Moku Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

Mixed experience.

Booked through thefork (with offer) for 6pm (clearly stated on my confirmation email) but for some reason the restaurant had us down for 530pm and gave away our table. Granted they had tried to call us to clarify but I was driving at the time.

They managed to reorganise a table for us which was good of them (the owner was apologetic).

To the food / drink. We ordered:

Yuzu cocktail - came in a tall glass. Tasted like a watered down soda (think solo). Struggled to taste much yuzu but more importantly couldn't even taste a hint of alcohol. We queried this with the owner who claimed it contained "low alcohol" soju despite the menu listing gin in the ingredients. I strongly believe there was no alcohol in it as my missus is very sensitive (goes red) to even the tiniest amount. For 20 bucks, quite a turnoff.

House bread - looked home made, croissant style. Small but fresh and tasty. No pepe saya butter provided (as per menu) and I'm not sure if the advertised "bush tomato" was even on there.

Edamame beans - moorish and had nice umami seasoning.

Sashimi salmon and scallop aburi - both simple and tasty dishes albeit not particularly unique.

Chicken and salt bush tsukune - probably the highlight - a chicken mince lollipop served with raw yolk and some sort of spicy sauce. Good balance and good amount of heat.

Eggplant dish - nice crunchy topping with nicely textured eggplant but slightly salty and a bit one dimensional.

Okonomiyaki - very westernised version of this japanese classic. For some reason, the prosciutto was pretty much non existent on ours. Pretty average unfortunately.

On receiving the bill, of course thefork offer which we had booked with was not applied. This is a pet hate of mine as it is always slightly awkward having to ask for a prebooked offer to be applied.

All in all, average if not slightly above average experience, no doubt marred by teething issues (the place only opened 4 weeks ago?). The owner seems genuine and seemed to be trying his best though not sure it makes up for the above issues.

Really want them to succeed but would only return when the machine is more well oiled (and the cocktails actually...

The overall experience was quite average. We were seated at a small table directly under the stairs, facing the restroom, which felt terrible. This spot shouldn’t even be used as a dining area—dust from the foot traffic on the stairs could easily fall onto the table and into the food.

We ordered four dishes and one cocktail. The cocktail was decent, with a strong banana aroma. The first dish was tuna—the seasoning was fine, but I felt the tuna could have been fresher. The second dish, scallops, was disappointing. Upon serving, it was clear the scallops were uneven in size. The first bite tasted bitter, and the bacon bits inside were hard and felt very out of place, almost invasive, clashing with the texture of the dish. The overall seasoning was problematic.

The cauliflower dish was okay but seemed the easiest to execute. For example, the seaweed flakes on top and mayonnaise were likely store-bought. The final dish, duck breast, was honestly a challenge. Duck breast is hard to get right, and there are very few restaurants that do it well. I found this one slightly bitter, though I wasn’t sure if it came from the charred skin or the meat itself. As I ate more, the meat felt dry. Overall, the seasoning was off, but the carrots on the side were quite tasty.

The staff was very kind and proactively asked for our honest feedback on the dishes. I hope they genuinely take it to heart and work to improve their offerings. The staff also treated us to a glass of shiso plum wine, which, though sweet, had a lovely shiso fragrance that I really...

We recently visit Moku in Sydney’s Darlinghursat as I’d been wanting to go there for so long! It was booked out so we took out luck at a walk in and secured the last table at the bar. We loved sitting there as we got to chat with the barman Charles. He was so lovely and made me a drink that wasn’t even on the menu. The cocktail list was curated by him and has super creative options.

Food wise, honestly there’s so much we would have ordered but you can’t do it all, so we definately will return. It’s a mix of Australian native ingredients with the Japanese so there’s super creative things on offer. I wanted to start with their homemade bread, but unfortunately it was sold out. Instead we had their corn tempura fritter balls, with togarashi spice, whipped yuzu soy, served in 4 pieces. A nice light option that was really flavourful.

We were very impressed with the chicken & saltbush tsukune (chicken balls) served with a smoked chilli miso sauce which quite spicy, but mix it with the yolk to lighten it. This is a popular choice, for most diners were also ordering it.

When browsing the menu before visiting, the duck really caught my fancy. Whilst it cost $53, it was very very good. The hojicha smoked duck breast, with tomato dashi and muntries was superbly cooked and absolutely a must order.

As a side, we got the beautiful eggplant, not too soft, flavoured with miso dengaku and saltbush furikake. Mix the seasonings together and a flavour bang awaits.

The menu here is unreal, and we are super...