A good rice bowl is hard to beat. So N and I have been wanting to try the Japanese rice bowls at Rice Workshop in Westfield Sydney since it first opened in mid-2015.
With ever the soft spot for raw fish, N and I try their Salmon Ontama Bowl ($10.50), with cubes of raw salmon marinaded in soy sauce and mirin, topped with dried seaweed, a soft boiled egg, some pickles and slices of ginger.
The bowl was rather underwhelming. It tasted all right, but it looked and tasted hastily thrown together. The soft boiled egg was past the point of delicious gooey and runny innards, and firm like a poached egg. The salmon was pleasantly marinaded, but there wasn’t enough to go with all the rice. I would have preferred the ginger and pickles on the side, as their flavour was much of a personal preference.
T tried their Gyudon with Egg ($9.20), with slow cooked beef and onion stew in a soya broth of herbs and spices. Presentation aside, T was unimpressed with the dryness and toughness of the thin slices beef that stuck together, as well as the overcooked egg.
And the crab croquette ($2.50) was creamy with bits of crab stick and a crispy coating. It would’ve tasted better hot, but it was much better than the seafood croquette at Tenkomori.
Rice Workshop is located at Level 5, Westfield Sydney, 100 Market Street, Sydney NSW 2000.