Jazushi is a Japanese restaurant located on one of the side roads of Surry Hills. The Jazz in its name references the presence of jazz in its decor and music. It advertises a live band every night, starting from around 7 pm.
It was immediately apparent that it is a very busy restaurant, as bookings are required. It started off slow, but soon after its dinner service began, it really picked up and soon the room was filled with happy diners.
The tables are reasonable in size, with soft cushioned seats. The tableware was clean and shiny. There was no doubt as well that it had a large wine selection, notably with Japanese alcoholic beverages.
The menu itself has a variety of selections, conveniently arranged into different sections. There was also a daily special menu, which were different twists to the standard items. Our waitress was incredibly helpful in advising the right amount of food to order, which can sometimes be difficult when portion size is unknown. This is particularly the case in Japanese cuisine, where some restaurants may have smaller or larger portions than what you expect.
Interestingly, some of the flavours were duplicated in other menu items, e.g. the presence of wagyu beef in the entree, salad and roast. In this way, you could order a real variety of flavours in each section, without necessarily sacrificing it completely.
We started with a couple of drinks - a lemon lime bitters and a Sapporo beer. The lemon lime bitters was notably good due to the presence of fresh lime - very light, refreshing and great palate cleanser. Sapporo beer is on the other side of the spectrum compared to sake; it is also light and slightly sweet. Very easy to drink with less bitterness than regular lager.
Agedashi Tofu $12
We started off with agedashi tofu, a very standard dish at Japanese restaurants. This one was made very well, with just the right amount of stickiness to the coating and a fantastic light sauce. The garnishes on top added a slightly crunchy texture that complemented the otherwise soft and delicate tofu very well. It is highly recommended as a starter due to its lightness.
Spicy Wagyu 'Shabu-Shabu' Salad $16
The waygu salad was fantastically presented like a centrepiece, even though it was just one of the starters. Its portion size was generous as well. Even though it looked like the beef and salad were separate, they really, really need to be mixed together with the rest of the salad, as the saltiness of the marinade of the beef needed much balance from the spice of the sauce and the clear salad. Although it said it was spicy, it was actually quite mild.
‘Wagyu’ Beef Tataki $16
Beef tataki is another typical Japanese dish, but easy to make poorly. It’s about getting the correct balance between seared and raw “sashimi” flavour, and this dish was done very well here. The garnish, again, was brilliant. The red onions, in particular, added another sharp flavour to the dish, that was balanced with the bed of cucumber beneath.
Prawn Tempura-4pcs $12
Now, prawn tempura is typically thought to be a pedestrian dish. After all, it can be readily obtained almost anywhere, and it’s typically viewed as a “cheap” dish because it’s relatively inexpensive. How did this justify its price tag? The dish was made successful with three elements: a very light and thin tempura batter, a subtle bonito sauce, and the coup de grace, two very unique salts on the side. Dip the tempura into the bonito sauce first to wet it, then roll onto your desired salt: either green tea or curry. I think the curry was much better, as it offered a slightly better balance overall, and it was a different and contrasting flavour compared to the other dishes.
Crispy Soft Shell Crab $23
Soft shell crab is something we frequently order due to its difficulty to execute at home. Again, a deep fried food like this may be thought of as cheap, but again there was something about this dish that made it really stand out: its accompanying sauce, which was tomato miso. It was really a “chef’s” art, something that is so out of the ordinary and that we wouldn’t dare try at home. It was smooth and sweet, like a tomato sauce for chips, but with a slightly more umami flavour reminiscent of miso, and hence the taste of the sea. As such, it was like a “tomato sauce” for seafood. The soft shell crab itself was beautifully deep-fried, with its shell adequately softened for eating, blending very well with the rest of the garnishes.
Grilled Silver Cod (Barramundi) $28
Originally, we went for the cod, again because it’s something we wouldn’t normally have at home. However, we were informed that they had run out of silver cod and offered to replace it with barramundi. We jumped at the idea; barramundi is our favourite restaurant fish.
It was grilled excellently, with some accompanying greens and saikyo sauce, which is a slightly subtler version of miso sauce. I suspect it’s used here instead of miso due to miso’s normally overpowering flavour. In the context of a lightly grilled fish, miso doesn’t really make sense if the fish flavour is to shine through, unlike in a very strong deep fried crab dish above. It was a very smart choice.
Kakuni ‘Kurobuta’ Pork Belly $23
We’ve had a lot of kurobuta pork belly in the past. One of the most striking memories in Australia is a really wild and sharp flavour that really turned us off this dish. When we think of kurobuta pork we ideally want a slightly wild taste but with accompanying fragrance of pork, such as that of wild boar from Taiwan.
This dish was very reminiscent of that flavour, executed in a more restaurant style. The portion size was deceptively large, as each piece was sizeable. The balance between lean and pork appeared okay, but perhaps there were areas where it was hard to discern, due to the way the pork was cooked. It was so soft and melt-in-your mouth that it went down rather quickly. It was flavoursome in a very good way, and it wasn’t too wild, good for those who are normally averse to that flavour, such as people who don’t like lamb.
Dessert platter - a selection of three desserts $25
- Creme brûlée (chocolate)
- Souffle cheesecake
- Black sesame ice cream
The dessert platter represents a saving of $5 over ordering three individual desserts. We were pleasantly surprised about the massive portion sizes (relative to some other restaurants). Indeed, as a platter with such excellent presentation, it seemed well worth the amount. We chose three different flavours so that they would be sufficiently different to each other, rather than doubling up.
The chocolate creme brûlée had a really strong flavour. It did taste very chocolate-y, but more like the 70% dark cocoa, rather than the sweet dessert chocolate people may be used to. It was seared beautifully, and had an otherwise lovely smooth texture.
The soufflé cheesecake was surprisingly light and bland, without a very cheesy flavour that is normally a turn-off for most people. Hence, it really need that extra shot of vanilla ice cream to produce a sweeter, more dessert like flavour.
Black sesame ice cream is a very stereotypical Asian flavour. It has a very unique flavour that’s not too sweet and overpowering. It was accompanied by a small amount of sticky rice too, which is a very classic combination.
Overall:
Jazushi is highly recommended. It has a lovely selection of dishes that offer a very real and uniquely Japanese experience, with the added twist of a jazz atmosphere. Although the use of sauce was liberal, the mastery behind some of the flavour combinations simply need to be tried. Its merits lay in its creativity and balance in construction of the dishes. It’s a great, atmospheric , mid-range restaurant that won’t set you back as much as some other, similarly presented Japanese restaurants in the area. It is a great way to spend an evening with friends or family.
