$$$: $9.00
The Scene:
Last year, a friend of mine from overseas was staying at a house here in Brisbane owned by a Korean and Japanese couple. Seeing this friend on a regular basis meant that I got to know the couple who owned the house quite well. One of the ways I grew to know them was through their cooking – Anna, who was from Korea, but who had spent the best part of 10 years living with her husband Hiko in Japan, would always be cooking the most delicious Japanese food either at home or at the local sushi shop where she worked nearby. During one of the last conversations I had with them at the house before my friend left Australia, they expressed their desire to open a Japanese restaurant of their own. It has been only a handful of months since that conversation, but they have already made good on their intentions with the newly-opened “Sushi Kotobuki” in East Brisbane.
The Meal:
You might expect a restaurant called “Sushi Kotobuki” to be just like any other sushi place – that is, a place that only serves sushi. A fair assumption, but in the same way Top Noodle doesn’t specialise exclusively in noodles, Sushi Kotobuki’s menu extends beyond the expected fare of its namesake to include other Japanese favourites like donburi (rice based dishes), udon, takoyaki, tempura, and so on.
Nevertheless, the “Fusion Sushi” section of the menu is what really caught my interest. Fusion cuisine is a style that, more than anything, requires both a creative imagination and intimate knowledge of complimenting tastes. The results could go either way but that’s what makes it exciting, and the experience is often one unique to the restaurant. Reluctantly bypassing such colourfully named dishes like the “Caterpillar” and “Spider Roll”, I decided to try my luck with the eponymous “Kotobuki Roll”, whereas my dining partner chose the more exotically-titled, and quite possibly copyright-infringing “Lion King” (another item from the Fusion Sushi menu, $8.50).
The Kotobuki Roll contains crumbed chicken, cream cheese and avocado. The roll is then cut up into 8 pieces (as are all rolls in the Fusion Sushi range) and then, irresistibly, dipped in a light tempura batter and deep fried (above). The result is then treated to a smattering of teriyaki sauce.
The Lion King, despite being so named, and to my slight disappointment, doesn’t contain any lion. In fact, I have no idea why it was named after the most majestic of land animals when the only meat in the roll comes from the sea. Containing crab meat, cucumber, avocado, cheese and topped with salmon, the menu declares that the whole thing is then baked in an oven before receiving the usual teriyaki sauce treatment. It was soon clear, however, that at some point in time between the printing of the menu and the preparation of our meal that night, Anna had decided to dispense with the whole oven idea in favour of… get this… a mini blowtorch.
Once again for those too lazy to lean out of their chairs.
This is quite simply the coolest thing I have ever witnessed with my own eyes in the field of sushi-making, easily beating that machine over at Hanaichi that compresses and shapes sushi rice into uniformly-sized blocks.
The complete meal before consumption, complete with the mandatory miso soup and hot mugs of green tea.
The Verdict:
Great value sushi with unique, home-cooked twists. The Kotobuki Roll is especially filling – each monstrous, tempura-battered mouthful feels and tastes a lot heavier than traditionally-prepared sushi and doesn’t really draw comparison with anything I’ve had before. The Lion King is worth it for the blowtorch performance alone (this is not to say that the end result doesn’t taste good, because like anything that’s been blowtorched, it does). Anna prepares her sushi on a counter out in the dining area, so despite also selling other kinds of Japanese cuisine, you still get the voyeuristic sushi bar experience of watching the chef prepare your meal before your eyes (ensuring no sleight of finger-to-nose nonsense). A potential regular favourite.
Random Fact:
“Kotobuki” means “long life” in Japanese.
Sushi Kotobuki
Shop 3
53 Lytton Rd.
East Brisbane, Queensland 4169
Hours: Monday – Friday: 10am – 9pm; Saturday – Sunday: 11am – 9pm