Gold Class Daruma — Restaurant in Sydney

Since changing day jobs back in November, I’ve been searching for a Japanese lunch spot that has the right combination of quality and price, within walking distance of my new CBD office. After giving some of the more obvious street-level options a go, I discovered Gold Class Daruma tucked away up two escalators in The Grace Hotel.

For a hotel restaurant, the oddly-named spot – Japan's hollow daruma dolls represent good luck and perseverance - is surprisingly atmospheric. Wooden screens divide up the spacious restaurant into more intimate spaces, including private dining rooms. The centrepiece is a wide, organically shaped sushi counter made from 500-year-old cedar wood imported from Japan. Behind it, white hatted sushi chefs are framed in natural light from a row windows onto Clarence Street, with the view blocked by exterior scaffolding on the two occasions I dined. A row of potted leafy green bamboo plants helps to combat this, effectively bringing the outdoors in.

Deluxe Nigiri Sushi ($38) here is more reasonably priced than I expected, particularly after my sixty buck aburi assortment at nearby Kabuki Shokoru. Arriving with some green leaves, miso soup, and a small dessert, the 10-piece sushi set also includes sea eel nigiri, egg omelette and a solo sushi roll, so you’re unlikely to leave hungry.

The sea eel has a great savouriness, despite its slightly unwieldy, lewdly long appearance. Squid nigiri pops as your teeth sink into it, with a lovely creamy texture. In the fishes, there’s delicate sand whiting, rich and gelatinous salmon belly and multiple types of tuna, from blue fin, including chutoro, to pale bonito. Raw scallops are slippery and unctuous, while uncooked crab meat is surprisingly chewy. Flavoursome miso shows with more evidence of vegetables in a slightly thicker soup. The little glass of matcha pudding is a nice touch. I leave feeling like I’ve had a mental holiday from my busy office life, with a resulting inclination to return again.

To keep things interesting, Daruma present a daily menu that outlines daily specials, bento and don. Every weekday, they make ten well-priced Bento Box ($22) lunches, though I’m yet to snaffle one. On my second visit I settled for Today’s Don ($24) a collection of sea urchin, salty popping pearls of salmon roe, salmon belly, tuna and minced tuna, tucked under washed onions, all served over warm, flavoursome sushi rice. This time the accompanying leafy green salad was particularly well dressed with plenty of fragrant yuzu, that had echoes in the bright citrus jelly that formed the daily dessert.

With comfortable chairs, and a steaming pot of Green Tea ($2/person), the tranquil environment at Gold Class Daruma ensures you get a restorative benefit from your lunch in Sydney's...

When searching for a Japanese restaurant, this was recommended by multiple people online, so we came here for dinner one weekday evening. The dining room has a casual elegance and intimate atmosphere. It’s very clean and polished inside with large tables and several seats at the sushi bar. Although they offer bentos and meal sets during the lunch period, their dinner is a la carte only. Dinner servings are on the small side as well, so if you’re hungry, you’ll probably need to order multiple items.

AGEDASHI TOFU (A$13.50): A delicious appetizer of lightly fried tofu in a delicate broth. The tofu was super silky inside and the fry gave it a thin skin on the outside which had a slight chew.

SAKE STEAMED CLAMS (A$19.80): Simple and delicious. It’s a good thing the bowl came with a lot of clams since I couldn’t stop eating them! I also found comfort in the light broth that was both salty and briny in the best way.

NASU DENGAKU (A$15): Just half an eggplant with a drizzle of miso sauce. It was okay, but there wasn’t much to this plate.

SEAFOOD HOTPOT: This was a special at the time, but I didn't consider it worth the price. Had we known how small it would be (it’s meant for one person), we probably would have skipped it. It just contained one small piece of white fish, a shrimp, squid, mushroom, enoki bundle and vermicelli noodles in a bubbling broth served over an open flame.

TEMPURA ROLL (A$26.80): A straightforward and tasty roll containing shrimp tempura and cucumber. The shrimp was meaty and the cucumber added the perfect crunch. A little drizzle of mayo completed the roll.

SPICY ABURI SALMON ROLL (A$28.50): Loved this! Lightly seared salmon was covered the top of a roll that included cucumber and raw salmon inside. The sear gave it a subtle smokiness and the salmon was smooth and clean. It was so good and I could have easily polished off the whole roll by myself. I didn't notice much spice, if at all.

VEGGIE TEMPURA (A$15.80): A sweet potato, pumpkin, enoki mushrooms, green bean and eggplant with a little cup of tempura sauce. The vegetables were all fresh and the light tempura had a delightful crunch.

The four of us shared all these items, so while we left satisfied enough, I could have still eaten more. It would be nice if their dinner menu had more substantial options or meal sets. As much as I enjoy sharing a variety of dishes, the cost does add up here.

Service was average. The servers are friendly, but they only came by to take our order and deliver the food. They didn’t stop by again until we were ready for the check, despite them not being too busy at 6:00P...

The appetisers were very lackluster.

Oyster with soy sauce and green onion. Octopus sliced with seaweed and a blanched cherry tomato. And abalone a small piece of miso glazed salmon. Everything tasted okay, but I felt like it was very low impact. Additionally there was no explanation, it was just put out on the table and waitress walked away.

Course 2 - Sashimi, no complaints and was good, waitress explained what was what, 2 slices of salmon, bonito, snapper, and tuna.

Course 3 Panko deep fried pufferfish with tartare, and tomato "salsa" Honestly if I didn't know any better it feels like i just went to small fish and chip shop and bought a fried crab claw (without the claw part) I didn't take a photo but the plate was kinda dirty and sticky. My camera couldn't get a photo in the lighting.

Course 4 - Chawanmushi topped with edamame, fish roe. Yummy and warming. No explanation again, which would have been helpful since my pescatarian date ended up almost accidentally eating chicken that was at the bottom.

Course 5 - seafood hotpot. This kinda brought my entire opinion down. Carrot had black marks like it may have been rotten. My broth was grey and scummy. It tasted like salty water. We ended up having a word with the wait staff who spoke to kitchen staff and advised that both hotpot are identical. So I asked why mine was grey and scummy compared to my date's. They continued to insist that it was identical and that they could add some hot water to make it less salty.

Needless to say I didn't enjoy this course.

Dessert - Tiramisu with Mochi and strawberries. The male waiter explained this well. No complaints.

All in all I think I was mostly disappointed as this was the "main" course and I didn't really enjoy it. I did notice that certain tables of larger groups were getting better service, checking if the food was okay, having their glasses of water refilled etc. Little things like that kinda made us feel unimportant.

I understand $89 is a cheap tasting menu, but I expect better quality ingredients, especially if im essentially cooking it myself.

Ive been to cheap hotpot restaurants which do better.

This is just my experience and I hope everyone else is getting a better experience here. I wouldn't...