05 May 2011

Sushi Suma: Japanese, Redfern (25 Feb 2010)

425 Cleveland Street, Redfern NSW 2016

Phone: (02) 9698 8873
http://www.sushisuma.com



Popular yet unfriendly service

I'm pretty sure Sushi Suma's popularity is not due their service which can be quite unfriendly at times upon arriving but more due to the value-for-money factor and being fairly decent quality. I've been told, actually more pointed towards at times to go upstairs to wait without further instruction of why I'm upstairs. I wasn't sure whether I was going to be eating upstairs or whether it was just a waiting area before they came to get me to sit downstairs. The best atmosphere is downstairs, albeit very cosy so get used to the noise and sharing your elbow space with surrounding company at times. Once you're seated service got a bit better but the initial welcome was both confusing and showed little appreciation of being there. Upon sitting and waiting for the order I was given a complimentary appetiser of noodles which is simple and pleasant with a subtle light dressing. The Sashimi ($11.80, entrée size) is pretty fresh and simply presented with flavours as you'd expect. The very generous sized Kaiso-Salad ($8.80) has always been one of my favourites here which is large enough to share amongst perhaps four people which needs to be mixed up before enjoying.

I've made the mistake of ordering the Agedashi tofu dish only to find you get a single Complimentary Agedashi tofu with your meal but if you're a tofu fanatic then you might be inclined to order extra. It's quite flavoursome and done pretty well but sometimes the outer skin could be more crisp and less wet for my liking. The Age Gyoza ($6.80, 5 pieces) are of the deep fried variety rather than steamed and pan fried which I much prefer like you find at Sushi Tei but the filling inside is OK. The Chicken Teriyaki ($14.80) came with about 4 pieces which were unfortunately too large to simply pick up elegantly with your chopsticks to eat with your rice. Small and thinner pieces would have been more to my liking but flavours were quite nice and it came with a bit of side salad which was more than just a garnish to appreciate. If you're intending on dining be sure to book ahead if that's allowed otherwise expect to see fans lining up just before it opens for dinner to be the first sitting of the night.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Complimentary appetiser and an individual agedashi tofu, Reasonably priced, Dishes mostly come with salad
CONS: Hard to get a seat because it’s so popular, Service not particularly friendly probably because they're always busy, Crowded seating arrangement and noisy
MUST TRY: Kaiso-Salad, Arriving early to get a seat

Complimentary appetiser

Sashimi ($11.80, entrée size)

Kaiso-Salad ($8.80)
SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Complimentary Agedashi tofu

Age Gyoza ($6.80, 5 pieces)


Chicken Teriyaki ($14.80)


Menu

Bill $44.20 for 2 people


Outside street entrance

7 comments:

Tina@foodboozeshoes said...

Oooh - crazy looking salad! I haven't been for a while, but I remember nice, generous portions :)

Joseph said...

Looks really good! Shame about the bad service, being busy is no excuse for being unfriendly...

Jim said...

That food really looks delicious.
Sydney - City and Suburbs

thang @ noodlies said...

food looks good... unfriendly i can cope with but will draw the line at rudeness

Jasmin said...

Hmmm. Unfriendly service is not something I enjoy or find myself able to tolerate at all. Unless there is something really spectacular on offer then I'm not going to bother.

But that salad does look fantastic.

Andreas@MyGourmetFeast~> said...

That chicken terriyaki looks fantastic!! AND i love those 'curtains' at the entrance... :)

Simon Leong said...

hi tina, your right about the generous portions. seems to keep bringing them back.

hi joseph, and the funny thing is it's very un-japanese too in terms of service.

j bar, hope you get to try it if you can stomach the long queues to get in.

hi thang, sometimes it's bordered on rude but perhaps mostly overwhelmed due to being busy i think — i hope anyway.

hi jasmin, if i get bad service i won't tip. i think once the initial hurdle of being seated if over it gets better.

hi andreas, chicken terriyaki was quite generous, just a bit hard to eat with chopsticks being such large pieces

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