Roll With It: Sushi Jones, Alexandria

Sushi Jones is a very friendly neighbourhood Japanese restaurant located on Fountain Street in Alexandria. They serve up tasty, solid Japanese offerings from sushi rolls, salads, rice bowls, Japanese curries and all sorts of deliciousness.

Sushi Jones was a plan B. Earlier we had tried to go to our favourite sushi train, a cheap and cheerful place that we both love. But for the last couple of weeks it has been closed without explanation so with sushi still on the brain we found somewhere else closeby.

Service is super friendly and from overhearing conversations there are lots of repeat customers. There is a large undercover outdoor dog friendly section as well as an indoor section where they sell ceramics and food products. Although it is quite large it gets quite busy this Friday night so booking is probably recommended.

Now a little note if you eat early eg around 6pm. It's very popular with families with kids and the noise can be a bit overwhelming. Ivy and Ryan have had the same experience and we both said next time we'd come a little later like say 7:30pm.

We take some recommendations and order and food comes out quite quickly although you don't feel rushed. Mr NQN starts with a ramune (Japanese lemonade) drink while I stick to water although there is a good sized drinks list with whisky, shochu, sake and soju too.

I was already planning to order the goma spinach but then they told us that it was one of their most popular dishes which piqued my interest even further. I used to buy goma spinach almost every day on my way home from work when I lived in Japan. It's a simple salad but so wholesome and tasty. It's basically wilted spinach, carrot, bonito stock and sesame dressing. This version is fantastic and I want to order another as soon as I try a little bit. It's perfectly balanced and moreish. And I even consider getting an order to take away so that I can eat it the next day for lunch (psst! I made my own version of this gomaae spinach here).

The goma broccolini is a deep fried lightly tempured broccolini with tempura crumbs and a sesame miso-ish sauce on the side. It too is excellent and the deep frying brings out the sweetness of the tender stemmed broccolini. I scoop some of the sauce and alternate bites with tastes of the sauce.

When offered the choice of regular or spicy I always go for spicy. The chicken karaage is juicy and tender on the inside and lightly crunchy on the outside with a sprinkling of togarashi seasoning and thin slices of Spanish onion. I also ask for some mayo to go with this that I also sprinkle with togarashi because it's not overly spicy.

We decided on two sushi rolls. I chose one and Mr NQN chose another. This was his choice. He loves tuna but I prefer salmon (unless it's tuna belly). This one is fine but we don't love it as the rest of the dishes and the tuna is a bit watery in flavour.

The aburi salmon on the other hand is delicious. The salmon is lightly torched and rolled with nori, cucumber and avocado. I could have eaten all of this quite happily.

There are a few signature dishes and the one I wanted to try was the koji chicken or chicken thigh marinated in rice malt and served with yuzukosho on the side, a spicy yuzu (Japanese citrus) based condiment. The chicken is nicely cooked although it is quite mild in flavour. I think I would have loved a bit more of the yuzukosho. As it was, I dipped it in the sesame tempura crumbs from the broccolini.

We're both quite full but I liked the sound of their taiyaki. Usually taiyaki has a soft of dry wafer outer that I don't really enjoy. But this one is a deep fried waffle stuffed with sweet red bean paste. It normally comes with matcha ice cream but we both prefer hojicha and there's no problem switching to that. There are actually two taiyaki which is really nice of them since there's only one in the picture and a very generous enormous scoop of the Serendipity hojicha ice cream with cornflakes for crunch. Mr NQN happily devours this before we decide that this could become our next sushi regular!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a favourite local sushi or Japanese restaurant? And what time do you tend to eat out-early or later?

This meal was independently paid for.

Sushi Jones

shop 8/2-10 Fountain St, Alexandria NSW 2015 Monday 11am–3pm Tuesday to Thursday 11am–3pm, 5:30–9pm Friday 11am–3pm, 5–9pm Saturday 5–9pm Sunday closed Phone: (02) 9550 5166 sushijones.com/alexandria/