Jazushi, Surry Hills

Dinner Time @ Jazushi

If you are after a place with consistently good Japanese food plus live jazz playing every night, then you must pay a visit to Jazushi, located on the restaurant lined Devonshire Street in Surry Hills.

Jazushi has been opened for quite some time now, I'll take a rough guess and I'd say at least 7 years :)

Sometimes within those years it seems like there has been a change of ownership / kitchen, as the foods were different from when it first opened.

In the early years the food was heavily flavoured with Western Japanese fusion dishes - I think there was a teriyaki duck mango dish or something like that.

For the last 3 times I've dined here, I've noticed that they have a well balanced fusion dishes on the menu. 

It probably has improved from when it first opened and has never failed so far :)

Complimentary Edamame

A bowl of warm salted edamame was brought to our table as we sat down. Something to nibble on while we decide whether to do a la carte or go for their $55 p.p. set menu which comprises of 9 courses. 

After a quick mathematical exercise, it was concluded that the set menu is the way to go ! 

(Plus we were starving, which probably closed the deal hehehehe :P)

Live Jazz 

There will be different jazz musicians playing every night, sometimes with jazz singers, piano players, or for the night we dined, we had a duo stringing guitar and hitting the drum / bongo ?

Salmon & Kingfish Carpaccio with Japanese Herb Sauce

We started with carpaccio of fresh salmon and kingfish with the usual ponzu based dressing with micro herbs that included shiso leaves. 

Green Tea Noodle Salad

Followed by a mountain of mixed leaves, green tea soba dressed generously with soy onion dressing.

The dressing was quite sweet and went well with the noodles and the greens.

It was a struggle to finish off the plate even between the 4 of us, the portion was huge !!

Silver Cod with Saikyo Miso 

My favourite dish at Jazushi, the silky soft silver cod marinated overnight with the sweet saikyo miso then grilled. 

The fish truly just melts in your mouth...mmm.....

Camembert Tempura with Teriyaki Crème Sauce

As we all know, anything deep fried is bound to be good, especially when it's deep fried camembert cheese fingers !

Dip into the teriyaki crème sauce and try not to make a mess on your chin - oozing melting cheese hazard :D

Mixed Sushi

For the sushi course, we had 3 different kind each - salmon, tuna and some kind of roll that I just couldn't remember anymore (thought I took a note of it, but obviously I was imagining).

JFC

The Jazushi Fried Chicken was their take on chicken namban (deep fried chicken cutlet, sliced, vinegared and served with tartare sauce). The yuzu citrus dressed crispy chicken slices were stacked up high like Jenga - we tried to take it one piece at a time but it just didn't work LOL ( NOTE : do not play with your foods, kids !) The JFC were served on a bed of creamy homemade tartare sauce. 

Kakuni Kurobuta Pork Belly

Another favourite at  this place, a braised Kurobuta pork belly which had been marinated overnight in soy dashi sauce. 

The pork belly was soooo tender that the meat just falls apart when you try to cut it in half with chopsticks, not to mention the caramelized sauce that went with it. 

Luckily we got some rice to go with it to soak up all that delicious sauce.

Wagyu Beef with Sweet Teriyaki Sauce

The wagyu steak pieces were very tender as well though there was nothing special about the sauce, just the good ol' teriyaki sauce :)

Dessert Platter

When the dessert platter was set down, we were puzzled as there were 4 of us and there were only desserts for 3...hmmmm......

We were not too fussed about it as our stomach was on the brim of exploding, but the manager noticed the error within few minutes and apologetically told us that the missing set shall be brought out ASAP ! 

Talk about paying attention to your customer needs, how good was that ?

Crème Brûlée , Japanese Cheese Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream & Berry Coulis

We each had vanilla crème brûlée that was perfectly done, creamy custard with nice crack. 

Then a slice of cotton soft Japanese style cheese cake and of course vanilla ice cream topped with berry coulis and cornflakes :) 

A perfect finish to a wonderful meal :) I'm so glad that the food at Jazushi kept up to their standard after all this years. Their banquet is definitely a great value, the portion were generous and I'm pretty sure you will not leave this place hungry. 

Private Dining Room

Early last year we celebrated one of friend's birthday here, a big group of 23 of us !

Which was easily accommodated by Jazushi as they do have a private room at the back of the restaurants. Sure we were not all seated at one table, but it was not a big issue at all as we had the whole room to us so we just roam around. 

The cozy private room's walls were decorated with jazz LPs and there were white lounge chairs around.

The staffs were very attentive and everyone was very impressed with the food and we had a great night :)