February - April

Mikaiten (CBD)
Mikazuki's sushi train near Event cinemas. It’s not premium but I thought the style was a good middle ground between local & traditional.

Full traditional doesn’t work for me in Aus because our fish quality at sushi trains is not there, I need more aburi lol. Standouts were the ⭐Cheese Unagi Nigiri 🤭 & the ⭐Uni Salmon Belly Handroll, which was impressive because all Australian uni I've had outside of fine dining has been ew!

And of course rather than take from the train remember to order via QR for fresher goods.

Arku's (CBD)
They do tasty little cakes & drinks. Their signature is the ⭐Coconut Cake, which had a strong, fresh coconut flavour. The coconut smoothie is like the water but in slushie / frappe form. It was barely sweet so it seems like a healthy drink option.

Comeco Foods (Newtown)
Wholesome vegan Japanese food. The ⭐Onigiri Tempura Plate was great, the tempura were perfectly done. The curry was decent too. Nothing compares to the way vegans do vegetables, especially kale (if omnivorous restaurants hired a vegan chef it would be so over). The Earl Grey Donut didn’t really taste like earl grey, & was too greasy for me (but standard for Asian sugar doughnuts).

Super Emoji (CBD, Burwood)
A very tentative mention 😳 Maybe take this as a review rather than a recommendation. It’s self service so you can get froyo or just do a dessert bowl with mochi, liquid mochi etc.

Cons: Not very clean… Staff aren't welcoming, they always seem preoccupied despite it being off-peak / almost empty each time I visit. There are only 4 yoghurt flavours & they are not smooth. Most of the toppings are bland, I feel like they skimp out on ingredients.

Pros: Lots of different textures available, very unique toppings, tasty if you know what to get.

We liked the ⭐Strawberry Yoghurt. The freeze dried fruit bits were my favourite topping, followed by the clear + popping pearls, then the clear jellies.

🚩The taro paste was bland. The coconut, custard, etc. puddings really exacerbated the lack of flavour, I wouldn't recommend these. Basically most of the opaque stuff was not good 😶‍🌫️

La Moon (CBD)
The café itself is not super polished but the food did not miss. The ⭐Tom Yum Pasta & ⭐Purple Potato Bingsu were delectable, the Garlic Pasta & Udon Carbonara were good too, honestly we couldn't fault any of the items we tried. The ⭐Durian Panipuri was also great, there is also a mango option.

Please visit because they’re so lovely but don’t get much traffic due to the location. 🥺

Ito (Surry Hills)
So surprised by the quality & value, given it’s been pretty popular amongst influencers & I’ve found that to be unreliable. We loved most of the dishes, but in particular the ⭐Roasted Eggplant, ⭐Prawn & Scallop Ravioli, ⭐Veal Cutlet, & the ⭐Peach Kakigori... I would put this in my top 3 🥺

Daydream Sweet (Burwood)
These were cold but still crunchy so I guess Uncle Tetsu’s has no excuse 🤔 the ⭐Salted Oreo & ⭐Hojicha puffs were both great.

King Clarence (CBD)
Gorgeous bestie please don’t feel bad because I wanted to try out this place too ❤ Thank you for giving me content xoxo.

The executive chef is Asian but why is it giving gentrified Asian food…. The menu sounds interesting but the dishes tasted basic & cost 3x the price 😃 They were not done well either?? 😭 

The youtiao with the Steak Tartare was rock hard. I guess they toasted it but it was totally unnecessary & made it worse to eat.

The Aged Duck was fine but they tried to be clever by treating it like an Asian steak. Duck is not marbled like beef, it’s too dry to be served the same way 😐

The most offensive dish was the Crab Fried Rice, which was sopping wet & under-seasoned…. How can you be an Asian fine dining chef & not have fried rice down, don’t pmo 😃 Could not taste the smoked scallop either. The Fried Ice Cream was fine, I could not taste the hojicha in the caramel. The Mango Pudding dish just tasted like any average mango sago.

🚩I think they are trying but definitely have a problem with bringing the correct flavours & textures out… so like, a cooking problem! I give this a firm thumbs down, save your time.