Sushi Bar Rashai

A dinner date with Toyboy leads us to Sushi Bar Rashai which came recommended to us by Mistress who has frequented it over the years. Situated on a non-descript section of Parramatta Road more known for its nearby bridal wear stores, Sushi Bar Rashai looks like it’s been around for some years judging from the décor.

Although there’s nothing standout about their sushi, with the rice being a little dry and compacted when we visit, nor their beef tataki, and an order of ‘Kingfish Carpaccio’ from their specials menu is a little light on punch with its dressing, their chicken karaage is juicy and not at all oily. I was tempted to order the ‘Ninja balls’ (hello Ninja!), which is a deep-fried dish of some sort, purely for the novel name factor but we appeared to be over-ordering as it was.

The hot rice dishes are much more to our liking, with the ‘Katsu curry don’ being simultaneously crunchy and comforting with its crispy, panko crumb-coated chicken fillets swathed in a thick curry sauce on rice. The ‘Beef teriyaki don’ is redolent with sweet soy flavours and both rice dishes are generous in their serving size. A pleasant surprise is found in munching on the Japanese pickles on the side – being neither too tart nor too sweet and offer palate-cleansing relief.

Dessert time sees Monsieur Poisson ordering the ‘Tempura Banana’, partly because bananas are one of his favourite fruits and partly because bananas are currently still pricey that ordering something with it feels that tiny bit indulgent.

The bananas arrive encased in a smooth batter with nothing distinctly tempura about it. Toyboy and I, however, have gone with the distinct option of wasabi ice-cream – and two scoops of it each! In hindsight it would probably have been a better idea to order a scoop of wasabi ice-cream flanked by another flavour, but we were going the whole hog here. The ice-cream looks innocent enough when it arrives, with the scoops only having the palest pastel green about them, and the flavour is quite mild...to begin with until you hit what taste like little pockets of packet wasabi! It’s sweet and hot at the same time, but not like the combination of chocolate and chilli where the chilli offers an after note of warmth.

Neither of us finished each of our two scoops. We were well and truly defeated.

Challenge?

Sushi Bar Rashai

241-243 Parramatta Rd (near cnr Macquarie St), Annandale NSW

Tel: (02) 9560 3007

Opening Hours:  Mon  CLOSED

Tues-Sun  5:30pm-10:30pm (dinner only)

happy eating!