Last day in Sydney and we wanted to finish it with a BANG. So what better than Japanese for lunch. Doing a bit of research online, I found out about Yayoi Gardens, the sister store of my beloved Yayoi Teishoku from the Galleries. Making a reservation online, we walked all the way to the other end of the city to try it.
We were even lucky enough to get some ice cream from the Monday special!
Arriving in the peak of lunchtime, it was more than half full, but the atmosphere was very quiet and elegant. Much like what I imagine Japan would be like. Decor was simple but graceful, and I really liked it.
I also really loved the menu, which provided a good assortment of Japanese staples including rice and noodle dishes with all sorts of protein and veges. We made our decisions fairly quickly and gave our order to the friendly waitress.
To commemorate our awesome trip, we ordered a glass of sparkling sake cocktail each. Queen V's was in peach whilst mine was in mixed berry. The drinks were very well received, with a jelly like consistency that tasted almost more like a dessert than a drink, and it was wonderfully bubbly, although the berry and peach flavours were quite light.
Our food soon came without much delay, much to our adoration. Queen V had the signature Yayoi Lunch Gozen, which contained six different types of dishes along with rice and miso. That day she had two types of fish, tuna sushi, edamame, stir fried beef and some katsu pork. For the price of $33, this was definitely worthwhile. The quality of each dish was exceptional, and special mention has to be made for the rice which had a perfect consistency, and the pork katsu which was wonderfully meaty and had a crunchy but not oily crumb batter.
Being the hardcore sashimi lover that I am, I ordered the Sashimi Teishoku and upgraded the rice to a chirashi (YAY more fish!). Suffice to say that my lunch was as beautiful to me as a piece of art. It was a masterpiece. Each cut of fish was wonderfully fresh, and the chirashi had one of the tastiest rice's that I've ever had, and was complimented with the fresh fish and citrusy dressing. The miso was warm and welcoming, and the sides were also amazing, especially the salmon caparccio.
As mentioned earlier on, we made it in time for the Monday special, and were given one complimentary scoop of ice cream each. Queen V opted for matcha, and in the interests of trying out something new, I had the black sesame. Both were exceptionally fragrant, but the Matcha was definitely better as it was creamier. No doubt the actual ground sesame resulted in the ice cream detracting a little in texture. Regardless, we relished both to finish off the near perfect meal.
Taste: 9/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Environment: 9/10
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