Almost five years ago, I wrote about Sura. Eventually, I guess, you have to repeat yourself... I can't always be going to new, interesting or terrible places just to write reviews. And in this case, I was invited along to a small gathering of my best friend's friends and family for her birthday.
After visiting there before and ordering the BBQ meal for two, and almost dying from meat ingestion, our party of eight wisely choose to share the five person meal with a little extra, including the seafood pancake, and some beef glass noodles.
We had a great spot at the back of the restaurant, in a quiet booth. A lot of the space is open dining tables and there's not much privacy. Which is not a real problem, this isn't intimate hot date dining, but a place for friends and family to eat, chat and be happy. Some tables have an inbuilt for the BBQ, or they use portable grills. These can be run by the diners, or the servers will run past and keep an eye on things to make sure your beef ribs aren't charred. And to keep things moving along.
I don't recall we were asked for a drink order at all, which was mildly annoying. As was not being checked on for water... we got through the first two jugs they had left on the table relatively fast. On the flip side the servers were busy, and the restaurant was full. Fuller than normal for a Tuesday night, as my friends who go regularly told me.
Food... it was a conveyor belt of goodies piling up around us. Little plates of pickles and kimchi led into fresh cooked vegetable tempura and pots of steaming sticky rice, and tiny bowls of dumpling soup - one dumpling and a lot of clear broth. With the glass noodles and the seafood pancake, we were warmed up. The pancake is fantastic, full of all sorts of crustaceans and bivalves. I'd probably be happy with just one of those and some rice. The noodles were fresh, but nothing overly exciting. The kimchi was spicy and flavourful, but not rocket grade hot.
The meat started to come of the grill. First up, some beef ribs. Followed by strips of beef steak. The nice fatty marbling gave these a good, meaty flavour, especially from the grilling. The chicken was okay, nothing special in the teriyaki sauce. The pulled beef was the point some of my friends started to meat fade. To me, it was the best flavour on the grill. Savoury, juicy and great with the sticky rice. The mouth feel and the umami taste all combined into a simple dish.
We then got some mushrooms, some pork and the remains of the yams from the grill. I don't recall much about this 'course'. I was wanting more water to wash down the overload of salt I felt like I was consuming in all this meat. The finale, the seafood was happily accepted by the non-beef eater. The green lipped mussels were good, but the rest did little for me, and the clams were tough and slighty sour to me. I was happily stuffed though, and the rest of the table were all full to the gunnels.
We split the meal, and at $22 with the tip and taxes, that's a good price for a meal out with great friends.
After visiting there before and ordering the BBQ meal for two, and almost dying from meat ingestion, our party of eight wisely choose to share the five person meal with a little extra, including the seafood pancake, and some beef glass noodles.
We had a great spot at the back of the restaurant, in a quiet booth. A lot of the space is open dining tables and there's not much privacy. Which is not a real problem, this isn't intimate hot date dining, but a place for friends and family to eat, chat and be happy. Some tables have an inbuilt for the BBQ, or they use portable grills. These can be run by the diners, or the servers will run past and keep an eye on things to make sure your beef ribs aren't charred. And to keep things moving along.
I don't recall we were asked for a drink order at all, which was mildly annoying. As was not being checked on for water... we got through the first two jugs they had left on the table relatively fast. On the flip side the servers were busy, and the restaurant was full. Fuller than normal for a Tuesday night, as my friends who go regularly told me.
Food... it was a conveyor belt of goodies piling up around us. Little plates of pickles and kimchi led into fresh cooked vegetable tempura and pots of steaming sticky rice, and tiny bowls of dumpling soup - one dumpling and a lot of clear broth. With the glass noodles and the seafood pancake, we were warmed up. The pancake is fantastic, full of all sorts of crustaceans and bivalves. I'd probably be happy with just one of those and some rice. The noodles were fresh, but nothing overly exciting. The kimchi was spicy and flavourful, but not rocket grade hot.
The meat started to come of the grill. First up, some beef ribs. Followed by strips of beef steak. The nice fatty marbling gave these a good, meaty flavour, especially from the grilling. The chicken was okay, nothing special in the teriyaki sauce. The pulled beef was the point some of my friends started to meat fade. To me, it was the best flavour on the grill. Savoury, juicy and great with the sticky rice. The mouth feel and the umami taste all combined into a simple dish.
We then got some mushrooms, some pork and the remains of the yams from the grill. I don't recall much about this 'course'. I was wanting more water to wash down the overload of salt I felt like I was consuming in all this meat. The finale, the seafood was happily accepted by the non-beef eater. The green lipped mussels were good, but the rest did little for me, and the clams were tough and slighty sour to me. I was happily stuffed though, and the rest of the table were all full to the gunnels.
We split the meal, and at $22 with the tip and taxes, that's a good price for a meal out with great friends.
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