Miso Japanese Restaurant has been tucked away in one of the darker alleys of World Square for many years. It serves teishoku and there’s a steady queue to join the diners inside around midday.

To start, I have the Grapefruit Juice ($4.80) with apple yuzu honey. The apple brought a sweetness that cuts through the slight sharpness of the grapefruit and a bright uplifting note comes from the yuzu honey. Overall, it’s a very balanced drink.

T tries the Popeye (left, $4.00) with spinach and mint and apple. It tastes like a healthy breakfast juice, not something I’d want with my lunch. N tries the Cold Yuzu Green Tea ($4.00) which has an unappetizing chunky mouthfeel that’s like matcha powder mixed through with honey but not dissolved. I preferred T’s Popeye.

Not one to pass up an opportunity to eat chirashi, this is the Chirashi & Sashimi Set ($21.80).

The chirashi comes with three long slices of salmon on a bed of sushi rice, topped with a hidden bite of honeyed vegetables, salmon roe, sliced egg and wasabi.

The salmon was fresh and the salmon roe added pops of savoury, but the sushi rice was much too vinegared and needed the wasabi to cut through somewhat. The rice to fish ratio was also off, requiring both N and I to supplement from the plate of sashimi.

As in the chirashi, the sashimi was super fresh with delectable bite. The salmon was fatty and smooth, while the kingfish brought the firmer bite without the fishiness of tuna, and the surf clam had the addictive mouthfeel of squid or octopus. I always enjoy seaweed salads and this was no exception.

The set came with a variety of side dishes: a bamboo shoot and bean sprout salad tossed in a light chilli sauce (left) and potato salad (right) with carrot, cucumber and corn mixed through. Both were enjoyable, although the first side dish can vary – N received some greens tossed in soy sauce instead.

The miso soup has a generous amount of wakame with tofu skins as well as cubes of tofu with a pleasantly restrained savoury flavour.

Finally, plain yoghurt with a pop of mango syrup and a grape finishes the meal. I’m not a fan of plain yoghurt – the taste of the dairy makes me gag – but T enjoys the mini dessert.

Finally, T’s Tonkatsu Pork Loin Set ($19.80). The pork is on the (too) fatty side and while crispy, has a rather oily mouthfeel. We’ve had better tonkatsu elsewhere.

Overall, Miso Japanese Restaurant provides a wide variety of Japanese fare, but not somewhere we’d go out of our way to return. For comfort food and that satiated feeling after having a delicious meal for an affordable price, we’d return sooner to Kura Kura.

Miso Japanese Restaurant is located at World Square, 20 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000.