Arashi Sushi Counter — Restaurant in Sydney

Since i havent been back here in years, i thought to satiate my sashimi crave today, since the family refused to have jap over the long weekend. Place has not changed at all but i find that the vibe is different from before. The new owners are chinese, whereas before they were all japs.

Sashimi (lunch) set: salmon kingfish prawn dumpling soup salad miso soup rice. Glad to see that the salmon quality has not dipped much, except the slice is thinner and portion smaller. No big deal as the set includes chinese style prawn dumpling soup which was pretty good. Nestled under the salmon were 2 kinds of seaweed. 1 not marinated, the other marinated in sesame oil. I found it distracting. Better to just use the un-marinated one. The salad was a pitiful as i remember it during the jap owners’ tenure. I like how they dish out one at a time instead of plonking everything in front of you. The hot steamed rice should have been served together with the prawn dumpling soup though, not with the cold sashimi lol 😁. Minor gripe it was.

Tempura prawn hand roll, despite being quite tasty, i had difficulty finding the prawn..

They have managed to keep prices quite competitive (for the area) for lunch anyway....

Ok... Chinese should stick to dumplings or stir fry... Just because one can roll rice with raw fish with seaweed doesn't mean that's sushi. Firstly, went in with great expectations as decor outside was very Japanese. We chose to sit at the counter...10 mins in and heard the "sushi" maker speak in mandarin....warning bells started to ring!!

Read a review that said management recently changed...damn!! If only read that before going in... but hopefully I am wrong !

The said sushi maker keep sniffling and rubbing his nose with his arm...was enough for me to say thank God we did not order the sushi platter.

Finally when my bento came, it looked ok but the first bite of the chicken karaage..I was assaulted with some weird peppery sauce on the karaage...

Spider roll.... missing one big ingredient.. Where is the vinegary taste in the rice?

Would given only 1 star if I was rating just on taste but to be fair, value wise...it wasn't bad but taste wise, if u don't think of it as Japanese Cuisine, it...

Review from Monday, 3rd March: Everything from food to service was AMAZING! Had a dinner party to celebrate our nephew’s 17th bday. They lit the candles, turned on the bday music and were absolutely kind and generous with their time and service. The food was delicious, fresh, made on the spot, melts in your mouth excellent. Best restaurant by far. So glad we picked to hv our dinner party here tonight. Thank u for everything! You all made it so special!

Review from Tuesday, 3rd June: Another amazing dinner at Arashi Sushi Counter. We celebrated another nephew's 16th bday and the chefs/staff made it all so special for us. The Winter soba selection was great for the cold weather, and we also shared lots of freshly made rolls. The food and service are always wonderful, they make it such a joyful, relaxing experience with incredible and impeccable service. Highly recommended and thank you for another great evening! [FYI, have definitely gone in-between...