Asahi Japanese Restaurant in Mt Lawley

Must be getting lazy with taking photos. Kinda awkward to do it when you're out with friends - takes too much effort to explain why I'm taking pictures of my food :P. Anyway, last Saturday, we went to Asahi on Beaufort Street (15mins walk from our apartment) with my friends from my days back in university for a long-overdue catchup dinner. Rob and I already have a favourite Japanese place at Taka's on Wellington/Beaufort Street or on Shafto Lane, both in Perth - they serve great authentic affordable Japanese food (most expensive meal is $10, unless you go for the party platters) and free unlimited self-serve roasted rice green tea. Hence I went to Asahi with a critical mind.

It is quite a cosy restaurant with a nice decor. My group of 10 were seated by the window, and we had to remove our shoes because it was one of those tables that mimics the Japanese style of seating on the ground for meals. I wore boots, so I snuck into my seat. Robbie wasn't so fortunate because one of the waitresses saw him and requested he removed his shoes. The place looked authentic enough, with Japanese waitresses and chefs. But it all came down to the menu itself.

The menu selections weren't bad, with choices of the standard different types of sushi, set rice meals with miso soup + salad, and teppanyaki-style dishes (unfortunately, the teppanyaki dishes are all prepared in the kitchen, so none of the showy business like at Midori). With the sushi dishes, you can choose small, medium or large sizes. The prices of the teppanyaki dishes ranged from around $16 for chicken and beef up to around $30 for lobster, and rice is not included. The set rice meals like oyakodon and katsudon were priced around the $15 mark.

I chose Chirashi set for $18.90, which was the priciest rice set - an assorted selection of sashimi served on top of sushi rice, served with miso soup and salad. Sashimi is my benchmark with which I rate how good a Japanese restaurant is in terms of freshness and cost. I quite liked the idea of using the sweet sushi rice with the sashimi. The sashimi - raw salmon, tuna and snapper, and octopus - were fresh and beautiful. The salad was classilly dressed with japanese salad dressing.

Rob went for the unadon set for $17.90 - grilled eel served with rice, miso and salad. It was nice, however not much different to other unadon that I've tried.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience. It was rather pricey, and obviously catered to Westerners, but the variety of the menu offerings made up for the costs. Unlike Taka's, I doubt you'll see many Japanese students and backpackers frequent this restaurant.