Deep Fried Soft shell Crab
Bring on Sashimi and Sushi Busshari, Potts Point
HEY Foodie Friends! It’s been a while since my last post and I’m slowly coming back to planet Earth. Forgive me, but ERMAHGERD winter is here. Since I’m slowly returning to the eating world I thought it was time to visit Busshari in Potts Point that is minutes away from Kings Cross Station. As I entered the restaurant I look around and it’s dark with a few dim lights, but that didn’t matter because I easily spotted the bar seating, YIPPEE!
Is your belly excited or what for some Japanese food?!
What? There’s sashimi and sushi at Busshari?
Busshari Bar Seating
We started with the chef’s selection sashimi plate ($34) that includes ocean trout, tuna, scallops, kingfish and fabulously decorated with red kombu and seaweed. Undoubtedly fresh! What a way to start dinner.
Chef’s Selection Sashimi Plate ($34)
Was it really necessary to take another photo of the fresh sashimi plate? YES IT WAS! My favourite was the ocean trout and tuna which had an utterly decadent texture to it and had us fighting over the last piece with our wooden chopsticks.
Liking the side view?
There was an impressive looking sake menu and well I had to order one for the team. Teehee. We tried spotting a waitress with our sake bottle, but instead she brings a selection of handmade sake cups to our area first and excitingly informs us to choose a cup. I took a gamble and embarrassed myself by singing eeny meeny miny moe. Look below what I picked…
Which sake cup shall I choose?
The Tengumai sake ($17) had the perfect sweet balance and matched incredibly well with sashimi and the sushi plate. Just a tip: If you order sake’s lukewarm/hot in winter they’re usually the ones where you instantly feel the alcohol going around to your head (like you might with vodka). After two shots of sake it did its job making my world spin.
Tengumai Sake ($17)
I felt comfortable staring at the chef’s selection sushi plate ($34), it was hot property between two hungry food lovers. I try the unagi that’s freshwater eel broiled with a sweet brush of teriyaki sauce and tamagoyaki as well as uni nigiri and they were wonderful. The textures made me crazy that I didn’t want to share so what else to do but to continue to eat….
Chef’s Selection Sushi Plate ($34)
This has got to be the LARGEST tamagoyaki I’ve ever had as I found it hilarious that it looked like a Japanese surf board and it’s edible. It looked so LOOOOOOOOONG that I compared it with my iPhone, almost the same height. It was tasty nonetheless.
My Tamagoyaki looked like a surf board. HAHA!
We applaud when the plate of sushi roll rainbow ($17) arrives. Usually normal people would eat the sushi but I had to do investigate each sliced sushi piece. Rainbow rolls are awesome in my world because you get a nice variety of fish, and they’re colourful and I love colours. There was a mix of ingredients including tuna, salmon, yellowtail and prawn.
Sushi Roll Rainbow ($17)
Turns out I was lucky enough to eat three quarters of this dish. These babies didn’t disappoint and had a tasty inside of avocado, cucumber and crabstick. I loved the fragrance of the rice as it was well put together with the other ingredients.
It’s ALL mine!
Fasten your seat belts because the soft shell crab karaage ($18) was FREAKEN INSANCE and finger-licking good. There was good chemistry with me and those crabs. It did look double battered, but looks can be deceiving my friends. It didn’t take much to make my happy with this dish and certainly wasn’t willing to share. I take the biggest piece that I could find and it was light and crisp. It almost felt as if each piece was hollow inside but had a strong flavour of the crab. A very exciting dish to order if you HEART FRIED STUFF.
Soft Shell Crab Karaage ($18)
Well when there’s fried food on the table one has to order Asahi beer on tap ($9.50) just to balance the flavours…
Asahi beer on tap ($9.50)
We genuinely liked the wagyu beef sizzling tobanyaki ($33), however for the wrong reason. After a friendly start with the wagyu beef sizzling in a clay pot with extremely hot charcoal we waited for a few minutes before we dived our chopsticks in. To my surprise the meat was kinda bland and lacked that wagyu melt in the mouth texture, but it was overall juicy. Some pieces were a tad chewy and whilst others were somewhat tender. It’s quite a popular pick for the locals as it looks fun, so do give it a go and maybe you’d get lucky with the flavour and texture of the meat. Make sure to ask for a bowl of rice ($4) to accompany those juicy pieces of wagyu or at least turn that boring plain rice into something meaty.
Wagyu Beef Sizzling Tobanyaki ($33)
I had high levels of affection with the mixed sizzling vegetables including corn, asparagus, mushroom and a piece of carrot carved into the shape of a flower. Something about vegetables being sizzled on a hot clay pot taste so much more awesome that I required a guard to make sure none of these pieces gets stolen from me while I went for a toilet break.
Top view of the wagyu at its best!
We struggled eating the last two pieces of wagyu and it was a real shame that it wasn’t the highlight of this dish, instead the mixed fresh veggies were. We had to make sure we didn’t get the wrong dish and had asked the waitress to clarify if this was the the wagyu beef we ordered. She confirmed this was the dish and informed us it was the wagyu shoulder. For some gut feeling I didn’t want to believe it. But hey I ate all my vegetables at the end of the day and most of the meat. How can one complain when meat is sizzling right in front of you…
Woooo this pot comes with hot charcoal inside and a flame…
Handmade plates made by the Chef himself, Nobuyuki Ito.
Our very last dish had to end with the dessert platter ($15) and I went way to emotional with choosing three part desserts. Living in my own little bubble the pumpkin mousse brulee made me feel like Cinderella who lost her shoe at midnight, but instead I just got fat. Teehee. The brulee was reasonably smooth and had a tiny bit of raw pumpkin flavour. Next the sesame tart was crazy intense with a good solid crunchiness to it and it was pretty generous with the sesame seeds as you can see. For the black sesame ice-cream it was undoubtedly rich and smooth and I just wanted to slab a few tablespoons onto the tart but I was too late. AND if you are a Washoku Lovers member you get a scoop of green tea ice-cream for FREE. All you need to do is just flash that card of yours to the staff. How easy was that?!
Dessert Platter (3 Choice- $15)
It was entertaining to see Chef Nobuyuki Ito show off his knife skills as well as plating each dish during the night with freshly cut sashimi and hand-making sushi right in front of us. I can see why Busshari is so popular at Potts Point as they recently celebrated their 9th Year Anniversary. I loved the bar seating area, the food was pretty up there, however very sad the wagyu wasn’t as great as I imagined. I do have plans to revisit this place again soon and try the rest of the sake menu.
Concentration is key at Busshari when it comes to making seafood sashimi salad.
Photos by Vanny Tang
Disclaimer: Nessy Eater plus guest attended Busshari, thanks SD Marketing Global and Washoku Lovers.
Some meals in this post were independently paid for.
Opinions are however, Nessy Eater’s own.
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