Ren Japanese Restaurant, Runcorn, QLD

Japanese cuisine has always been one of my favourite choices when dining out. The flavours  are usually simple, and if you come across a restaurant that uses the freshest produce available, the true flavours of each ingredient just comes through in every bite.

On this occasion, we visited Ren Japanese Restaurant, located in the Runcorn Shopping Plaza on Warrigal Road. The restaurant only recently opened, so when I saw the low number of reviews and ratings on Urbanspoon, I was curious and decided to try it out so I could share my experience with my readers.

We arrived at 7pm and there were only two other tables that were filled, which worked in our favour as we hadn’t made a booking. The decor inside the restaurant were rather simple, giving off a fast food outlet feel, however it didn’t bother us, as we anticipated that the food made up for it. There was a good range of variety on the menu and the prices were quite reasonable. There were five of us, giving us a good opportunity to sample a variety of dishes from the menu.

We started with the sashimi-o-mori ($45), which contained salmon, tuna, kingfish, scallops, sweet prawns and a scampi. The menu noted the dish would feed 5 people, however we felt it was a bit misleading as there some of the seafood (scampi and prawns) only had one or two pieces to share. The sashimi was not too bad but not the freshest I've eaten and didn't have the fresh fish taste like I had tried at the Sydney Fish Markets.

We also ordered the tonkotsu ($16.50), which was thinly crumbed but was on the dry side and wasn't bursting with the natural pork juice that I was hoping for. As for the wagyu steak ($26.50), it was over cooked and quite tough, which my guests were disappointed about as they were really looking forward to having wagyu that night! The assorted tempura ($18.50) dish had all your regular items such as prawns, pumpkin, some small pieces of fish and zucchini, while the spider roll ($13.00) was also fairly standard and nothing really to rave about.

Sashimi-o-mori ($45)

Wagyu Steak ($26.50)

Tonkotsu ($16.50)

Assorted Tempura ($18.50)

Spider Roll ($13.00)

Ren Japanese Restaurant has made a good effort of producing quality food in order to win over diners from other nearby competition such as Sakura, KU-O and Oishii Sushi Bar.  Competition is particularly fierce on the South side and I hope the restaurant really takes diners' opinions into consideration in order to continuously improve and out last the rest of its competitors. 

Jazushi, Surry Hills, NSW

I have realised that one of my favourite types of cuisines is Japanese. From all the places I have eaten in Sydney and Brisbane so far, Japanese food seems to, in general, stick to my memory and impress me the most. One great example, is Jazushi.


Based in Surry Hills, Jazushi is not your average Japanese restaurant. The owners have cleverly combined Japanese fusion cuisine with live jazz entertainment (nightly!), to create a fun, yet elegant dining experience for its customers.


Unfortunately it was a bit dim inside (great ambience for if you're on a date! haha) so I was unable to take some photos of the restaurant's interior and the jazz band's performance, but I assure you it was pretty fantastic!


My friend and I were due for a catch up and I chose Jazushi for our rendezvous as a foodie friend of mine told me good things about this place. Upon arriving and taking a look at the menu, we were so spoilt for choices we couldn't decide what to order! At last, we settled on the set menu ($55) in order to try a bit of everything. This turned out to be the perfect choice, as everything we ate was so delicious!


To start, we were served with one of my favourite foods - sashimi! In this case it was a salmon and kingfish carpaccio. On the plate sat eight pieces of fresh, thinly slice kingfish and salmon, alternated and topped with rocket and micro herbs. It was finished with a tangy dressing and sprinkled with lightly salted capers. 

Salmon and Kingfish Carpaccio

Next came another cold dish - green tea noodle salad, tossed with onion, tomato, some crunchy tempura bits and some seaweed. This was so light, so refreshing and so tasty! The green tea soba was cooked al dente and the salad dressing was slightly tangy with a bit of kick. Look at those beautiful colours! It was almost too pretty to eat!

Green Tea Noodle Salad

Our salad was soon followed by some more fish - silver cod with saikyo sauce. I love a piece of nicely cooked cod! The saikyo sauce was made from a type of slightly sweet miso which gave a nice balance to the savoury taste of the cod. I loved how they included some lemon beneath the cod, so you could squeeze some juice from it and make a lovely sweet and tangy sauce to eat with the fish.

Silver Cod with Saikyo Sauce

A Japanese meal wouldn't go without some fresh, delicious sushi and that's exactly what we got! We received three pieces of sushi each, consisting of salmon, kingfish and tuna nigiri. The fish was very fresh! Three pieces per person was certainly not enough :-(

Mixed Sushi

I always love a nicely cooked tempura dish, and what arrived next was definitely one of my favourite tempura dishes I have ever had (and most creative too!). Camembert Tempura. Yep, that's right, battered, fried pieces of cheese. Sounds different? That's because it was! This is one of Jazushi's signature dishes and my gawd was it amazing! It was deep fried til cripsy, golden on the outside and on the inside revealed a soft, flowing piece of tasty camembert. The dipping sauce tasted abit like aioli and was soo good!

Camembert Tempura

By now were were starting to fill up, but that was just the entrees! Next came our first main - JFC (Jazushi Fried Chicken). This was Jazushi's style of fried chicken, which was garnished with yuzu citrus sauce and on a bed of home made tartare sauce. The chicken was full of flavour, with a slightly crispy skin. Delicious!

