Kuon Surry Hills Review 18-Course Omakase Experience

Kuon is a hidden away, exclusive Japanese restaurant that offers omakase for up to 14 diners per night. Diners sit at the counter and try a range of dishes selected by the chef. With 1 chef's hat for the past 4 years it is down a little laneway in Surry Hills.

Kuon means forever or timeless and the restaurant first opened in June 2020 (yes that 2020!). I remember trying to book in for the first few weeks and not getting in as eager people snapped up seats. And in a city as fickle as Sydney, being open for 6 years is an achievement, especially as they offer one thing: an 18 course omakase dinner for $280 a person.

The chef and owner Hideaki Fukada introduces himself as Aki. And it's him that opens the large door to welcome guests in. The restaurant is divided in two sections, the back table for the first seating at 5:30pm and the second for the second seating at 7:45pm. Each seating of 18 courses runs for 2 hours.

There are two staff at the restaurant, Aki and his sous chef. Chef Aki has been a chef for 41 years first starting at his grandparents' restaurant in Yokohama to earn money for comic books. He arrived in Australia in 2000 for the Olympics to watch the Japanese baseball team play and ended up staying and working at places like Toriciya. He now has a family here.

Mr NQN and I take a seat at the sleek black kitchen counter and the other party arrive and we can get started. We watch Chef Aki prepare our first bite of sakizuke or small appetiser. It's a square or darkly toasted shokupan topped with raw scallop, a sweet raw prawn, Iranian caviar and raw nori on top. It's a fresh, silky textured bite with lots of textural sensation to it.

"Do you eat uni?" Chef Aki checks. He explains that some people don't like the taste of uni or sea urchin but everyone eats it here. The chawanmushi is next and it has a beautiful range of textures from the plump firefly squid and chewy mochi. The prize is the mouthful of grilled eel. Chef Aki explains, "The firefly squid is tiny but don't feel guilty, it's fully mature!".

They bring out a live lobster and he explains that it is an East Coast lobster caught between Newcastle and Nelson bay. They make sashimi out of this. I've only had lobster sashimi once before and disliked it but they cut it well and pair it with sea grapes from Western Australia and wasabi from Japan ("A hundred percent wasabi, no horseradish!" says Chef Aki). Each bite has a gentle pop of sea grapes and jellied texture of lobster sashimi.

The next course is the Hassan course, a traditional seasonal food course in Japanese kaiseki which is an assorted seasonal platter. It comprises 5 items: oyster and shiitake mushroom cooked in olive oil with anchovy and garlic. There is a fillet of cured black cod with pickled yuzu daikon as well as bluefin tuna with white miso with lemon juice and mustard and lemon zest. The fourth bowl holds baby abalone slow cooked for 4 hours with abalone liver and the final bowl features micro tomatoes with tiger prawns and asparagus with a kimizu sauce similar to a hollandaise. All of the bowls are delicious and it's hard to pick a favourite but perhaps it's the tuna with the lemon juice miso. I also really enjoy the sweet tomatoes and prawn and the sweet salty tender abalone or the gutsy garlicky oyster and mushrooms.

The next course is the yakomono A5 striploin Furano from Hokkaido where the cattle feed on tea leaves. This is with a divine slice of crispy edged Benikaruka sweet potato from Ibaraki prefecture and a sweet glazed yellow carrot. The wagyu is incredible and unctuous and the sweet potato is a revelation. I whisper to Mr NQN that I'd love him to grow some of these in our garden as they're so intensely sweet. Chef Aki explains that it is cooked in the oven and then pan fried in oil to achieve that caramelised crispness.

After the wagyu he gives us a small bowl of Mozuku seaweed which is a palate cleanser served after wagyu. This slippery seaweed has a vermicelli like texture and the strong ginger flavour resets the palate for the omakase sushi to come.

There are 10 varieties of sushi, each made by Chef Aki in front of us. He uses rice from his friend's rice shop which is a blend of sasanishiki rice from Miyagi and Nanatsuboshi rice from Hokkaido that is sent over to him every month. We start with the cuttlefish -normally I don't really enjoy cuttlefish sushi but Chef Aki explains that he really loves the cuttlefish from Coffs Harbour that is sweet and creamy and he's right, it's very tender and not chewy at all.

This is followed by my favourite nigiri the kamotoro, a creamy textured tuna from the jowl of the tuna from New Zealand with a fine brush of soy sauce on top.

Next is the Bass grouper, a firm fish with salt sprinkled on top of the rice.

The next nigiri is king Salmon from New Zealand which is dry ageing in the fridge at the front of the restaurant. It is dry aged for 3 weeks. Chef Aki quips, "No problems with the salmon I ate at 5 o'clock I'm ok!". He marinates the salmon in soy and bonito flakes to create salmon zuke.

Up next is the Imperador also called golden eye snapper in the US or kinmedai in Japan. This one comes from New Zealand and he places a piece of the prized "Engawa" on top. Engawa is the meat near the fin that is always moving so it has a different texture. This is another one of my favourite sushi for the contrast in texture.

Chef Aki explains that today's Uni is a short spine sea urchin from Victoria that he likes because it is so creamy. And he's right, this has a subtle savoury characteristic and is more creamy and less strong than other uni.

Next is the tuna belly or Otoro from New Zealand with fat stripes down each piece of tuna. It's a luxuriously fatty bite.

We are on sushi #7 and it's a vinegared mackerel from Ulladulla that he has salted and then marinated with rice vinegar and topped with a sheet of kelp in sweet vinegar. I developed an appreciation for Saba when living in Japan and its sweet vinegar flavour.

The second last sushi is the Western Australian raw scampi that are tinier than other scampi although it is also wild caught. He garnishes this with finely grated bottarga.

And to finish is a square of sweet egg omelette, hot from the oven!

It's time for miso soup and this might just be the best miso soup I have tried (and it's quite different in flavour to most miso soups). It has tiny brown capped nameko mushrooms, spring onion and lobster legs from the sashimi course.

And dessert is a castella style of sponge with chestnut cream squiggles on top. This is paired with a macadamia crumble which is such a clever pairing to give the dessert a crunchiness and texture. This is served with a cup of caffeine free Burdock root tea.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you eat uni or sea urchin?