Kanzo - Parramatta

Lately, the Mrs and I have been dining quite a bit in the western suburbs. In particular, Parramatta as we've rather keen to scope out the area before eventually making the move here. As a requirement for my eventual migration to the west, I needed to be convinced that I had access to all my usual cravings and one of the more important cravings was sushi. Parramatta isn't necessarily lacking in it's options for sushi but trying to find a reasonably priced one is another challenge on it's own.That's why I was pleasantly surprised when the Mrs and I dined at Kanzo.

Kanzo is this quaint, little sushi restaurant located on George St, opposite of the street Paper Planes is on. I've always known of it's existence but had never had a reason to try it till now. Parking is easy enough to find but with Pho Pasteur moving to the same location and a new korean BBQ place opening across the street, I can imagine it'll get a lot harder in the near future.

We were seated rather quickly as the rush hadn't yet started when we arrived but it quickly filled up after. Good thing is that they're rather quick with the service and food so turnover time is quick too. We ordered a large sushi, a plate of aburi salmon and a tempura udon to share. The first to arrive was the large sushi platter. I'm actually quite delighted with the quality of the nigiri here, the shari (sushi rice) was perfectly sized and ratioed when compared to the carefully and delicately prepared fish. The thinly sliced salmon and maguro was fresh and worked perfectly with the rice to make a wonderful little treat. The rolls weren't half bad either (I normally don't appreciate tuna rolls much but it worked really well here)

How wonderfully artistic is that presentation?

Perfectly sized and portioned nigiri.

Next came the aburi and damn, was that good. We didn't have enough pieces to share between us...no literally, it was a 5 piece order so one of us had to lose out. Being the wonderful husband I am (not), I begrudgingly gave the Mrs the extra piece of aburi. She did in turn give me the last piece of salmon nigiri so it wasn't all bad however, next time I believe I'll be ordering a lot more of this.

mmm...aburi.

To finish our meal, as is the usual fashion with my side of the family: we finish with a nice, piping hot bowl of noodles. Now, I believe that Kanzo is run by Koreans (which is no detriment to the place, half my favourite sushi places are run by Koreans) which indicates to me that while the sushi is impeccable, the quality of the udon might vary a bit. Some places do the soup a bit sweeter, Kanzo is more on the savoury side. The dashi is rather heavy on the fishy flavour from the bonito/niboshi dashi and doesn't have as much umami from the soy as other joints but all together, it was an acceptable bowl of noodles.

Soup and noodles to warm a cold, autumn night.

The tempura was fried to a wonderful golden crisp but I have to say I was mildly disappointed with the dipping sauce not being ten-tsuyu but a vinegary dressing reminiscent of what had dressed the salad we received earlier in the meal. Still very much appetising and a treat to eat, just not the sauce that I'm used to accompanying my tempura...that said, still better than not having sauce at all.

So immaculately golden and crunchy.

The more I eat out at Parramatta, the more excited I am at the prospect of building my life with the Mrs in this wonderful town. For someone like myself, being so ingrained in the restaurant and dining scene, being able to discover so much about a suburb is a highlight of my life. I can see myself becoming a regular at Kanzo over the coming years.