By Sang — Restaurant in Sydney

We went to By Sang for our 80th monthsary, and couldn't have been a happier choice! The food was excellent, both the staff were attentive and friendly, the ambience was quiet but not dead, we felt like we had our own personal space for the night!

Every dish was great but the few that stood out were the Duck Breast (must try) and the Kagoshima A5 Wagyu Donabe, and the XO oyster.

I am generally not a fan of duck breast as many things can go wrong. 1. It can easily be overdone then it's just a workout on your jaw muscles while you countdown (omg there's 5 friggn more pieces??!) OR 2. The pumpkin or potato or cauliflower puree (there's usually a mash of some kind served to hold the duck in place) is lumpy or has no body depth or is bland AF. 3. Duck is too gamey and/or not enough shallot strips to balance it out, 4. The teriyaki sauce or otherwise a tangy, orange or plum or tamerind sauce (depending on how fancy they think they are) to pair with the duck is too overpowering and your eyes end up watering or you just can't deal with the sauce full stop, or.. 5, the duck tenderness isnt even so the sides are overcooked but the middle too gamey and undercooked or 6. All of the above. BUTTTT, By Sang (massive kudos to the chef) has made the most amazing duck breast, precisely sectioned and each piece is perfectly and consistently tender. The top has a slightly more flavourful bite and the flesh is still "ducky" but not overly pungent in gamey way. The puree was beautifully done, naturally sweet, with a dense body texture, perhaps from cream or butter? Either way, u feel like asking for more. The sauce was not overpowering and it balanced the duck like they were meant for each other (like me and my wife lol). I definitely would go back for the duck just to see if it was a fluke or if the quality of the food is consistent (ok just an excuse to go back).

We have had Kagoshima A5 in many places (diff japanese place each month on the 8th) and this Donabe was definitely up there! The quality of The A5 was super tender (but this is to be expected), and the rice was made in the pot, brimming with flavoura from the homemade dashi and chicken broth. Wish there was more. I mean, for a "main" there wasnt a lot of rice. Even if japanese rice was used and it is generally more exy than your aussie made short grain, $70 (and i get that the beef is Kagoshoma A5) a pot, when the lid is lifted from this massive pot they bring out and u see a very thin bed of rice, kinda leaves the eyes a little disappointed and underwhelmed. That's just my personal thought. Prob wouldnt go for that one again, however for the food quality and how awesome this tasted, please def try it once at least, it's worth trying for the taste.

Oh so, this japanese restaurant serves ... no tea (genmai, hojicha, matcha, jasmine, or even gwai lo tea like peppermint, camomile.. nothing) At all. After eating such great food, and as an interim before dessert, i was hoping for some hot tea. The staff was amazing at this point and so lovely, she was Japanese amd probably caught on that as asians we likeeeee our tea, so she did what she could and offered us hot water, THANK YOU, really appreciate it!!! Dessert was lovely, we tried the vanilla marshmallow and chocolate fondant. Beautiful! Will go again for sure and try craft beer icecream! The girls that night were very kind to help us take a photo! I think this place is totally underrated, for the quality of the food, I was expecting it to be bustling, in saying that it was only a Wednesday night. Def a local gem! (Please serve hot tea...

A rainy Friday night saw us deposited on a windswept corner of Rosebery. Set at the base of a bland medium density housing block, By Sang’e curved glass box dining room is decorated simply in monochrome. The well-priced six-course degustation ($105/person) amped by Manjimup truffles ($15/person) seemed like a good way to put this six-month old restaurant through its paces.

The friendly floor team helped us select a rich sake—the Hakutsuru organic junmai sake ($34/300ml) from Shimane— suitable for consuming cold, and we were away with the first dish. The scallop tataki adorned with yuzu, ikura (salmon roe), pop rocks of finger lime, paprika, and shaved black truffle on a bed of crème fraiche, clued me in that this isn’t ordinary contemporary Japanese.

Owner/chef Sangyong Park is Korean, and puts his cultural stamp on the menu of contemporary Japanese dishes. With time as a fishmonger as well as a chef, he has a good eye for quality produce, evidenced in our sashimi plate. We took an enjoyable journey through delicate coral trout, thin, creamy ribbons of cuttlefish, rich, fatty Ōra King salmon, firm slices of kingfish, dark ruby tombstones of tuna (akami), fatty South Australian bluefin toro ($12/add-on) and torched ocean trout dotted mustard seeds.

A well-priced and very rewarding Warramunda marsanne ($64) took us through wagyu tartare spiked with gochujang and wasabi aioli that we scooped onto slightly oily and fragile hand-cut chips. To my eye, this dish was too big for the truffle add-on, and in retrospect I’d use it on the later wagyu steak. Salt was overused in a seafood broth with Murray cod, mussels and pipis, and in the chimmichurri that accompanied the aforementioned (and generously proportioned) steak. Dessert is included, but at your own choosing, with Hitachino beer ice cream and a peanut brittle monaka (think macaron-like pastry) both functioning well to put out palates back together after the saltiness. Despite a few missteps the warmth of the floor team meant By Sang won...

We visited By Sang on 8 September for lunch to celebrate my partner’s birthday. Having admired Chef Sangyong’s work at Soyoko, we had always planned to experience his restaurant, and were genuinely excited to finally go. Unfortunately, from start to finish, the experience was a letdown — nothing like the glowing Instagram posts or Google reviews we had read.

We ordered the premium omakase, along with a few extras. It began with oysters that simply weren’t fresh, at least not shucked to order and the overpowering vinegar dressing smothered them to the point of being unpleasant.

The sushi, which we expected to be the highlight, was equally disappointing. Nigiri depends on balance, with the rice playing as important a role as the fish. What we were served was dense, tightly packed rice that felt glued together, ruining the texture and harmony of each piece. The fish itself also seemed to be of lower grade cuts and in some cases sinewy, which was surprising given the premium omakase.

Drinks didn’t fare better. My partner ordered a Yebisu beer, listed on the menu as 500ml for $17, but what arrived was only 334ml — not as advertised. I also left my cocktail untouched, as it was poorly balanced and simply not enjoyable.

Service was another low point. When I asked about accommodating my partner’s allergies, the waitress responded with attitude rather than care. Beyond that, there were no pleasantries throughout the meal — no “how’s the food?”, no check-ins, and no acknowledgement that we were celebrating a birthday. Admittedly, it seemed they were short-staffed, but the lack of warmth or attentiveness made the experience feel transactional at best, dismissive at worst.

At $383 for three people, this was not a cheap lunch, and sadly, it felt like money wasted. Instead of leaving with fond memories, we left feeling disappointed and regretful. For what should have been a special celebration, the experience was...