Miso Happy - Sanpo, Rosebery

Don't let the simple decor on the outside or the odd font lettering put you off. Sanpo in Rosebery is a tasty, local Japanese restaurant serving up delicious versions of all of your favourites.

I have to admit that we've driven past Sanpo countless times always meaning to go in. But I had a font problem. Yes you see sometimes I judge a place on their font and Sanpo's is weird at best. Then Ivy told me that it is her favourite local Japanese place and that she and Ryan go there all the time.

It's a cold and windy Friday lunch when Ivy and I arrive at Sanpo and open the door. Inside it's welcoming and cozy and every single table is taken with people having Friday lunch (tip: come at 1:30 on Fridays and they'll all have left by then).

We wait for the office and high viz workers to eat and nab a table. In the meantime while we are waiting they give us our menus and take our order so that everything is waiting for us when we sit down. I tell Ivy to order what her and Ryan's favourite dishes are. Service is very friendly and lovely.

First off are the drinks-a green tea apple drink for me which is refreshing but is also super sweet. The yuzu lemonade is the pick of the two and is Ivy's perennial order. It's refreshing and perfectly sweet.

Truthfully I can take or leave a lot of miso soup. It tends to be overly salty to me but the miso soup here has much more flavour to it than a standard one. It tastes more well rounded and warms us up perfectly too.

Oh my, I love a good prawn tempura and this one is excellent. With large succulent prawns and a crispy, crunchy coating I dip this in the sauce provided as well as mayo (Yes I'm that person that can't live without mayo). And even though I mean to only have one, I eat two. I'll work that off later.

We share a small sushi and sashimi and the sashimi is salmon, tuna and kingfish while there are two aburi or torched salmon and snapper nigiri and a raw tuna and salmon nigiri. The sushi is freshly made and made well.

My kingdom for karaage chicken. All it needs is a squeeze of lemon and a dab in mayo with some togarashi. The karaage chicken has an excellent flavour to it and is crisp and hot.

When you love deep fried food as much as we do, you need to order salad to balance things. The seaweed salad is a bowl of mixed leaves with a wafu dressing and a centre of seaweed salad.

The last to arrive (and things are best shared because items do arrive at different times) is the agedashi tofu. As Ivy points out, usually the agedashi tofu seasoning sauce is fine but not incredible but this one you can just drink with a spoon. It comes as four soft pillow of tofu in a tasty sauce.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever judged a restaurant based on something like a font?

This meal was independently paid for.

Sanpo

304/5-9 Rothschild Ave, Rosebery NSW 2018
Wednesday to Friday 5–9pm
Saturday & Sunday 11:30am–9pm
Monday & Tuesday Closed
sanporestaurant.com.au
Phone: (02) 8541 5867