March into Sushi Choo for merry value

It seems that there are a couple times of the year when festivals, particularly those pertaining to food, pop up like toadstools after the rain. And that's no complaint, especially when they're festivals that feature bargain meals, like March into Merivale's $33 meal deals.

Available from Monday to Friday until 5 April in specific lunch and dinner time slots, $33 will generally get you a main meal and a glass of wine or beer at one of the Merivale restaurants or pubs. The value for money seems to improve exponentially at Sushi Choo; the sushi train located beneath the Ivy complex and famous for their occasional $20 all-you-can-eat sessions.

Snapper dry miso from Sushi Choo, Ivy, George Street, Sydney

Sushi Choo's $33 meal deal entails five plates off the sushi train; a choice of a dish not on the train; a bento box of miso soup, green salad and a 'yan yan' dessert; and a glass of wine. It's quite a bit to stomach for a weekday lunch, but we managed - just.

The Babich Sauvignon Blanc ‘Organic’ from Marlborough was the obvious choice over the pinot noir for a sushi lunch. The "off the rails" choice for me was easy, though I hadn't realised that it was a sashimi dish.

The snapper, which is fast-becoming one of my favourite sashimi fishes, was artfully sprinkled with a red miso powder that was rather subtle in taste, a garlic chip and chives with a sparky yuzu dressing that made the dish quite special.

Wagyu beef skirt – “new style”

The wagyu beef skirt was seared, though still quite raw in the centre, served with a soy-based dressing that appropriately complemented the meat. The skirt steak, buttery with fat, was too chewy a cut for this approach - a more tender cut or thinner slices probably would have been ideal.

However, with five dishes off the well-populated conveyor belt, there was plenty more to eat. When the all-you-can-eat offer is in operation, the variety of plates on the train is rather limited, but on this occasion the full range of sushi rolls and nigiri were doing the rounds. We also had generous sashimi and karage chicken plates, and the following:

Soft shell crab inside out roll

With battered soft shell crab legs hanging out like a scythe, the uramaki of soft shell crab is one of my favourites on the sushi train; here with loads of tobiko flying fish roe and cucumber sticks.

Steamed gyoza

The fresh-out-of-the-steamer gyoza dumplings had clean flavours of pork and cabbage, and while I would have preferred the pan fried variety, these piping hot packages felt nice and healthy.

Aburi salmon nigiri

My lust for blowtorched aburi nigiri sushi knows no bounds, not even for a photo. This one at was so freshly torched I could almost smell the gas as I bit into the warm salmon. Fresh lemon juice over the top was a new thing for me, but it definitely enhanced the four mouthfuls.

Chocolate spring rolls 'yan yan' dessert

Some of the most perfect spring roll wrapping I've seen in some time, it was a struggle to get through three cooled, chocolate-filled spring rolls at the end.

With five plates off the train (which is about what I would normally have for lunch at sushi trains), plus the snapper, miso soup, salad and a glass of wine; the value for money of the March into Merivale deal is confirmed convincingly.