JUAN - Bowl & Tea, Redfern @ Sydney, Australia

This restaurant we visited is unforgettable. That's right, you've heard us!

This restaurant is owned by Anna Ishiguro who happens to be one of the chefs of this little, Japanese restaurant called JUAN. Opened since the later half of Year 2017, JUAN has stolen the lime light for it's rice bowls and tea.

From the above, we have described this restaurant as 'little' as it only seats 28 people. There is one long table, two small round tables and bar seatings available.

This place is still very popular although it's been open for nearly a year. If we have convinced you enough after this post that this place could just be the place you'd visit next, we'd highly suggest that you make a reservation and not just walk in expecting to be seated immediately.

Let's start with the menu.

From the menu, you can see that there are four rice bowls to choose from. The menu is based on Japanese rice bowls called "don". Theses are rice bowls topped with meat and/or veggies, sauce and matching condiments. Instead of having matching wines, this restaurant serves matching tea if you wish to add it on - otherwise there is an alcohol menu for you to choose other drinks.

There is also the option to choose what type of rice you'd like in your rice bowl. They have the koshihikari rice which is white rice or you can choose grain rice.

Unagi (Eel) Hitsumabushi

The eel was cooked perfectly and just melts in your mouth.

Wasabi, Arare (Japanese cracker) and Noshi (seaweed) to pour into the Unagi bowl.

Unagi bowl's matching tea: Long Ching Dragonwell. Light, crisp and delicately sweet - compliments seafood dishes perfectly.

Can we first pay attention to the crockery here?! Look at these cups! They're gorgeous!

Keeping it Japanese, the use of wooden utensils and wooden furniture is on point.

This is the matching tea for the next meal. It is the Organic Lemon Myrtle. It is tangy, sharp and sweetened to taste.

Tonkatsu (Pork)

The pork has been slow-cooked for 2 hours! It's also got a very thin, crispy batter. The pork flavour was fairly strong but that's when the matching tea comes in. It perfectly washes that flavour away and refreshes you up.

Miso Sesame sauce and House Apple Mustard Mayo to dip the tonkatsu in.

Perks of sitting at the bar table is that we can watch the chefs cook and plate the dishes on the bench. We snuck this picture as it was originally one of the dishes we wanted to order... but afraid 3 bowls amongst 2 people was too much. Will order next time as it's one of the popular dishes! It's the Wagyu bowl! It consists of thinly sliced, slow cooked wagyu beef topped on garlic buttered flavour rice.

Dessert time!! Silly someone asked if we can order ONE dessert to share. Thank goodness we didn't because desserts aren't made to share! We ordered both desserts available at JUAN. No regrets.

Matcha Tiramisu

Served in a masu box, this matcha tiramisu was not overly sweet. It had a good amount of matcha powder, creamy matcha mascarpone and matcha sponge-alike cake on the very bottom.

Black Sesame Warabi Mochi

Another dessert winner this one was! the mochi dessert is limited each night so get in quick! This dessert is warabi mochi served in black sugar syrup with soft meringue and soybean flour.

 

We LOVED the food and the desserts even more! It was a great experience to our palettes and definitely felt a step closer to Japan. The staff were very friendly and attended to us fairly quickly despite the restaurant being busy the moment they opened to serve dinner.

Serving size might be small for some but for us, we left with a 'just right' feeling especially after having dessert as well. Those who have a bigger appetite can do three bowls amongst two people.

The downside we pointed out was that we had to go up to the counter to order and pay for our food. Why we say this is a downside is because it caused a queue inside this very small restaurant. When we visited, it was about 6:15PM. Restaurant opens at 6PM for dinner service. There was already a queue at the counter. 6:30PM, there was still a queue and people were blocking part of the bar seats. In our opinion, this requires improvement.

For two people dining in at JUAN, it cost about $95 AUD. It may sound pricey but keep in mind we had the full experience of ordering the mains, matching teas and a dessert each.

Would we return? Well, we're still talking, raving and dreaming about the desserts so that's a yes! ... and hopefully soon too 😋

!steemitworldmap 33.892884 lat 151.203714 long JUAN Bowl & Tea D3SCR

 

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://wanderwithtwo.net/2018/08/21/juan-bowl-tea-redfern-sydney-australia/

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