Sokyo at The Star

Goma street: caramelised white chocolate, sesame ice cream

Last week was full of massive celebrations. I’d survived two weeks of work (which was not easy!), my family was in town, Panu finished studying (ready to make us millions now) and oh yes, we were also celebrating the fact that we got married. But mainly, I was excited to have family in town because that meant quality time with the queen of cuteness herself aka my niece.

We ate. Yes, we ate a lot all week. And amongst the gluttony was one very civilised, extremely enjoyable meal at Sokyo.

Sokyo is located away from the other Star restaurants, nestled into the suitably swanky lobby of The Darling. I actually didn’t know where the heck Sokyo was because I’d never felt cool enough to dare enter The Darling’s lobby, let alone wander around, sniffing out the good Japanese restaurant inside.

But I’m glad we found it. Casual is the new high-end and once you enter Sokyo’s funky yet remarkably comfortable dining room, you know it’s going to be a good night.

Short rib tosazu: Tataki, pickled grapes, tosazu, chestnut puree, tarragon

Sashimi: salmon, salmon belly, kingfish

Moreton Bay bug tempura, green papaya pomelo salad, sambal mayo

We started with short rib tataki, sashimi and tempura. I probably would have liked the tataki a little thinner, but the taste was great. The Moreton Bay bug tempura was also good; I cleaned up the green papaya salad and oh my goodness the sambal mayo. YUM.

Our collective favourite thing on the menu came next:

Beef robata: short rib, caramelized eshallots, BBQ teriyaki

Kurobuta pork belly robata with spicy shirodashi, yuzu kosho

The beef skewers from the robata. Good lord. They were hands down the best thing we had, and Panu suggested we come back and just order like eight serves of the skewers. I agreed. The Kurobuta pork belly skewers were not nearly as delicious in comparison, but still, it’s pork belly so you can’t do much wrong.

DengakuMan: caramelised miso cod, Japanese salsa, cucumber salad

One of Sokyo’s signature dishes is the miso cod, which I know I know, is everyone’s signature dish. Funnily enough, of all the places I’ve tried it, I like it least at Nobu, who apparently were the geniuses that came up with this dish. In any case, Sokyo’s version? Plate-lickingly scrumptious.

Japanese BBQ roll: karubi short rib, gochijang sauce, white kimchi

If you’re really on the ball, you’ll notice there are five desserts and there were only four of us dining. No, we’re not pigs. At least, not all of us. We’d ordered three to share and the wonderful kitchen sent out two more, so special and spoilt and thankyousomuch!

All the desserts were good. Like, seriously, very good. Starting from the top, I ordered the Goma street, a sesame themed, sesame everything dessert. Light, fragant, happiness. My sister-in-law chose the chocolate peanut butter fondant. Richness overload, but oozy gooey deliciousness.

Chocolate peanut butter fondant with vanilla ice cream

My brother ordered the Soyko mochi ice cream, which was by far the most creative dessert of the night. Not quite the globules of mochi balls we were expecting, these were thin slices of mochi, sandwiching a cube of frozen strawberry milkshake. No utensils required, you pick it up and eat it QUICK like a sandwich. Slightly messy, all the way amazing.

Sokyo “mochi ice cream”: yatsuhashi kyoto mochi, frozen strawberry milk shake

The kitchen then sent out these awesome Donatsus! I’d asked about it, and didn’t choose it because I was picturing a jam filled, bready donut. Wrong. Super light, super thin mini donuts, filled with delicious mango and lime. You make a little hole, pour in some cream, top with crème fraiche and pop it in your mouth. Totally different and surprisingly good!

Donatsu: mango & lime, mascarpone filling, crème fraiche ice cream

We were also served an off-the-menu dessert, something of a trifle but about a squillion times better. Refreshingly zesty, pineapple and passionfruit cream, topped with various goodies.

off the menu: passionfriot and pineapple cream, citrus gelatin, fresh cream

I’d go back to Sokyo in a heartbeat. The service was faultness, the food amazing and the ambience… well it was cool (I mean, we were seating next to Joel Edgerton and all that, for real) but not that kind of in-your-face swanky. Just cool in its own casualness.

I’m starting to really like the restaurants at The Star. We’re actually going back to Black by ezard tonight and OMG I can’t wait to have that bread again!

ps. being the rubbish food blogger that I am, I totally forgot to bring my camera. All photos taken on my iPhone 5. Look past the pixelatedness and you’ll see the food.

Sokyo
Level G, The Darling, The Star
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW, 2009
(02) 9657 9161
website