Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sushi Samurai, Neutral Bay


It's been a crazy time in the Dumpling Girl and Cheesecake Boy household, we've been flat out and we're exhausted.  However, after catching up on some sleep we're back up and ready to write again.  I did hint that after our trip to the zoo that we were heading to lunch with my family and Sushi Samurai  in Neutral Bay was the pick for the day.

Sushi Samurai is a favourite with my side of the family, especially with my younger siblings as they are super fussy and this is the only place that caters to them all and gets everyone one of them out of the house.  Usually, if one of them doesn't want to eat at a particular place they refuse to leave the house, kids are really getting more difficult as time passes, don't know if anyone thinks so too. 

Anyway, Sushi Samurai definitely one of those places that you have to be there early or book, it's a local favourite and I am been here on week nights where the whole place is booked out.  We are running a bit late as getting out of the zoo took longer than we thought, but we make it to lunch and are ready to eat.

The restaurant entrance

We started off with some lotus root chips, my little brother and I love these chips and have to order them every time we come.

Lotus root chips, $10.80

My little sister was not feeling too hungry so she ordered a sushi roll, and it was pretty big.  She enjoyed this and there were no complaints as she was munching away.

King prawn tempura roll, $15.80

My little brother on the other hand, took a while to choose, the choices here are mind boggling at times, and it's hard when the little boy here changes his mind every two minutes and the menu is massive.  However, he eventually chose the tempura udon and happily turned off this Nintendo DS when the food came, which was truly a blessing.  The DS is practically another extension of himself. 

Prawn tempura udon, $17.70

As for the rest of us, we all ordered a lunch set.  The lunch sets automatically include a miso soup and an agedashi tofu.  They are even more generous at dinner, where the dinner sets include a miso soup, a side of sashimi, a plain udon and a scoop of ice cream.  I love the plain udon here, the base is just right and they include crunchy tempura bits too.

Both sides were nice, love the miso soup here as there are a few more vegetables than just having seaweed and tofu and the agedashi tofu goes well with the rice as the sauce is not too overpowering.

Side miso soup
Side agedashi tofu

The karrage chicken curry was a lunch special and it was a nice twist on what is normally served with a chicken or pork katsu. 

Karrage chicken curry lunch set, $12.80

My mum ordered the teriyaki chicken rice bowl and she struggles to finish this each time we come and tried unsuccessfully to feed the rest of us with her leftovers but were stuffed from our own meals.  My mum is very amused by our new food blogging hobby and was peppering us with questions about it and happily indulged us with many happy snaps of her meal before she tucked in.

Teriyaki chicken rice bowl, $12.80

Cheesecake Boy ordered the spicy karrage chicken, and he managed to demolish the huge bowl.  He said it wasn't too spicy but said it was nice as per usual, and that the meals here are definitely good value for money.

Spicy karrage chicken lunch set, $11.80

My meal came last and it was huge, as this meal also came with a bowl of rice too.  The sashimi was lovely and so was the tempura.  I tried to feed some of my meal to Cheesecake Boy as I was also struggling to finish the obento.  After the soup and the tofu this really does become a mammoth meal.

Tempura and sashimi lunch box, $16.80

As per usual we waddle out of Sushi Samurai happy and satisfied but absolutely stuffed.  It's the local favourite for nice and simple Japanese food, it's nothing fancy but definitely value for money and the staff are always so friendly that it makes it so easy to come back to time and again.  Be sure to have a booking before you venture here, especially for dinner.  Otherwise, you'll be missing out.


Happy eating, Dumpling Girl.


Sushi Samurai
Shop 5
197 Military Road
Neutral Bay  NSW  2089
Ph: (02) 9953 4059

Sushi Samurai on Urbanspoon

10 comments:

joey@forkingaroundsydney said...

Love the name, but can't really read too many Japanese-related posts at the moment for obvious reasons.

Von said...

A friend took me to this restaurant a couple of weeks ago, and since then, I've been wanting to go back! All this food makes me hungry...
I love the lotus root chips too! :)

Dumpling Girl said...

Hi Joey - yes it's a catchy name. I know what you mean, we're just grateful that our family and friends over there are safe and of course our thoughts go out to everyone else there.

Hi Von - it's a great place, and definitely can't go pass those lotus root chips, glad I'm not the only one :)

Helen (Grab Your Fork) said...

I love lotus root chips. So deliciously addictive. The karaage chicken looks tasty too.

Jen said...

I can't believe I've never tried lotus chips! Need to rectify that asap!

Dumpling Girl said...

Hi Helen, those lotus root chips are definitely addictive, give me a bowl of those over potato chips any day :)

Hello Jen, that really does need to be rectified asap, lol.

thang @ noodlies said...

teriyaki chicken looks good! Sorry I didn't get a chance to chat with you much at Garfish last night

Dumpling Girl said...

Hi Thang - the teriyaki chicken is super popular there.

Oh, no need to be sorry last night we were all busy eating, lol.

Two fit and fun gals said...

oh yum @ the lotus root chips!
but abit dear i think??

Dumpling Girl said...

Hi Betty - I actually never noticed the price of the chips until I decided to retain the receipt for this post, to think that sometimes we get two bowls, lol :)