Awesome Ish

Cafe Ish

82 Campbell St, Sydney

www.cafeish.com.au

For our second last night in Sydney, we went to Cafe Ish for some dinner. Located in Surrey Hills, Cafe Ish is a Japanese Tapas Ish place serving up Japanese inspired cuisines (not sushi). I crept the urbanspoon earlier and found many favorable reviews. They also served kangaroo and crocodiles meat and I was like "Sweet! let's go there!"

We arrived super early like we always do and walked around the block a million time. To work up an appetite. Obviously. Under the recommendation of our server, we started with 4 tapas. The first to arrive was the crocodile skewers. Battered and deep fried, the crocodile meat tasted like chicken ish. The panko crusted skewer is then served with a Japanese curry and a bunch of watercress leaves.

The next item to arrive was the kangaroo sausage. Topped with feta cheese, it did not taste like chicken. The meat was a little tougher than typical farm animals.

Tuna salad arrived shortly after. Arugula, avocado were mixed together with seared tuna in a tasty dressing. So good.

The last of our initial tapas to arrive was the soft shell crab omelette. This dish is literally featured on every single blog post about Cafe Ish on urbanspoon. And rightfully so! Crispy soft shell crab was wrapped up in a fluffy egg omelet with avocado, shallot and garlic. The dish is finished with a sweet chili ginger soy sauce and watercress leaves. So insanely good. The favour was tangy, a little spicy and generally amazing overall. The texture of the eggs and the soft shell crab contrasted each other. So good. Love it.

We decided to order two more tapas after our initial round. The cucumbers "salad" (because my mother was complaining we were not getting our daily serving of vegetables) and wagyu beef skewers. The cucumber salad was probably one of the weaker dishes of the night so I'm just gonna move on. The wagyu beef was much better. The small cubes of tender wagyu beef were perfectly cooked and super juicy.

Because I'm an eating machine, I ordered an extra round of lamb cutlets.

More panko crusted meat. Mmmmm...

Points as follows:

Atmosphere: 7.5 out of 10. Cute little place. A nice collection of sake bottles on the window.

Food: 9 out of 10. Amazing! Get the soft shell crab omelet. Unless you're allergic to seafood. Or eggs. There's a reason why it's featured on every blog post.

Presentation: 7 out of 10. Above average presentation.

Price: 6 out of 10. Average prices. Prices range from a few dollars to high teens per dish. Of course, all the dishes you want are the pricey ones. Don't underestimate tapa places. Things add up quite quickly.

Service: 7.5 out of 10. Our server was very knowledgable of the dishes, offering her recommendations as needed. Water was constantly topped up and dishes cleared despite having a full house.

Overall: 7.5 out of 10. Very good overall. I highly recommend it for groups as you can try many things. This place was definitely awesome. Not awesome ish. 

Check out this photo of the Kardashian sisters, I mean the Three Sisters, I took earlier in the day!