Review Hana Ju-rin - Crows Nest

I’ve been to many nice Japanese restaurants in Sydney, Kyoto and my hometown Shanghai in the past few years and I have to say this place is definitely one of the epic ones. The food is very fresh and the sauce just tastes… right! You can feel that the chef has put lots of effort into it. The only downside is that you might be sharing table with other people so it’s not the best place to go to if you want to have some private time.

I am glad this restaurant are still as good as many years ago. Authentic japanese food, good sashimi, remind me so much about travelling in japan. I wish i could have bigger apetite and longer dining hours to finish everything. We just order too much as i want to try every dish on menu. I would come back again.

Extremely delicious and authentic Japanese cuisine. Their lunch special is of really good value as well! We had the Chicken Nanban, Chirashi Sushi and Vege Tempura Sets, which were accompanied by sashimi and other entrees.

We came for a birthday celebration for my bestie. The food was amazing and the sashimi platter was a Surprising combination of the freshness. Highly recommend the Foie Gras&Wagyu Sushi and the Savoy Cabbage. However the one star deduction was for the service. The waitress just ignore us and do not have patience to introduce the menu. Was a bit disappointed. Overall, guys you can definitely come for the food but not the service.

One of the better Japanese restaurant experiences you'll have. Book a table and be on time because you're in for a journey and it requires pace and efficiency. Could not fault anything brought out. The quality is off the charts spectacular especially the cuts of sashimi. Next time I'll go straight to the udon soup and some yakitori on the side for a perfect winters night dinner.

This is the best sashimi I have had in Sydney. Their fish is imported freshly from New Zealand every day. Scampi was absolutely umami. I loved it so much. The blue fin tuna was fantastic. Highly recommended. Kings fish was amazing too. Skewers were okish Chicken skin was really good tho. The beef tongue was yummy too. Chicken thigh was a bit dry. Plumb wine was really good too. Ice cream wasn’t great tho. The decoration and vibes were really great.

For a genuine taste and vibe just like you'd get in Japan, this is a must try. The yakitori options include the more common favourites but also a few delicious ones straight from Japan like the chicken skin, chicken cartilage and ox tongue. The scallop in butter soy was something different and amazing!

When I visited this Japanese restaurant three years ago with my mother for mother's day dinner, the food quality and the staff's hospitality was superb, exceeding my expectations. Three years later, it still remained the same and so I'll come back to this place again in the future.

They are moving to Kings Cross end of the year... Crows Nest will surely miss you!

I can’t fault the food. The wagyu beef tongue was exceptional. But the service is extremely slow. 7pm reservation and took around ten minutes for the server to arrive and take our order. Our last order did not arrive until 8:11pm.

Seriously this is the best Japanese restaurant I ever had! The sushi are so great, so sweet and soft and fresh! Highly recommend! Staffs are super nice, had this dinner for 2 hours but the chef is so nice, didn’t feel boring in this 2 hours, and the food always came with big surprise, this dinner is $210 for two people but was totally worth it, we are super full! Will go again next time!

This one chef hat Japanese restaurant has a specially crafted beer Premium Malts. It feels ultra smooth with rich even foam and has a subtle aroma. This is definitely one of the the best quality beer I have had though I personally prefer a bit more stronger flavor. The food quality is guaranteed but I couldn't name my favorite. One thing put me off a bit is the seat covers which dont look pleasant to me.

Hana Jurin is one of the local gems in Crows Nest. I have been to the restaurant a few times with family and friends. Raw sashimi will always be my favourite at any Japanese restaurant. Thoroughly enjoyed the food at Hana Jurin.