JFC

Our next main was a pork belly dish in kakuni (Japanese for braised) style. Many of my followers on Foodspotting will know I've had my fair share of pork belly from various places, but I'm not usually a fan of fatty things...But that's because when pork belly is cooked well, it doesn't taste heavy, and fatty at all. Instead, the meat is infused with the sauces with only thin layers of fat in between the meat. Our pork belly literally melted in our mouth when we bit into it! So tender, so heavenly. It didn't feel heavy or fatty at all.

Kakuni Pork Belly

We were soo full at this stage, but more food came out! It was wagyu beef, which was also our last main. I was so full that I almost passed on this! But soon as my friend took a bite she said "oh goodness, this is so good!", I had to try it. OMGGIMMENOW! This wagyu was cooked in a sweet teri sauce ad it was one of the nicer pieces of wagyu I have had in Sydney so far! It wasn't even about the price either. It was just so tender and full of flavour. This was simply a well cooked dish and the sauce just tied it all together so nicely.

Wagyu Beef with Sweet Teri Sauce

We were finally onto desserts! My stomach was about to explode, but I will always have room to fit in dessert :-) haha! We had a dessert share plate which consisted of creme brulee, vanilla bean ice cream rolled in cereal and a chocolate brownie. My favourite was the creme brulee as it was not too sweet and I loved the crispy sugar coating (which I have yet to perfect when making this at home!)

Dessert Share Plate

We loved our dining experience at Jazushi! The food was delicious, the wait staff were friendly, and the atmosphere was just lovely! Swing by and try it out if you ever get a chance! I will certainly be back!

Sake Restaurant, Brisbane, QLD

The first time I heard of Shaun Presland was when I tuned into Season 2 Master Chef and watched Claire cook off against Shaun in the Celebrity Chef Challenge, as well as in a Masterclass when he taught the group how to make some basic Japanese dishes. I was especially interested because I had always been a fan of Japanese cuisine ever since I visited Tokyo a few years back.

Shaun is the Executive Chef at Sake Restaurant in Sydney and I had planned to visit Sake on my next trip to Sydney. A few months on, I found out that Sake was opening in Brisbane! So J and I went to check it out and boy were we in for an amazing night!

We arrived at 6:15pm and was greeted by a lovely lady who was quite friendly and promptly showed us to our table.

J and I couldn't help but gaze in excitement at the beautifully decorated restaurant, not to mention the countless bottles of Sake at the bar! Just amazing.

We ordered the sashimi appetizer as our entree, as well as the salt & pepper tofu as I had watched Shaun make it in his Masterclass and it looks so good.

The sashimi appetizer was an absolute treat. It was the freshest, most beautiful sashimi I had ever eaten. Even the king snapper/tuna/milkfish all had a nice texture and most importantly - it tasted fresh without the 'fishy' smell or taste.

Sashimi appetizer with wasabi & soy

Next came the salt and pepper tofu. The outside layer was crispy and the soft, silken tofu centre literally gave a 'melt in your mouth' sensation. It was such a simple dish, yet it was done so well.

Salt and pepper tofu with chill and spring onion

If the freshness and quality of the entrees were anything to go by, we knew we were in for a treat with our mains.

We ordered the scampi tempura and miso butterfish to share.

You can always tell by the way a restaurant makes its tempura dishes as to how good the restaurant is. The tempura batter was crunchy and the scampi was cooked just right. The sweet ponzu sauce went well with the tempura scampi, but it was a little bit too strong in taste for me. It would have been better if we had ordered a bowl of rice to go with this dish.

Scampi tempura crunchy tempura scampi tails with sweet ponzu, coriander and jalapeno slices

Our first main was quickly followed by this miso butterfish. The waitress told us that the butterfish was marinated in a sweet miso marinade for 24 hours before it is cooked and served to us. I liked the concept of having fish with a miso taste, but unfortunately this one was a little different to what I had in mind. The flesh was quite firm and the miso taste was not infused into the flesh very much. The sweet miso was also a little bit salty for my liking. Again, I think we should have ordered some rice to go with this dish.

Miso marinated butterfish grilled with pickled radish

We were almost full by the end of our second main, but J really wanted to have dessert and absolutely loves white sesame, so she ordered the white sesame ice-cream. I, also wanted to end my night with a sweet treat and ordered the green-apple mille feuille.

The presentation of J's white sesame ice-cream was amazing. What simply read as being "white sesame ice-cream per scoop " ended up being a huge scoop of ice-cream decorated with a chocolate layered plate, a black sesame tuile with sugar coated pistachios! There were so many things I loved, all on one plate! The ice-cream had a nice and strong sesame taste (the way it should be!) and the tuile was so crispy and the perfect sweetness.

White sesame ice-cream

My green-apple mille feuille was made up of green-apple mousse with layers of crispy thin pastry and apple vanilla syrup. Sounds delicious? That's because it was! The pastry was paper thin (almost!) and the taste of the apple mousse mixed with the tanginess of the green apples wedged between each layer. This dessert was certainly light enough not to make me think "I should have skipped dessert!" Mmmm... Oiishii!

Green-apple mille feuille

Our dinner at Sake Restaurant turned out to be a lovely dining experience. Whether it be the food, atmosphere or the great customer service, I think it was because of all aspects combined that made it such an enjoyable evening. I am looking forward to visiting Sake in Sydney also, but we will definitely be back to dine at Sake Brisbane again!