Benbu

80 Stanley Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Ph 02 9358 3415

Originally, we wanted to go to JAR (Just Another Restaurant) to sample their light lunch but they were closed. This majorly annoyed me since we drove all the way to the city to have it and didn't expect it to be closed on a sunday!


Instead, we walked up and down the street in Darlinghurst and ended up choosing Japanese after a lot of um's and ah's. The little restaurant is called Benboo. From the outside it looked like a little takeaway Japanese sushi place. Betty thought the food was going to be food court quality and boy was she wrong.

Well, we weren't too keen on eating too much so we ordered some edamame for starters, takoyaki and a crunchy salmon sushi roll. This looked great on the menu and we weren't disappointed.

To start off, we had our edamame with some genmaicha. It was savoury and went well with the tea, which had an aromatic roasted rice smell. We ate the whole bowl almost immediately since everyone loves edamame :)


Then our roll and takoyaki came out at the same time. The takoyaki I will have to say is better than any I've ever had. Forget all the other reviews I've done with takoyaki mentioned.


This one was the perfect takoyaki, with it's soft filling, crispy outer layer and diced octopus. The Bonito shavings on top were still curling when it came out, the thick sweet soy sauce and mayo were drizzled on to the plate in a nice zig-zag pattern and the taste was absolutely breathtaking. *drools*. I want some now...


After demolishing half the plate of takoyaki, we started eating our crunchy salmon roll. This was a new one for us and we couldn't work out what the crunchy parts were until half way through.

The sushi roll was fresh, the rice nicely mixed with vinegar and the crunchy bits of tempura on the outside added a nice crunchy texture. I liked this sushi better than the sushi we had at Sakae. The salmon was soft and buttery and the avocado melded with the texture and flavour of the salmon, like the way peas and corn go together.


This was supposed to be a light lunch. But like pringles, once you pop you can't stop. We didn't stop there and ordered a spicy tuna roll. This I have to say is the shiz. The tuna was mildly spiced with a little drizzle of chilli mayonnaise on the top. There was avocado in there too which made the flavour a mixture of buttery, spicy and that special taste fresh tuna has. It was a great sushi roll, better than a tuna roll with no chilli definately. *nods*

Sambath had ordered the bento box with fish katsu, salmon avocado roll, rice & wasabi mayonaise.

Spider roll Ordered by Julie.


This place was across the road, and was very packed & busy with a constant flow of customers coming in, and out, and waiting around for take aways. We'd like to try this next time :)


After stuffing our faces we decided we'd better head on over to centennial park to cycle our calories away after eating such a hectic meal. I'd have to say, this place has overtaken Sakae by a long mile. It's become our new favourite japanese restaurant.

Two thumbs up!