Review: Ha-Lu

Ha-Lu is a wonderful, wonderful little Japanese restaurant in Oxford Street, just round the corner from The Paddington hotel in Leederville. It's not much from the outside and, truth to tell, not mind-blowing from the inside either, but the food, in all its hues and textures, is glorious. Ha-Lu spurns the entree-main-dessert habit and instead encourages diners to order several dishes each so that everyone at the table can dig in and be sociable. Sort of like a Japanese tapas.

The menu is extensive, as is the variety of sake, which can be ordered warm or cold. Our waitress suggested ordering ours warm and drinking it with the sashimi, which was a magnificent combination.

The sashimi was some of the best I've tasted in Perth. Thick slabs of salmon, tuna and mackerel that, once bitten into, retained its shape beautifully. A bit daunting for those new to sashimi, however.

Meals were in itty-bitty tasting portions so that everyone got just one sublime mouthful each. Which can be a little frustrating if you don't like your mouth being teased. We kept ordering more and more and, in the end, I think we ordered the whole menu. It was fab.

What we ate: Wagyu beef tataki; pork belly 'Kaku-ni'; Nigiri sushi; premium Dorper lamb cutlets; duck and aubergine with Madeira sauce; spicy ginger pork; sashimi; Patagonian toothfish nitsuke; foil-baked salmon; aubergine with soy dashi broth; karage chicken; prawn tempura; chocolate parfait; green tea/mango ice-creams.

What we drank: Hideyoshi sake (warm); Lenton Brae Semillon Sauvignon Blanc (2008)

Quick Review: Hayashi Japanese Restaurant

I warn you now, this review is completely biased as we've been going to Hayashi Japanese restaurant in Applecross since forever. It has a sweetheart of an owner, Jie Wu, who has watched over us before and after childbirth (though not during, that would be taking the client-restauranteur relationship too far). And they usually have great sashimi. The decor is so-so, a bit spartan but it does the job for a joint in the burbs. Although if Jie plays any more of that bloomin' tinny Japanese muzak we will have to have words..



I ordered a large sashimi dinner which consisted of miso soup, Japanese salad, plain boiled rice and layers of fresh sashimi. I'd just sipped my way to the bottom of my tasty miso and tucked into a couple of pieces of the oh-so-creamy rolled salmon when our 2yo decided he didn't want to play the grown-up-restaurant game anymore and we both hoofed it for the door, scattering dinner guests in our wake. So my meal sadly wound up variously stuffed and poured into semi-opaque plastic takeaway containers. Good news is I got to photograph it in the peace and comfort of my own home, hurrah! I'm sure there's something lucrative there.

Review: Tansawa Tei

Wander into this sprawling, moodily lit restaurant with a pleasing modern decor and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in for a proper night of Japanese feasting. As they say, however, it ain't necessarily so. Firstly, it was virtually empty, and if a restaurant in a popular inner city suburb on a Saturday night is empty, then it's generally a red flag.

Secondly, of course, is the food. After enquiring if the chef had a signature dish he would perhaps like to share with us (he didn't), we opted for the on-the-menu chef recommended eight course banquet. First-up we had the assorted sunomono, which came in a good and not overly piquant rice vinegar. The accompanying vegetables were tender, as was the moist squid, but the prawn, unfortunately, had been dead for a long time. Next was the fried scallop lightly drizzled with Yakitori sauce, which was beautifully fried in a light oil and only very slightly on the chewy side. The salad was big, colourful and fresh with a good dollop of wafu dressing flavoured with sesame seeds (the chef's secret recipe, apparently). We were very pleased with the assorted tempura, which had been doused with a lovely light batter and dunked in a fresh pan of oil. The tempura beans had a good crunch to them although the last piece, the white fish, was rather bland and soggy. We were bolstered with the arrival of the Teppan chicken teriyaki in all its moistness before crashing back down again with the assorted sushi, where the rice fell apart on impact and the salmon and cod were limp and fishily fishy. Next was a standard white miso soup, and finally a single ball of vanilla ice-cream topped with a blueberry sauce fresh out of the jar, with a red bean accompaniment.

Thirdly, is the drinks. The wine list was extremely select, and not in a good way. There were around twelve choices in all. My husband went with a crisp glass of Andrew Garrett Sauvignon Blanc while I elected to stick with the theme and ordered a Japanese Slipper cocktail. I'd never quite tasted a Japanese Slipper prepared in under a minute, warm, with a lone ice cube swimming in it.. but maybe it was traditional? Oh well. At least they included the cherry.