Japanese Cuisine and Sake Lounge Randwick (Closed)
Recently we had the pleasure of being invited to discover the cuisine and sake lounge delights at K’s Restaurant in Randwick. They serve fresh and unique Japanese cuisine that is difficult to find anywhere else.
This is an authentic Japanese restaurant with both the manager and chef being Japanese, and possessing many years experience in the Japanese restaurant industry.
Aaron, the waiter, was extremely helpful in answering all our questions, going into a lot of detail about the ingredients and preparation, and you could see how passionate he was about the restaurant, the food and the sake on offer.
My partner and I were amazed at the tastes. Fresh, organic vegetables, fresh fish, fresh… It is so good to be able to taste something that doesn’t taste like it’s been in a packet!
There were some amazing dishes, and the sake, nebbiolo, and plum wine were perfect accompaniments to the meals, however one thing that really stood out was the REAL wasabi.
Real wasabi is wasabi sliced or ground from the root of the wasabi plant, not the powdered satchels of fake wasabi you usually find at sushi roll stores. This amazing ingredient adds an entirely new taste dimension to any Japanese cuisine, and I thoroughly recommend it. If you really want to know what real wasabi tastes like, I thoroughly recommend visiting K’s Restaurant.
Our table was ready when we arrived, and my partner had requested to try K’s spicy edamame. It was a nice and tasty start with a light touch of chili and garlic on the outside.
Our first dish of the night, and also one of my partners long-time favourites, was the Maguro no Yamakake (see above). Fresh tuna sashimi, with pureed Japanese Yam on top and some tasty wasabi root. My partner doesn’t usually eat tuna as, once you have this dish, it’s hard to find any other dish with tuna that can compare. The tuna was juicy and cut just right, the little cubes melting in the mouth and the slight crunchiness of the yam adding to the sensation. The wasabi was the winner here and, if it wasn’t for the fact that we knew there were more dishes coming, we may have ordered more of it.
This definitely got our mouths watering for what was to come.
Next up was the tasty Salmon and Salmon Roe Salad. The salad tasted fresh and organic with a touch of sesame oil and the salmon was melt-in-your-mouth succulent and, of course, fresh. The salmon roe was amazing and I don’t think I’ve had fish eggs that tasty in awhile.
Following this was the Kurobuta Kakuni – Pork Belly. This was in its own juices and it was another dish that surprised us. The pork was flavourful and rich, and Aaron explained that this is not from your usual mass-farmed pig. This is from a rare breed that had almost become extinct last century. It was definitely a different pork taste than I’d experienced before.
The surprise dish was the Simmered Duck in Miso with mustard. I was surprised as I’ve never had medium rare duck slices before. The miso was very sweet and we found that the duck by itself, with just a touch of miso, was the best combination. The duck was oishii and it is definitely a dish to have again.
Tempura was up next. Not being big tempura fans, and getting quite full by this time, we felt we might not be able to give this a good review. However, the surprise addition of tempura oysters and tempura enoki mushrooms got our interest, not to mention the addition of shishito. Definitely worth trying if you’re a tempura fan.
We took a short break and chatted with Aaron about the plans for the restaurant. They have some amazing things planned for 2016 and I highly recommend grabbing a meal and having a chat with him.
Aaron also brought out an interesting selection of sake from the sake lounge. These were all ideal for the dishes they accompanied, and were very different in style. One of these, a sake we’d had cold many times before, was presented hot and we were surprised at how different the taste was. The heat brought out a lot of unexpected flavours that made us appreciate this sake a lot more. Definitely loved the hot Uonuma sake! I definitely look forward to when the sake lounge is open, whenever that will be, so that I can simply sit there and savour the many sake available.
Next up was the hamburg (hamburger patty style) and the Wagyu steak. This was very much Australian/Japanese fusion food, and the steamed and grilled kurobuta pork and wagyu beef blended patty was soft and easy to eat. The vegetables were lightly grilled, and the sauce helped to bring out some of the subtleties. The wagyu steak was medium rare and also juicy.
I didn’t get to take a picture of the wasabi sauce (I know!!!) but we very much enjoyed it with the Wagyu steak. It was our favourite part of the meal and made the steak a triumph. Highly recommended.
If you like Australian style food these are the ideal dishes for you and are recognised in the Randwick area as K’s Restaurant’s signature dishes.
We were offered dessert – Warabimochi – but unfortunately we were just too full. Though the dessert did sound very attractive, and we saw another customer in the restaurant enjoying it so we could tell it would have been great!
In between dishes we were also treated to a glass of Nebbiolo with the simmered duck, some nice plum wine along with a sour plum to refresh our taste buds, and a bottle of imported Mexican beer to finish off the night. The plum wine also included a strip of sesame leaf that added a minty taste, and definitely got the juices going again. Aaron also discussed with us other drinks on the menu and advised that they stock the fully imported Asahi Japanese beer, not the Australian under-license variety, which tastes slightly different. Definitely a place to enjoy a nice drink with some amazing food.
All in all we enjoyed our night at K’s restaurant and recommend you check it out. You can find out more about them at their website which also features their menu and prices here
Please note that K’s Restaurant also offers fusion style dishes. As some of these contained milk products I wasn’t able to review them. If you’re a fusion food lover, K’s is also worth checking out for this.
