Australian Series 2: The journey continues. Azuma Restaurant, Sydney, NSW

Hello readers.
Let's get back to the Australian series, shall we?
The second restaurant we visited in Sydney is Azuma. Operated by Chef Kimitaka Azuma, the restaurant adheres to the tried and true value of japanese cooking, where simplicity is the most profound. The restaurant is on the top floor of a mall, featuring a elongated dining room with full height windows at the end of the room, overlooking the streets in the rocks area underneath. the dark-wood oriented dining room gives proper warmth and atmosphere, while the large windows provide the proper lighting. the place feel airy.

Restaurant: Azuma Restaurant, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW
Tasting personnel: Dweeb, Dweeb's girlfriend, who manages this fine blog.
Menu Selection: Lunch Degustation Menu "Omakase" - $70.00 AUD per person
Remarks: Sydney Morning Herald's good food guide 1 chef hat(toque) award

Oyster served in Soy served with trout eggs, Gelee Trio
Oyster is from local waters. The freshness of it is impeccable. Thick, creamy texture along with the particular acidity common in oysters in this area, offers support to the fine nuances of mineral-ish taste, making this a very stunning first bite to the meal. The soy sauce was light, and it gives proper seasoning to the oyster, which in and of of itself, is already sublime. the trout egg seemed to be a popular element in summer dining here, as it will show up times again in our later tastings. The expose of the trout egg to soy sauce made the skin of the egg itself leathery, which provided a very satisfying pop once it is bit in. The one bite of oyster and trout egg tasted complex, offering so much flavor and texture. The gelee is not gelee in the new cuisine sort of way. This is closer to the japanese starch product konnyaku. It's dence, and sliperry and very resistent to bite. However, it gives a clean, refershing, almost watery taste, which contrasts particularly well with the richness of the oyster. The almost mineral taste in the gelee offers the common link with the oyster. The 3 type of gelee offered are(as I recall): pasley, citrus, seasame. While it is served with a seasame based sauce, I barely used it. This this is very well composed, as the perfect start of a meal. Bravo.

White Miso Marinated Cod, Fried Prawn, Spinach dressed in Seasame
This feels familiar. The cod was well cooked. The miso marinade worked with the fish well. the rest of the dish, while well done, fall short of the elevation prompted by the previous dish. This is not to say that it's not well done, but it does give a feeling that this is a filler to make the count.

Sashimi Salmon, Tuna
Fresh, clean, proper.

Sushi Duo - Tuna
I was told that this is the sushi in which the house is known for. After a quick tasting, I concur. This is absolutely beautiful. The natural fattiness of the fish shines above the underlying acidity of the fish itself. the slighty charred surface offers a light smokiness, and a presense of very high quality charcoal. Together, they make for two bites that explained it all. Simplicity truly is most profound.

Tempura
It's tempura. There's not much to talk about.

Wagyu Beef served in Nanban Sauce
Beef was flavorful, lacks fat. The nanban sauce is very gingery, somewhat overwhelming. "Nanban" in Kanji form means "savage from the south (basically means white skinned foreigners, a word used in a fairly particular time in Japan)". The beans were cooked perfectly, chilled to preserve sweetness and texture. However it bares little relation to the beef itself.

Udon

Desert Trio - Creme Brulee, Chocolate Mousse, Rasberry Sorbet.
Fiarly well done, but not much in the ideas department.

To sum up, Azuma is a fine restaurant, some of the stuff they offered was truly sublime. While it is marred by a few dishes, the lunch tasting was nevertheless a decent process, not to mention good value(from a fine dining persective). I do suppose that instead of offering much cutting edge ideas, the Japanese restaurants in Sydney focuses more on getting their clients' stomach filled. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that, I will have to remember for the next time, If I want to see interesting ideas in meal, I should go with dinner instead of lunch.
Folks, do pay Azuma a visit if you are in town. They do good work.

-Dweeb