Pika Sushi, Ferntree Gully

I stumbled on a new blog recently, written by a retired academic. In their blog, they are always doing new things and learning new skills to keep the brain active. They have set goals for instance to learn a new sport and a new musical instrument, read a new book, enter writing competitions, learn a new language, travel and so on. Reading the blog, I realise that it is easy to be stagnant in my everyday life because of work commitments and so on. Many a times have I said 'Oh, my brain hurts!' because it is easier to stick to the known and the familiar. So my new year resolution and it is only 2 more months to 2025 (shudder) can be to learn something new every month. Curiosity and learning is incidentally a motto at my work and it should be employed in everyday life too. So today, I will write a haiku about my visit to a newly opened restaurant in Ferntree Gully called Pika Sushi. We happened to stumble on this restaurant while in the area. How apt to use a poetry style that originated in Japan as an ode to a Japanese restaurant! 

Haiku has three lines, the first line has 5 syllables, the next with 7 syllables and the last with 5 syllables. 

Saturday arvo

Ramen, bento, sushi rolls

At Pika Sushi

We ordered their black garlic tonkotsu ramen (above) $20.90 that is not the typical black garlic ramen. It did not come with the customary black looking oil but it tasted of fragrant garlic in the soup. I could taste the difference between the black garlic and normal tonkotsu broth but visually, there was no difference. The ramen is accompanied by half an onsen egg, thinly sliced black fungus, a slice of tender and fatty chashu seared on the surface to add some smokiness, spring onions and seaweed slices. The portion is small, but free refills of noodles are offered. Two portions of noodles is just nice for me. The set also came with endamame, a slice of egg tamago and my favourite, grape jelly.

There are 7 choices of Teishoku set or Rice bento sets, all of which has chicken as the main dish. Our table ordered the spicy chicken yakiniku set and chicken katsu mentai set (both $17.90). Both sets came with miso soup, side fresh leaf salad, seaweed salad, a slice of egg tamago and grape jelly. 

The portion size of both chicken dishes is on the smaller side but offset by the many side dishes on the tray. I would not order the spicy yakiniku chicken because of the small cubes of chicken and taste made it an average dish.

The chicken katsu had a mentai (cod roe) sauce drizzled liberally over it. The chicken itself looked like frozen premade product. The batter or the crumbing of the chicken was quite hard but the chicken meat was bouncy on the inside. 

The best dish was the chicken karaage that appears both in the ramen and rice sets. Our table ordered the shoyu ramen that came with kaarage chicken. 

Oh in praise of the chicken! The chicken pieces were perfectly seasoned and fried, it was crispy though the batter was not thick. There were a generous portion of the kaarage chicken, about 7-8 pieces of chicken, some submerged in the soup so it appears less in the picture (right).

The shoyu broth was soy based but it is rich compared to other ramen places that offers only a clear diluted soy sauce broth. Look at the broth here, it is looks almost similar to the tonkotsu ramen broth. 

To share, we ordered 2 sushi rolls. The restaurant had a soft opening from 21-28th October so we got 1 roll for free. Each roll was $4.30 or 8.90 for two during dinner sessions. We ordered the Prawn Avocado Mayo and Raw Salmon Avocado. 

The prawn roll was made from small prawns that looked like frozen prawns. They were bouncy but a tad small because they fell out of the roll easily. 

The rice was too mushy but seasoned well. Each roll is prepared on order for dine in patrons so one can be assured that they are getting fresh rolls. I do miss the crispiness of fresh seaweed on rolls though. 

There is a loyalty card system where one can get 1 roll for free after 15 rolls. There is even a noticeboard where one can pin their loyalty cards on in the store so they do not forfeit their stamp if they forget their loyalty card at home.

We visited during their soft opening launch so had the good fortune to enjoy a BOGOF offer with the rice and ramen sets and also buy two get 1 free offer with the sushi rolls. 

I love how  clean and tidy the store is. There is a self service station for cutlery, water and napkins. There is also a toy box, colouring kits for children to occupy themselves making the store a family friendly restaurant. 

There is a 5% surcharge on Saturdays, 10% on Sundays. There is also a surcharge for public holidays and card payments.