monkey magic

Pawpaw and I have been wanting to go to Monkey Magic in Surry Hills for the longest time. For me, I was purely attracted by the name. Not knowing what to expect, I was surprised by how trendy the whole set-up was (fortunately I bothered to wear a nice purple dress hence I wasn't too shabby for the place) and yet not too pretentious. We got a private corner by a window away from the central long bench where groups of more than four shared their dining experience so we could have a decent chat over dinner.

Monkey Magic serves up a Japanese fusion menu that is rather interesting. We ordered the following dishes, all of which were very pleasing to my palate and not too damaging on the pocket:

1. KUSHI AGE - assorted crumbed skewers of prawn, scallop and assorted vegetables
2. BONITO TATAKI - blowtorched bonito carpaccio with ponzu, garlic oil, salsa verde, pickled cucumber
3. Large assorted SASHIMI
4. Some kind of a seafood HOT POT
5. NINKI ICHI SAKE - from Fukushima, Japan

The total bill only came to about $140 which is really worth the money considering the rather generous portions and that about $50 was for the 2 large bottles of sake.

I left the restaurant with a full belly, warmed by the sake, and very impressed by the service.