Between all the food courts available in the vicinity of Chinatown, Sussex Centre food court has always been the one I frequent the least. There used to be this store that sold the most amazing plum sauce chicken up there but ever since it closed down, this place has been a stranger to me. So to my surprise, upon finding myself up here again there was an overwhelming amount of new food to choose from. For example - Sparrows Mill, pho, Thai food, sizzling hot plates, bbq meat, hot pot soup, etc!
Looking very flashy with their food models and colourful signs offering rice bowls, udon, curry and gyoza, three rounds around the food court still had me back at to Ajisai Japanese Restaurant.
Ajisai is as cheap and cheerful as can be and I'm further overwhelmed by how many great deals they have for meal sets, upsizes and gyoza. In fact this might actually be the cheapest place to get lots of gyoza in Sydney. But are they good? We will get to that.
After floating around the store front for a good couple of minutes deciding what to order (which doesn't seem to be a problem anyway as there was no one at the front and they seem to be quite understaffed), I stepped in view of the kitchen front where one of the girls noticed me and came out to take my order. I went for Meal Set D which offers a little bit of everything besides the udon.
Meal Set D: Mini Wagyu Beef with Rice, Mini Chicken Katsu Curry, 5pc Gyoza set and miso soup $11.90
It took around 5-10 minutes for my tray to come out which is pretty long wait but I guess I took a bit of pity because there was only 1 other person I saw in the kitchen.
Nonetheless I was really excited to sit down and start eating!
Gyoza, 5pc
Probably the part of the meal that I was most looking forward to here! I think that these gyoza were really decent. The filling was pork and cabbage. Not amazing, and possibly even from a frozen package but still really satisfying and because they are really affordable on their own I wouldn't hesitate to come back and try them again. Also extra points because they weren't dripping in oil!
Mini Wagyu Beef with Rice
How can we be sure what is wagyu anymore when they could just give you really fatty pieces and claim it to be that? If someone knows the answer to that question please let me know! But even with that thought in my mind, this rice bowl was still delicious with the tender and peppery-soy slices of fatty beef and caramelised onions over a warm bowl of rice. Really simple and comforting food.
Mini Chicken Katsu Curry
I loved the generous handful of shredded cabbage with mayonnaise on top of my curry bowl. The curry itself was good and without fault. Same type of Japanese curry you can expect from the likes of Oiden to be honest. And I always enjoy some good crunchy red tsukemono pickles. But what really made this bowl a winner in my eyes was the chicken katsu. Best chicken katsu I've ever had! The coating is crunchy and stays that way even when I left this bowl last on my hit list, and the chicken itself is so tender and juicy! I even liked this so much that I bought a regular sized bowl for my sister as takeaway when I finished.
Miso Soup
Finally, miso soup to tie all that food together. Even if this wasn't included in the set meal I might've ordered it anyway for only $1. No faults here and even happy to find a good amount of tofu, seaweed and green onions floating around. Yum!
Really happy and satisfied with the food at Ajisai! I was't expecting much but this definitely was delicious. Recommending it to you for your Japanese food fix, or if you want to eat a lot of gyoza dumplings for really cheap in Sydney!
TL;DR:
Price: Affordable
Quality: Good
Service: Understaffed, can be quite slow
Ambience: Food court
Ajisai Japanese Restaurant
Sussex Centre Food Court
17 Goulburn St,
Haymarket NSW 2000
Open 7 days a week
10:30AM - 9PM