Many mixed feelings over this restaurant. It subtlety blended into its surroundings, not uncommon for Japanese restaurants. Interior wasn’t flashy and clearly lacked investment. I would like to see more unique interior to differentiate itself from Korean owned Japanese restaurant. However, hospitality shown from the staff was a cut above.<br/><br/>Nigiri - fish were fresh and rice falls apart in the mouth but portion size were small, even smaller than ones in Japan. <br/><br/>Tuna collar - a large, rich and meaty grilled tuna collar. The dipping sauce was too salty.<br/><br/>

The food was delicious, a bit pricey, but justifiably so with the excellent service and the fantastic presentation of the dishes. This restaurant is known for its sushi and sashimi and would definitely recommend ordering it. We ordered the entree for sashimi and tempura and Avocado sushi roll. Both were delicious as the sashimi has the perfect texture and was very fresh and the sushi rolls were warm!! Which enhanced the flavour nicely. <br/><br/>If you ever decide to dine here would HIGHLY RECOMMEND ordering the DESSERT,despite its cost ~$14.80. It was the best dish of the night. The green tea flavoured crème brûlée (which I originally thought was an odd choice) was perfect, the top was crunchy and not overtly hard and had the perfect texture and the bottom had a very nice creamy, smooth texture, typical of a crème brûlée. The fruits beside was cut cutely into animals shapes and was delicious when eating with the ice cream (especially strawberry and vanilla ice cream) . <br/><br/>However, the Japanese wine we ordered was highly overpriced, a large bottle was $34 and it was very small. However, the cups served were tiny as well, typical of traditional Japanese alcohol, and matched well with the wine. <br/><br/>Overall, a well balanced restaurant with excellent service and delicious food, perfect for date night or just a nice family dinner out.

Despite HaNa Ju-Rin being a well-established Crows Nest restaurant, scoring a seat at their sushi bar still feels like an accomplishment. After all, you’re taking up one of just ten of the evening’s opportunities to place yourself in the capable hands of Tomoyuki Matsuya for his Omakase Sushi Course ($132/head). Occupying one of the best seats in the house, you will watch your meal unfold in flowing yet economical movements of this second-generation sushi master. Fat, lightly charred slices of Fremantle octopus are drizzled with truffle oil, and then dragged at will through tiny mounds of pepper and salt. The tender, meaty flesh helps to sate your initial hunger, while they get your drinks organised.For me that’s a bamboo tokkuri of Chiyomusubi Junmai Daiginjo ($15/180ml). Pretty and gentle, this sake is just the ticket to accompany our appetisers, which include a pot of Japanese plum jelly encasing fresh prawn and green chilli. The flash of Matsuya-san’s knives clues you in that lustrous fishes are next on your dining agenda. The 10-piece sashimi course introduces you to the day’s catch – tuna (and chutoro), snapper, trevally, imperador, alfonsino, bar cod, salmon, kingfish and mackerel - before they’re expanded upon in the...

Located in the very back of the restaurant behind a grill, bar and the ghosts of thousands of satsified diners, Tomoyuki Matsuya showcases his mastery of sushi on a daily basis. Opting for omakase (Japanese for “i’m in your hands”)  is the best way to experience his craft and that is exactly what the lovely annachaannn and I did.

Have always loved coming here! Beautiful Sushi & Sashimi with a wonderful Master at the counter. Teppanyaki is also good but the fantastic Edomame style sushi is the main attraction here. Often, there are also many fantastic off-menu daily specials which I also love. Service can be slow at times so make sure you are not in a rush. There have been a few times of late where sushi & sashimi has not been made available to customers seated at tables which makes the food offerings at the tables much more limited. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future so I can bring family and friends and enjoy all the wonderful food on offer.

I enjoyed good Japanese foods and service<br/>Not fake ones but this restaurant serves real Japanese foods<br/>Even though I went on noon on Sunday, all tables are filled with customers.<br/>Booking is recommended

Had high expectation with the chirashi bowl. I ordered chirashi bowl and my friends ordered tonkatsu don and okonomiyaki. I didnt really like the chirashi bowl, the sashimi was a bit fishy and the other seafood was dry. My friend said that there was too much ginger in the okonomiyaki.

