A mountain of sake at Izakaya Fujiyama

Giving Surry Hills' Crown Street a very good run for its money is what one might call Surry Hills west, between Central Station and Crown Street where a mass of restaurants have opened recently. The latest is Izakaya Fuijiyama, featuring no bookings Japanese eats, lots of sake and Japanese beers.

Sake on display at Izakaya Fuijiyama, Waterloo Street, Surry Hills

Alongside the new El Capo and fairly new Orto Trading Co., and one street up from Muum Maam, Cotton Duck and Vini, (and not to forget District Dining closer to Central Station), this part of Surry Hills is turning seriously food-centric despite pubs on every corner.

Sake - served at room temperature

From a full menu page of sake, listed from mildest to strongest, I randomly pick something middling in strength and price (prices go up to $20 or so for some 90ml pours). This one (name forgotten) turns out to be quite mild with a floral hint.

We're informed that the sake here are only served at room temperature, and that warmed sake was usually something reserved for lower grades of the rice wine where the heat masks the inferior flavours.

Umeshu - plum wine

There are also a few options for plum wine, or umeshu - most of which I've never seen before. And with prices starting at $9.50 for a 90ml glass, it's no surprise that this is far superior to the almost sickly sweet umeshu I'm accustomed to having in your average, casual Japanese eatery.

Instead, this has a clarity of flavour without the overpowering saccharine hit, and also lacks that sometimes preserved flavour that's apparent in cheaper umeshu.

Yellowtail tataki

Traditionally, in a Japanese meal one would eat the cold courses first, including sushi and sashimi, followed by the hot dishes and rice. Dashing in from last week's torrential rain, I couldn't quite stick to that tradition, except for a daily special of yellowtail tataki.

More commonly seen in its beef form, this tataki features thick-ish, raw slivers of yellowtail - a pink-fleshed fish with quite a soft texture - tossed with shallots and fresh, ground ginger on a string bed of daikon strips. Served with soy sauce, the combination of seasonings took on a Cantonese flavour; albeit light and fresh with natural sweetness of the fish.

Satsuma age - housemade fish cake (two serves)

I'm generally a fan a fish cakes and these golden square halves were no exception. Light and a tad floury in a good way, they had peeled edamame beans to be found inside their golden skins. Dipped into a vinegary sauce, they were comforting and definitely a good drinking snack.

Kenji Fried Chicken

Named after chef and owner Kenji Maenaka (ex Porteño, Bodega, Forty One Restaurant, Four in Hand, among others), the KFC is a more substantially sized dish of karage chicken.

Battered hunks of succulent chicken were served with lemon and a creamy mayonnaise, and showed no indication whatsoever that the chef hadn't cooked Japanese food professionally for eight years.

Japanese fried potato

Looking a lot like Italian arancini or indeed, turtle eggs; these perfectly round balls of creamily starchy taro were firm but velvety in the way that only taro is. It lacked the spice flavours as advertised on the menu (and potato?), but went rather nicely with wasabi and soy sauce.

Grilled mackerel with grated daikon

The grilled mackerel was served with flaked pieces along with grated and seasoned daikon - the flavours, including sesame oil, were subtle, clean and quite special. This felt like a healthy, salad-type dish, but also went very well with the sake.

Next sake

Thoroughly warmed following our first round of mostly hot dishes, it was time for another (also unknown name) sake further down the list in strength. This definitely hit the palate harder with that almost-savoury flavour typical of rice wine coming to the fore.

Potato salad

Somehow, we'd managed to turn traditional eating style back to front by following up with a number of cold dishes. Traditional Japanese mashed potato sounded intriguing, and scattered with onions and paper thin pickled cucumber slices, it certainly was.

The tartness of the pickles was just the thing to complement the creamy, mashed and chunky bits of potato in this carb-olicious salad.

Miso tofu

We see the delightfully firm tofu being sliced and then dressed in a white miso sauce. The latter is more sweet than salty, but provided an unexpected depth to the clean, earthy flavours of the cold tofu.

Kingfish nuta with fried tortilla

The most playful dish of the night had to be the kingfish nuta (though I have no idea what 'nuta' is). Served a bit like a ceviche with deep fried tortilla triangles, this was so flavour-packed I was using the tortilla chips to get every last bit of sauce out of the bowl.

Marinated with lots of lime and miso for creaminess, this fine dice of kingfish topped with shallots simply blew me away with its gigantic flavours - sweet, salty, creamy and a little spicy. Eaten cracker style on the crisp, golden tortilla chips, this is one hell of a Japanese nachos.

Grilled mackerel with teriyaki sauce

Despite the fabulousness of the nuta, it was outdone (just) by the daily special of grilled mackerel. Having seen it cook on the grill and go out to another table, we quickly added the fish special to our order - thankfully, in hindsight, as it was my favourite dish of the night by far.

Three thick slices of the most gorgeous-looking, raw, skin-on mackerel (purchased that morning at the Sydney Fish Markets, Maenaka tells us, like all his fish) were skewered and placed directly onto an open yakitori-like grill. It's turned from time to time, as well as dunked into a large pot of house-made teriyaki sauce and returned to the grill.

Chef Maenaka leans over to tell us that no-one else in the world would have his teriyaki sauce, since he dunks his fish and beef into it; the juices from both contributing to the flavours of the sauce, which is boiled out every day like a master stock.

It's pretty special and it shows with the appetisingly caramelised surface of the fresh-off-the-grill mackerel. Dunked and turned on the grill many a time, the firm flesh of the fish, along with the deeply sweet teriyaki sauce, make this dish simply divine, while the thin slices of pickled daikon cut through the rich sauce in just the right way.

Chocolate ice cream with bourbon

Watching desserts leave the kitchen seems to magically make way in my stuffed belly for dessert too. Something small to share, we went with the house-made chocolate ice cream with a sauce of orange and bourbon.

Not being a drinker of the latter booze, I left most the sauce in favour of unadulterated chocolate ice cream - silky smooth, luxuriously creamy and one of the best I've had in ages. There were also some chopped shortbread biscuits nesting at the bottom, reducing the richness as well as the slippery, sliding ice cream factor.

Washed down with a pot of Japanese green tea, we watched the rain continue to belt down and wash the roads, footpaths and pretty much anything/one not under cover. Completely stuffed and just warmed from the sake, I concluded that next time would have a much better attempt at conquering the Fujiyama mountain of sake on offer. Along with tasty eats, izakaya-style, of course.