Makoto at the Emporium

There is a new sushi train at the Emporium on the same level as Sushi Hon. They have been open for about two weeks now and at 1pm on a Tuesday lunchtime it was steady. Since it was school holidays the place was brimming with families and kids. Most of them were Caucasian and some did not know which fish is which.

But luckily I know my Japanese food well. The lady who sat beside me didn't like some of her food and her tea- she left some of it on her plate. She had prawn sushi and mustn't have liked it.

Here all the sushi is priced from $3.80-$5.80. They didn't have my tamago one but they had salmon. This one had not much taste to it but the fish was fresh. Here I saw the chef ( I think he is Japanese by the way) do the cuttlefish which was fresh. The family next to me (before the lady came) didn't know which sushi that was ( they took the octopus by way which isn't a fish but seafood. It just looks like fish because of the way that they cut it which was thin).

Nigiri

pumpkin sushi

But I did enjoy the gyoza. The gyoza was not too meaty for me which is good as I don't like to eat a lot of meat. Rather it had prawn. I took it after seeing the guy's gyoza and it looked good. The salad was fresh and not dressed which I also liked.

The pumpkin sushi was great and the family and I really enjoyed this even without the sauce. Some people may say that its too bland but its not. Its great with the eggy mayonaise which I don't know if the boys liked.

The kitsune udon ($7.50) was great but the broth was a tad bit sweet. Its good that it does not have too much noodles and the noodles were silky smooth. the bean curd pouch was lovely and soft.

Then I came again on Friday night and they had more varieties of food such as the tamago sushi and the inari, plus a weird squid sushi which I didn't like at all.

I also had agedashi tofu and it filled me up. Same as the udon.

Rating: 13/20- its ok, but limited sushi. And the service was just meh. At least we can feel to ask the friendly chef anything we like.

On the Friday night they lost one lady's order and she had been waiting for a while. She could have at least had the food on the train.

But it is good that they take EFTPOS for purchases over $20 and it worked just fine.

Update:

This time RNIS was invited and they went with friend Akira

This time it was Friday night when the restaurant was really packed. It was packed with Caucasians and some Asian girls after a VAMFF event at Myer.

This time RNIS ordered sake just to try. This cool sake was fruity and had a lot of punch to it. Here it worked well with the gyoza which was fresh and not too oily.

I loved the jellyfish salad. This was freshly done and with a Thai influence. Here it was not too spicy.

The wagyu sushi was a bit too chewy for my liking. It has been sitting on the train for some time.

The fried fish croquette was ok.

The burdock salad was quite nice but too vinegary.

We had some other food and they were all great including the tamago with spring onion.

Akira liked his ramune and cream cheese sushi.

As for the takeaway I think my housemate thought that it wasn’t enough for him. He had more food afterwards. It was seaweed salad and another sushi box.