It was Saturday afternoon and I was hunting for a place for Mr NQN and I to have dinner with Queen Viv and Miss America that evening. The latter is very easy going but Queen Viv always needs convincing so I texted Queen Viv ”How about Toshiya in Cremorne? They have sashimi tacos.”

“That sounds interesting and possibly revolting, let’s give it a go” she answered back straight away. A shrinking violet Queen Viv is not

Which is how we found ourselves in her car driving at what seemed like warp speed with Queen Viv at the wheel.  I had already stalked the menu online and from all reports the food was delicious and good value so I wasn’t in the slightest bit worried about Queen Viv’s foreboding text.

There are all of the usual items on the Japanese menu but what really caught our eye was the page with the sushi specials. With items like the aforementioned sashimi tacos as well as 3 way salmon, tempura sushi and scallops, hi -ha rolls and pari pari chicken. “Let’s try the weird stuff” Queen Viv said and Miss America agreed and they reminded me of why I enjoy dining with them so much. The only criticism that I had read of Toshiya was that dishes seem to come out with gaps between them but that to me isn’t a problem as we share everything. There are also add ons like Hon Wasabi (freshly grated real wasabi) and their home made soy sauce.

Sashimi tacos $13 for two

The salmon sashimi tacos came in a deep fried gyoza wrapper curved around like a taco and filled with diced, marinated salmon sashimi. I find that there’s a bit too much dressing in there and it makes the taco shell a bit wet if you waited much longer and I actually prefer the sashimi outside of the shell but Queen Viv and Miss America love it and Queen Viv rescinds and literally eats her earlier words.

Wakame salad $7.50

The wakame salad comes out in a  beautiful bowl and features seasoned wakame salad, salad leaves, tomato and red onion with a home made sesame dressing. There is also some dried, shredded laver seaweed on top which provides a nice contrast.

Tempura sushi?! and scallops (6pieces) $15

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“I want to order the betel leaves, the quail’s eggs and let’s see the wagyu, the fish and the pork belly and let’s also get the whole snapper too” I declare to Mr NQN.

“Is that all? I think you left off one dish” Mr NQN says raising an eyebrow.

“Well we’ll order that too” I say, purposely ignoring his sarcasm. “Have we only just met honey? You know I always want to order everything!”

When one turns up inadvertently early to a restaurant one has little choice but to take a good look at the menu and tick off the menu choices that they want in the hopes that their dining companions want to do the same. We were in luck, Louise and Viggo having dined here before have already honed in on the same things and because of this ordering is done without fuss and within minutes. Tapioca is the newest Thai restaurant in the Cremorne stretch of Military Road. With chefs from Sailors Thai it has become a fast, solid favourite with locals.

Deep fried quail egg and minced prawns wrapped in egg noodle served with tamarind sauce (3 pcs) $14

The deep fried quail’s eggs come out halved so you get six pieces in total although the menu says that there are three pieces. They’re coated in a prawn mince and then rolled in crunchy egg noodles and served with a sweet tamarind sauce which gives it a sweet and sour aspect. They’re addictive with the crunchiness and sweetness and the prawn mince is juicy and packed full of herbs and flavour.

Smoked trout, roasted coconut, peanuts, chilli, lime, ginger and caramel sauce served on betel leaves (4 pcs) (v) $18

The betel leaves are a favourite of practically every one that has visited here. And we can see why. They come out topped with roasted coconut, peanuts and large flakes of smoked trout. On top is a sweet chilli, lime and ginger sauce which runs down hands when you pick up the betel leaves but it’s so lovely and crunchy and zings with flavour that you simply lick your hand clean.

Crispy wafer stuffed with prawn, turmeric, coconut and kaffir lime leaves (4 pcs) $16

The crispy wafers are filled with prawns, turmeric, coconut and kaffir lime leaves and have a fresh quality to them along with a crispy thin wafer and are terrifically moreish if somewhat messy to eat.

Crispy pork belly in a sweet and sour spicy sauce $25

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I started off the sentence “Well my agent recommended this to me…” before trailing off and realising how terribly affected that sounded. Surely starting off a sentence proclaiming that you have an agent is similar just the precursor to speaking about yourself in the third person for example “Lorraine is hungry now. Please bring Lorraine something to eat chop chop!”

But in this case it’s true (the agent recommendation, not the affectedness). You know I’m lucky enough to have people around me and readers that recommend places to me and it is true that my literary agent who lives in Mosman sent me an email one day recommending that I visit Hawthorn in no uncertain terms.

In the olden days, in a past career, I managed a designer shoe store in Mosman just up the road from Hawthorn. We put all of the nicest, most expensive shoes in the window and none of them sold. The thing about Mosman is that it is very family focused and many people there have a mortgage and expensive cars that need paying off so once we figured this out, we put in the sale shoes in the window and they sold much better.

So what’s my point? Well whilst the prices at Hawthorn seem very reasonable for an area such as Mosman, it also probably helps ensure its success. When we walk in towards the end of the lunch at 1:35pm the place is full with only two tables free. Only four weeks old it is full of ladies that lunch. Opened by the former general manager from Jonah’s in Whale Beach along with many of their staff (including George Francisco who is the consulting chef here) according to my agent (there I go again, sorry!) it has been busy every day for breakfast that she was walked past.

It’s set in a building and as a former Mosman resident I am having some trouble remembering what was there. Built in 1901 it became a dental surgery in 1950 (and apparently causes some residents some distress when they visit the tiled bar-no doubt bad memories!) the owners seeing how the street was being developed intentionally had the building heritage listed to avoid the same happening to their building. The interior now is designed by owner Sean’s brother who owns Coco Republic so that it looks like a home-well perhaps not my home but the home of someone that has very good taste.

Oysters with fire ice $4 each

We’re trying a few different things so they put together a share platter for us. The fire ice oysters are Sydney rock oysters with a granita of chilli on top. The granita melts quickly as it’s just a little dab so move fast if you want to experience the fire ice sensation, as it was the photo taking meant that it had melted by the time I got to them. The chilli was a sweet and spicy lift to the fresh Sydney rock oysters.

Salad of sautéed prawns, green papaya, purple basil, Vietnamese mint with nahm jin and Tempura ricotta filled zucchini flowers with a basil pesto platter $30

My favourite item from this plate were the zucchini flowers, which are admittedly omnipresent across many menus but these ones are plump and stuffed with a cheesy slightly sweet filling punctuated with the light crunch of pine nuts and sweetness of currants with an earth shattering batter outside. The prawns with nam jinh are fresh and well cooked and served alongside a green papaya salad with plenty of Thai basil leaves.

Halloumi, Semolina flash fried Hawkesbury River Calamari with Cajun remoulade and chorizo platter $30

We’re all halloumi freaks here and so a couple of halloumi dishes were ordered. The first one was the second platter where the halloumi was salty but quite thin and uneven in thickness. I like the halloumi pieces to be fatter to get that lovely squeak so I wasn’t as taken with the halloumi on this dish. The chorizo, always a crowd pleaser was generously portioned and garlicky but my favourite was the semolina crusted squid which had a gorgeous crunch and tenderness to it and was paired with a thick creamy spicy cajun mayonnaise. I’m sorry Marie Claire and Emma if I ate more than my share of this-truly!  ;)

Fish of the Day, sautéed zucchini flowers, baby capers, wilted spinach, blood orange sauce $26

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