GMV Eats - HaNa Ju Rin @ Crows Nest<br/> <br/>Just got off the plane and fancied a HaNa Ju Rin lunch bento box 🍱. The special Sakura mochi was not quite the same and Services were quite snappish. I think I will try the @ Restaurant across the street next time.

North Sydney is a place where quite a few quality and authentic Japanese restaurants gather. We went there on a weekend and everywhere was packed. So we waited till after 1300 and finally got bar seats here at HaNa Ju-Rin. It was lovely coz we can eat and watch the chef making his famous seafood rice at the same time. Dishes we like: Chirashi Sushi Set, Special Lunch Box...<br/><br/>Check out our blog for the food hunting video

Pretty good resto with a great chirashi bowl thats great value for money<br/><br/>The bowl takes a while to come out as does all the other food, dont think they have enough staff so wlhad to wait long periods of time for our food and to get service.<br/><br/>Salmon head is average, not that great imo and better alternatives <br/><br/>The beef was ok, not as marbly as i thought it was and a little disappointing considering its rated best beef in the world.<br/><br/>Overall a decent resto although slow service and price puts a damper on their rating

First thing i asked when seated was: is your black cod available? To my delight it was. Of course when chawanmushi is available too, i simply cant resist. Might as well get their kingfish carpaccio while i am at it 😃. <br/><br/>Carpaccio 3/5, fish was fresh though something about the dressing didnt quite sit well with me. Probably a little sweeter than i expected. <br/><br/>Chawanmushi 4.25/5, no huge indelicate chunks of chicken in here. Instead, it was seafood galore with roe and guess what, thinly sliced ladies fingers on top. The egg custard was properly hot (the way it should be), but in no way overcooked (not too firm) and with enough broth to make every slurp a truly enjoyable experience. The addition of lady finger actually worked well with the chawanmushi. <br/><br/>Grilled black cod 4/5, actually came out smelling real fishy😧. How else is codfish gonna smell..? Not the best of the best, still hit the spot as it was well marinated, cooked almost just right (wee bit over), served simply to highlight the goodness that one gets from codfish 😉. <br/><br/>A defo return.

15 pieces of sushi and four hours later, we were done. It’s not a short meal, but that’s the point. Hana Ju-Rin’s omakase is yet another great discovery that adds to Sydney’s Japanese scene, and one more reason to hop over the bridge. With that said, it’s not without its faults – the smell of the close-by teppanyaki is difficult to forgive, and sometimes the pieces just take a wee bit too long to come out. All in all though, for $88 (+$20), I can’t think of many better ways to spend $88 and a Friday night.

In a supreme display of patience, the karasumi, or dried mullet roe, is made in-house by Chef Tomoyuki Matsuya. The process takes 31 days to salt, dry and shape with a brief 12 hour bath in Japanese sake. The Italian version of this mullet roe is called bottarga.<br/><br/>The gentle saltiness of the karasumi works so well against the smoky sweetness of the blowtorched scampi.

Best Japanese in Sydney by a mile. Freshest sashimi and the teppanyaki chef cooked up an incredible Wagyu streak. Love the Japanese beers available and the service is faultless. A++++

Black Cod - 西京烧澳洲黑鳕鱼, 老石的推荐

Tried their Chirashi sushi lunch set ($21.80). The Chirashi contained fresh bite-sized mixed sashimi on bowl of sushi rice, served with miso soup and dessert. As it was my first time trying the dish, the waitress went through all the items in the rice bowl, which was nice. The tamago sponge was awesome - light and fluffy. <br/><br/>The only downside was the dessert, which was a scoop of vanilla ice cream... but had been frozen rock hard so I had to wait for it to defrost in order to eat it.

Me and the boy were brainstorming for double date locations around the Crows Nest area when our friend suggested a constituent Japanese restaurant, Hana Ju-Rin. We jumped at the suggestion, the restaurant being somewhere we’ve driven past a million times without actually going in. When we arrived to our booking, we were swiftly seated in a simply presented restaurant, right next to the teppanyaki ‘stand’. There is also a bar area for sushi fans to watch the masters at work. We opted to share a variety of dishes per couple, and was there was definitely a wide array of dishes available from sashimi to carbohydrate heavy dishes like fried rice.

