Try out Besuto for a traditional Japanese Omakase, showcasing high quality ingredients, flavour and technique.
In Sydney’s CBD, close to Circular Quay, you can find Besuto in Sydney’s Loftus Lane. Walk through the lane and you’ll see a small sign to Besuto above some glass doors. Enter, noting the cool mural on the floor.
You make your way up to level 1 via a manual lift and are met with a serene Japanese garden and entry to the restaurant, a quaint little spot with room for 14 diners.
Omakase seem to be all the rage in Sydney at the moment, but Besuto have cemented themselves in this style of dining, having now been open over a year. It is a great way to dine, for the Omakase offers diners an intimate experience to try Japanese food they might not always order or be familiar with. In the Omakase, you’re leaving all the decisions to the chef. Besuto offers an experience where you’ll try 18-20 dishes (based on the menu chosen), from sashimi to miso, toothfish, nigiri and sorbet, you will be amazing at the delicious food presented to you.
Besuto is also an immersive experience since you’re seated right infront of the chefs, watching them slice the salmon with precision, roll the sushi and flame torch the tops of the nigiri. Run by the two ‘Hiros’; charismatic chef Hiro Kano and sushi extroadinaire Hiro Fujita, they are very welcoming and certainly enjoy their work. Hiro Kano engages with customers, asks questions and explains the food and is also a fan of photography and video, which is encouraged, posing for our Instagram material.
Sommelier Jake took care of the drinks and had excellent knowledge on the Sake selection. It had been a few years since our trip to Japan and Jake did a good job of refreshing our memory and explaining the intricacies of the Sakes on offer and did a great job of pairing Sakes with our meal. Jake explained the processing of the rice and how it was used to make sake and contribute to the flavour profiles. With Ginjo sake being a high quality sake, the rice being polished to 60%. This resulted in light and sweet Sakes, to drink at room temperature or chilled. There is also Daiginjo, which translates to a big polish, to below 60%, making for a premium sake, with sweet complex flavours and to drink chilled. We start with Sanzen Sake, a Daiginjo Sake from Okayama, having sweet and floral aroma and taste that paired nicely with the sashimi and seafood dishes at the start of our meal.
Jake also recommended a comparison between wine glass and traditional sake vessel. The difference was very noticeable, with the wine glass intensifying floral aroma’s and opening up the complex flavours of the sake.
It is great to be able to have the perfect wine and/or sake pairing with your meal. For the food; here’s the detail on 18 courses we consumed in order of delivery. Each dish is placed infront of diners in sync.
The umesho jelly and Tasmanian oyster was juicy and plump nicely presented on a mound of rock salt sitting on a beautifully glazed deep blue plate.
The fresh tiger prawn and hotate scallop with cucumber ribbons and roe let the premium ingredients do the talking. The sweet scallop combining nicely with the umami flavour explosions from the roe and freshness from the ribbons of cucumber.
The sashimi was high quality, and the pieces of trevally, salmon, dory and Kingfish looked very pretty on the plate with a range of garnish including wasabi and flowers used to beautify this plate and contribute to complementing the flavours of the fresh fish.
The Chawanmushi is always a favourite, this savoury custard with its silky mouth feel and umami flavours. This version is elevated with hand picked mud crab, uni, ikura and kaluga caviar.
The hand dived flinders island Scallop in red miso butter and wasabi leaf was a favourite, it was decadent and delicious, the chef allowing the flavours of the scallop and its roe to shine. It was also cool to watch the chef precisely placing the scallop on the plate using chopsticks.
The steamed abalone with its own liver sauce was a powerful and flavoursome dish, the meaty earthiness of the abalone enhanced with the richness of the sauce.
The miso glacier 51 toothfish was the standout dish of this sitting, the fish perfectly prepared to melt in the mouth and combining perfectly with the sweet caramel flavours of the miso glaze.
A5 wagyu from Kagoshima with King mushroom yakitori was delicious, the wagyu air fried to perfection, well seasoned, the meat nice on its own and also very nice with the condiments of wasabi and a chili paste.
For the Nigiri , we’re told to use our hands, as it was delicate and may fall apart. The nigiri was of a high standard with the chef utilising delicate knife skills and many years of practice to perfectly massaging the nigiri into form.
The toro, a prized piece of tuna from the belly that has a high fat content, elevated with another’s premium ingredient, caviar. The chef displayed supreme concentration as he placed the beluga n25 caviar on top. This made for an extremely decadent morsel with a lovely mouth feel from the tuna and flavour bomb from the caviar.
Next up a nice palate cleanser, a spicy miso soup with Pipis, followed by another fish, the Imperador with its white flesh nicely scored with the knife. The fish light in flavour was complemented nicely with sesame seeds.
The Yellowtail nigiri had the chefs knife skills on display with its skin artfully scored and the garnish delicately sliced.
Salmon – which is Mt Cook fresh water King salmon from NZ, it’s flesh a darker orange, the fish very fatty, with a silky mouth feel, this nigiri served aburi style, the flame caramelising the salmon, the fish having a beautiful sweetness and flesh melted in your mouth.
Paradise prawn, was our favourite of the nigiri, with technique on display this piece creatively presented. The sweetness of the prawns contrasting nicely with the shaved, dried cod roe.
The cured snapper was served with a nicely intense sea urchin sauce.
A break from the nigiri with the bluefin tuna being served as a small handroll, having a good hit of wasabi atop the fish.
The sea eel Unago, was another favourite, the blow torch kissing the skin to provide a lovely sweet yet savoury taste.
After the sushi, was another favourite Japanese dish of ours, the tamgoyaki. Made Osaka style of preparing the egg with a dashi broth, the chef utilising their skills to fold many paper thin layers, to form a solid piece.
The meal finishing with a nice zesty palate cleanser, the Yuzu sorbet made by the very fine Zini Gelato, located downstairs.
This was honestly one of our favourite dining experiences in Sydney. Amazing food delivered by outstanding chefs in a very welcoming and fun environment.
6 Loftus Ln, Sydney NSW 2000
Hours
Dinner, Tuesday & Wednesday Thursday 5:30pm and 8:15 pm
Friday & Saturday Lunch 12:30pm
Friday & Saturday 6:30pm Dinner
Thewhereto dined as guests of Besuto