Aisuru Sushi – Sushi with a difference.
I love sushi! I have a few favourite haunts that I regularly attend to grab some tuna, chicken or raw salmon wrapped in rice and seaweed and presented with some veg; generally avocado, carrot or cucumber, all rolled up into a nice little easy-to-eat parcel. You know the drill. Plus it feels like you are having a healthy lunch! Bonus! I know I know, rice, rice, rice, carbs, carbs, carbs, blah blah blah….. Paleo, Fasting, Atkins, Crossfit… whatever. I still love sushi and it is a good go-to dish for something fresh and quick.
Sushi however, in Australia anyway, has always had a similar look and feel no matter where you go. Sure you can vary the fillings a little: salmon vs crab stick Californian roll, (not sure what is so particularly Californian about that but anyway) tempura chicken or tempura prawns, “canned” tuna for a real Aussie flavour, eel if you are feeling particularly adventurous. But by and large sushi is pretty similar across the board. Or so I thought….
That was until I attended Aisuru Sushi in Northbridge. Talk about sushi that has dressed up in diamonds and pearls and is headed out for a night on the town! Ingredients like bacon, ginger, beetroot, flambéed salmon, cream cheese, mustard, soft shell crab, sun dried tomato, even chedder cheese all grace the sushi menu at Aisuru. The sushi rolls have pretty and funny names like Caterpillar Roll, Sunset Boulevard, Plum Flower Roll, Sunburn Roll and my personal favourite, Rainbow Roll.
The food is all cooked and prepared in an open kitchen within full view of the guests. About 7 chefs were busy rolling, scooping, blowtorching and presenting food the night we were there. It is a bit of a theatrical experience.
Despite the name and despite my sushi ravings, the restaurant does a lot more than just sushi. We started our meal with some lotus root chips which were a good balance of crunchiness and salt, we also had the delightful Sweet Corn tempura which is little deep fried bits of corn in batter with some truffle and aioli sauce over the top. So good! We also had the weirdly American named Creamy Popcorn Shrimp which was 3 large juicy prawns battered and served with a spicy cream sauce.
There are also some more substantial things on the menu such as yakitori: meat on sticks, teriyaki and tempura. There is an extensive vegan sushi menu which is great in the current market and there are the old favourites like miso soup and sashimi.
The dessert menu is modest with only two things on offer but they are Banana Split which is divine and Green Tea ice-cream if that’s your thing.
The Aisuru restaurant I attended is in Northbridge, opposite the Brass Monkey on the corner of William and James Streets near the Perth Cultural Centre, which is perfect for a quick meal before a show. There is also a much larger Aisuru Sushi in Subiaco which is in the old Sicilian restaurant building (hands up children of the 80s and 90s) on Hay Street near the Regal Theatre.
The flavours in the sushi alone and the beautiful presentation of the food in this restaurant make it worthy of our Restaurant Of The Season.
The negatives are that it isn’t exactly cheap and cheerful as many Japanese restaurants tend to be, it won’t break the bank but it will break a few notes. Another downside is that they don’t have a website which is disappointing in this day and age, they rely on facebook, word of mouth and Urban Spoon it seems. Their ranking on Urban Spoon however is at 83% so I guess it’s working for them.
Next time you are having a craving for bacon and a crazing for sushi and you can’t decide which you would prefer, head down to Aisuru and try their Baconator to get both satisfied in one or try any of the other delicious sushi rolls on their menu for a taste adventure and a little bit of art on a plate.
See our gallery below for some more pics of the restaurant and the delicious and different food on offer:
