita and blood lime. We love tartare because it brings out the sweetness of the meat. The texture was very similar to traditional Korean dish beef tartare so we couldn’t taste the difference in the kangaroo meat. We did enjoy the contrasting slimy tartare with the crispy crunch of those flakes.
This was the hiramasa no uszukuri, of sliced kingfish in maki style, with yuzu and chives. The added tenkasu was fun to eat, as it gave the kingfish a crunchy texture. There was not much seasoning going on. The dish relied heavily on the aroma of the fish.
On the left was the scampi nigiri, with foie gras and truffle oil. The scampi was so creamy and the added delicacies made it even more delicious. Imagine a rich, beautifully-balanced piece of sushi. We wished we had ordered another plate.
On the right was the wagyu no nigiri, of seared wagyu beef nigiri, eschallots, chives. The wagyu had a nice smokey and savoury profile. The rice to meat texture was balanced. It was a nice piece but in comparison to the scampi, it only gets a “yum” from us 😂
On the right was the wagyu no nigiri, of seared wagyu beef nigiri, eschallots, chives. The wagyu had a nice smokey and savoury profile. The rice to meat texture was balanced. It was a nice piece but in comparison to the scampi, it only gets a “yum” from us 😂
This was the daily selection of sashimi, including maguro (tuna), sake (salmon) and hamachi (yellowtail). We could taste the freshness from these large and fatty cuts.
This picture would have been nice if it wasn’t so yellow and dark. This was watari-gani no karaage – crispy soft shell crab with wasabi mayonnaise. The crab was indeed crispy. The dip added a nice, mild kick.
This was our favourite of the night, the wafu zucchini, which were tempura zucchini, wafu sauce and sesame. The tempura batter was light, airy, crispy and did not consume the product in the cooking process. The zucchini still had a fresh crunch to it and retained all its flavour. Who knew eating vegetables could be so much fun 😆
This was an innovative palate cleanser, of cucumber with miso paste. It was very simple and refreshing.
main course
For our mains, we had the amiyaki ro-su-niku no wafu sauce, which translated to a scotch fillet steak, wafu sauce and garlic chips. We love any Sydney Japanese restaurant that can create garlic chips 🤤. It’s such a simple garnish to have. The beef was savoury and tender, cooked well to our liking.
I loved this main dish because I’m a fan of salmon. This was the sake no aburi yaki, or smoked miso king salmon with house-pickled ginger. The smokiness created a sweet and slightly bitter taste profile. The miso balanced the bitterness out and the flesh of the fish was so tender, it melted on our tongues.
They served shiro miso too, which you would find it a lot of traditional restaurants, comprising of white miso soup, spring onion, tofu and wakame. It was a lovely way to cut up the fat texture and reset our palates for dessert.
They served shiro miso too, which you would find it a lot of traditional restaurants, comprising of white miso soup, spring onion, tofu and wakame. It was a lovely way to cut up the fat texture and reset our palates for dessert.
dessert
Sorry for the poor photo. This was the tofu to chokoreto, or tofu cream, dark chocolate mousse, ume boshi dust. It was very creamy, very cold, and not too sweet.
drink
This cocktail was a delicious Kakeru’s Clouds and it tasted like a sweet and fresh strawberry. The added fairy floss was a fun texture that melted in my mouth with sugary goodness. I ordered two of these and it was such an indulgence 😂.
This was a sake tasting flight, 3 glasses of 30mls for $23 pp. We still need to develop our tasting palate for sake 😂. Mick thoroughly enjoyed this.
service
The staff were friendly and attentive.
review
Overall, we really enjoyed our dining experience at Toko Sydney.
The dishes came out at a steady pace, giving us enough time to enjoy and digest the previous dish. The ambience was soothing with really dim, yellow-toned lighting and soft music. The only downside, personally, was the lighting because I wanted good photos, but a good camera and Lightroom fixed that problem 🤣
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
The dishes came out at a steady pace, giving us enough time to enjoy and digest the previous dish. The ambience was soothing with really dim, yellow-toned lighting and soft music. The only downside, personally, was the lighting because I wanted good photos, but a good camera and Lightroom fixed that problem 🤣
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
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Wow, wonderful weblog layout! How long have you been running a blog for? you make blogging look easy. The whole glance of your site is fantastic, let alone the content material!!