Tamageta-ya, Neutral Bay

Today we have a special guest post from our dear friend Fiona! Unfortunately she fractured her leg a while back (which is still healing) but thankfully she can still eat, take photos and write. Get better soon and thank you for the guest post 🙂

Thanks to spotting an advertisement promoting a Grand Opening Special of 50% off all items on the menu (no longer available), we embarked to visit Tamageta-ya, the newly opened sister restaurant of Sushi Samurai (located right next door) at Neutral Bay. Tamageta-ya is almost hidden if not for the Japanese Door Curtain Tapestry (noren) at the front. There is also another entrance at the back where there is a small courtyard for alfresco dining.

Hokkaido Chirashi rice bowl – $17.80

Tasmania rice bowl – $15.80

After ordering with a lot of pointing (the English skills of the waitress were not the best), all the dishes came out together pretty quickly. The first thing that caught my eye is that the Tasmania rice bowl and the Hokkaido Chirashi rice bowl are FULL of sashimi – the good kind too (no skimping here)! The Chirashi bowl is impressive with an assortment of kingfish, scallop, salmon, tamago egg, scampi and prawn tail. The Tasmania bowl isn’t far behind with salmon, roe and sea urchin. All the sashimi tastes amazingly fresh and the sushi rice is perfectly prepared with the right amount of vinegar, sugar and stickiness.

Premium chicken teriyaki with avocado – $14.80

Karaage chicken with udon – $12.80

Japanese Curry with teriyaki chicken – $14.80

Equally large were the other hot mains. The teriyaki chicken with avocado, drizzled with Kewpie mayonnaise was tender and juicy with just enough smoky teriyaki sauce. The karaage chicken udon came in a steaming bowl but looked and tasted a tad burnt.  The Japanese curry with teriyaki chicken was mild and a bit too sweet. This may have been due to the teriyaki sauce – we made a note that it was probably better to order the fried chicken cutlet or the karaage chicken.

Fried pork dumpling (5 pieces) – $6.80

Takoyaki (6 pieces) – $6.80

We also ordered the takoyaki and deep fried prawn dumpling entrée dishes. Takoyaki is always fun as you see the dried bonito flakes wave to and fro from the heat of the dish. The takoyaki sauce is sweet and smoky – kind of similar to the teriyaki sauce. The dumplings were not deep-fried as expected but pan-fried. I realised after biting into a dumpling that these were the fried pork dumplings. As we already ate half the dish, we decided not to correct the waitress. This was a safe dish and nothing spectacular.

The service was a little inconsistent – a side set dish and avocado on one of the mains were missing and we had to remind the waitress that we asked for soy sauce and wasabi on two occasions. However the waitress was very quick to respond and we gave the restaurant the benefit of the doubt as it was just in its first week and teasing out the kinks.

Overall it was a very satisfying lunch with the bill arriving at $55.00 for 6 people due to the opening special. Bargain!

Tamatega-ya
87 Military Road, Neutral Bay

Tamagetaya on Urbanspoon

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