All you can eat @ Sushi Choo, Sydney

Inside Sushi Choo

Even though I've been to the Ivy a few times before, I've never noticed the brightly decorated Sushi Choo nestled behind the stairs with its red lanterns, Astroboy figurines and bonsai trees on the counter. Tonight we're indulging in the early bird $20 all you can eat offer and we arrive bright and early at 5.30pm when the restaurant opens to maximise our eating time.

Oh hai mr piggeh!

5.30pm is very early for me to be having dinner but I can't resist when we're seated and the sushi starts rolling out in front of us on the train. There's a fat green piggy sitting between the sushi train rails and it's as if he is giving us license to pig out on the all the sushi. Ok, we will!

Edamame (left) and Creamy pasta salad (right)

Being only $20, the variety is limited as expected but the sushi is fresh and tasty and you can see the sushi chefs working away behind the counter to keep the rails fully stocked. Aside from sushi there are also other foods circulating on the train, including edamame and a creamy pasta dish with vegetables and wholegrain mustard.

Salmon nigiri (left) and Tuna nigiri (right)

The nigiri sushi prove popular with the crowd and are snapped up as soon as they're placed on the rails. As well as the salmon and tuna nigiri pictured, there was also ebi (prawn) nigiri available though I only remember seeing this towards the very start.

Gyoza (left) and Seaweed salad (right)

I'm surprised to see gyoza on the train and though the steamed dumpling skins become a bit rubbery from being left out the pork and vegetable filling is tasty. There are also little piles of my favourite seaweed salad on some of the plates but these are also hard to come by as the seats start to fill up in the restaurant.

Salmon avocado roll (left) and Dynamite roll (right)

There are probably more rolls than anything else on the sushi train and a lot of these are unsurprisingly packed with rice to fill you up. My favourite would have to be the spicy dynamite roll with spicy tuna and cucumber with a sprinkling of tobiko and tempura flakes.

Tempura sweet potato roll (left) and Soft shell crab roll (right)

I picked up the tempura sweet potato roll thinking that it was salmon and I was surprised to find that it tasted sweet! I've never had a tempura vegetable roll before and the sweetness was a nice change of flavour even though it wasn't what I expected.

Deep fried prawns

One of our favourites which started coming later through the session were these deep fried prawns. They were fresh from the fryer and super crispy with the panko crumbing and there were squiggles of tonkatsu sauce on top. We were unlucky enough to be seated at the end of the train so all the plates got taken before they got to us! But the chefs were super nice and brought us some plates straight from the kitchen :)

Roasted peach, vanilla ice cream, raspberry, crushed amaretto biscuit - $16

With our bellies full of sushi we left feeling very satisfied, but after a brief respite off we were again in search of dessert! We headed across to Felix and they were happy to accommodate us for dessert in the bar area even though most people were still eating their dinner.

Lemon delicious pudding, cream and candied lemon - $16

I decided to get the lemon delicious which was the perfect warm comforting dessert on this chilly night. The baked crust on the top of the pudding was crisp and yet the pudding itself was still soft and spongy on the inside - with an awesome, not too sour lemon flavour. For me, each spoonful was best eaten with a bit of the cream and some of the candied lemon rind.

Banana soufflé with passionfruit ice cream - $20

I suspected the other girls were going to get soufflés and they proved me right. The soufflés arrived in cute copper pots and dusted with icing sugar. Though the ice cream was a bit too intense for the delicate banana flavour of the soufflé, they all seemed to enjoy its light, marshmallowy texture. With both our regular stomachs and reserve dessert stomachs full and satisfied, we left the Ivy with our wallets only slightly lighter but our bellies considerably heavier!

Sushi Choo
320 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 9240 3000
Open Monday to Friday, 12-3pm, 5.30-10pm
The $20 all you can eat sushi offer is only available from 12pm-1pm and 5.30pm-8pm (until 7pm on Thursdays and Fridays)


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Felix
Ash Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 9240 3000
Open Monday to Friday, 12pm-3pm; Monday to Saturday, 5.30pm-10.30pm