Had dinner one night here.. The chef tomoya was fun and friendly. We were sitting at the sushi bar. The food take a little bit long to come out, but that's because the chef make sure we finish the the food first before we get to another food. We had omakase which is chef selection of sushi and sashimi. The scampi comes with miso soup..best scampi head miso ever!! My fav is tamago, the last dish that balances everything. Just perfect! Will come back soon to try teppanyaki!!

Yummy food. Great service. Bit pricey.<br/><br/>Having been to Japan where i had the best sushi of my life is a result of my high standards when it comes to sushi. The sushi here is ok. The wagyu beef was great. I loved the sauces it came with. We also ordered the okonomiyaki which was HEAVEN. <br/><br/>The menu online is outdated... There were more options in the restaurant. $80 all up. Restaurant was well decorated and staff were friendly and attentive.

I have eaten at almost every Japanese restaurant at crows nest, and this was by far the worst experience I have had. Such a disappointment, given the other reviews. Despite the restaurant only being 3/4 full, we waited 45 minutes for water to be brought to our table, an hour for food to arrive. It turns out they forgot our order, and were very unapologetic. Food was average for crows nest Japanese standards. Over priced. Please try any other restaurant!

Completely blown away. On an unassuming street, you'll find an unassuming door, behind that door is an unassuming sushi counter but once you sit down, prepare yourself! Possibly the best omakaze I've had in Sydney!

A truly excellent experience from a modest appearing restaurant front!!! Helpful staff, high quality authentic cuisine.... The beef tongue was amazing as was the salmon salad. Well priced for excellent quality

Good value lunch menu and fresh sushi / sashimi.<br/>Down side during our visit was there was camera crew filming , despite restaurant being half full, our sushi set took 40minutes to arrive.<br/>

{ _anne_with_an_e // review }<br/>Hana Ju-Rin is the place to go if you want quality Japanese. Their dishes are prepared with care and are always cooked perfectly. They use to serve the tastiest wagyu steak (one of the best I've had) in their lunch-sets before, but they'd unfortunately stop serving them a while ago now, which was my go-to dish.<br/><br/>However, any of the lunch-sets are great value for money for the quality you receive. The steamed egg custard is delicious and delicate. The service is always friendly, however I find that there's usually a wait for the dishes to arrive, as the lunch-sets are served staggered. I haven't tried any items outside of the lunchtime menus as it seems a little pricey.<br/><br/>Must haves // lunch sets, steamed egg custard<br/>Pros // quality dishes, friendly service<br/>Cons // usually a wait on meals, can get pricey<br/><br/>Food: 4/5<br/>Ambience: 4/5<br/>Service: 4/5

Good food!. Admittedly food here is a little expensive - around $50 a head including drinks. But the ingredients are high quality. Best dishes are the miso cod and the house "Siu mai" served in scallop shells - to die for!!

Not that cheap with these 4 plus one glass of wine coming to $82 but you could taste quality in everything.

Yakisoba omelette - This reminded me of omurice, but with fried noodles underneath the perfectly teppanyaki cooked omelette

Interview with Owner of Hana Ju-Rin Terry Nishiura

I’m not going to waste words. This is the best okonomiyaki I have tried in Sydney.

The first dish is straight off the teppan - a plate of grilled enoki, shimeji, oyster and king brown mushrooms with bean sprouts.

I'm gobsmacked!. I am gobsmacked by the unfavourable reviews of this restaurant. I've just taken my [39 year old] son here for his birthday [his choice] and enjoyed an excellent meal. Caveats: I am neither a food critic nor particularly enamoured of Japanese cuisine [well, I'm reconsidering after tonight].<br/>We had for starters the zucchini flower and barbequed [my term] king crab, the latter particularly succulent.<br/>Then tempura soft-shelled crab [fabulous] and tempura prawns [less memorable, but perfectly acceptable].<br/>My son had a delicately smoked miso soup, and we shared a spinach side dish, and rice.<br/>I was struck by the lightness of all the batters, and the nuanced flavours of both the main ingredients and the accompanying sauces [I'm afraid I cannot recall their names].<br/>After this experience I cannot wait to revisit and try dishes we had no room for tonight!<br/>It's licensed, but also BYO wine [$10 a bottle - I brought a bottle]<br/>It could not be called cheap [the above was $114 for two], but considering the quality of the food I thought it good value. How the food could be compared with the rubbery sushi etc. that you get from food halls [as one reviewer did] I simply cannot fathom. I'd recommend you try it out.

Good food but on the pricey end. Came here for dinner on a Saturday night with 2 other friends. While the food was pretty good, I don't think it was valued for money. There's a minimum spend of $30 per person. We ordered sushi a la carte and one of the sushi was a piece of king fish belly torched, when we got the bill, I was shocked to see that they charged $0.50 just to torch the sushi. Bad taste in my opinion if you have to include that as an extra rather than the price of a piece of sushi that cost $5.20. Other noticeably expensive dish was the zucchini flower tempura for $19.80 only had 3.5 pieces of half palm size zucchini flower. On the positive side, service was good, staff was attentive. The house-made fish cake was our fave. Would I come here again? Maybe only when I'm feeling extra rich.

Good quality Japanese. I like visiting Japanese restaurants where the patrons are predominantly Japanese. <br/>Tonight we visited Hana Ju-Rin where we ate excellent fresh sushi and sashimi, black miso cod and grilled seafood. The service was excellent - my food intolerences were cheerfully catered for - and we saw that most of the other patrons were Japanese. Two of these - businessmen, insisted we sample their excellent saki.<br/>We met the owner, Terry and also chattered with the sushi chef while he expertly prepared our meals. <br/>We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this restaurant.

Very over rated ordinary restaurant. Am Japanese and thus may be a bit picky when it comes to Japanese food but this place cant justify charging that much for poor quality of not only not very fresh sashimi and sushi they serve but also the service. Cant not recommend it to anyone.

Worse meal of 2013. This place serves the worst japanese food along the north shore. sashimi not sliced properly, still got skin attached. teppanyaki is hopeless with junior chef cooking the frozen seafood. (ordered the scallops and prawns) <br/><br/>I ordered the yaki soba and okonomiyaki cos it is the popular items. Boy, i could not finish the food cos it is simply not up to scratch. Yakisoba saturated with msg, and it is making me so thirsty.<br/><br/>Okonomiyaki should be renamed as cabbage cake as is simply heaps of cabbage and pathetic seafood and very little flour used at all. Not coming back to pay $75 for yucky food ever. :(

I am extremely disappointed with this Japanese restaurant. The 'Chef's Choice Assorted Sushi' cost $49.80 but was definitely not worth it - the choices were the same thing you can buy at a food court. Also, it was served without wasabi, which should be standard with a sushi platter.<br/><br/>The 'Grilled Salted Beef Tongue', one of the popular dishes here, was actually braised so the meat is very soft and not what you would expect from grilled beef tongue. The tiny amount mustard sauce served on the side is not nearly enough for the 3 thick pieces of meat.<br/><br/>The service is decent and the decor is good, but everything is overpriced and slightly disappointing. I will not visit here again and do not recommend it unless you enjoy paying too much for very small portions that are not what you expected.

Expensive and the quality --- umm i have had better. Much better

Whenever we feel like sushi and sashimi, Hana jurin would be the place the go. The omkase (chef selection) sushi and/or sashimi just surprises us every time we order. Sitting at the sushi counter, watching the chef demonstrate his skills are the best entertainment while waiting for food. You would need to be prepared to pay premium to receive premium quality of food! Their uni from TAS are the best, it was a shame they ran out of stock on our visit last night.

Food's nice. But quantities are pathetic for the price.