Satsuma, The Mandarin Club
Editorial
Satsuma Japanese Restaurant brings a touch of Nippon to the Chinese focus of the Mandarin Club. Steer your appetite through the doors and up the stairs to level five, where you’ll find a refuge of simple Japanese fare and aesthetic design. Elegantly dressed in dark wood and low lighting, bunches of orange lanterns and carved lamps hang from the ceiling, fusing East and West both in the setting and on the plate. Glass windows form moving portraits of the Chinatown and Darling Harbour bustle outside. Opened in November 2008, Koi trades seven nights a week. The quietly humming space fills with guests who are happy to linger and soak up the welcoming atmosphere.
Satsuma’s ever-accommodating manager Jun talks guests through the extensive menu and daily specials, which often feature innovative seafood dishes sourced from the Fish Markets that very morning. Take a table or pull up to the bar and watch the chefs perform their artistry while musing over Satsuma’s izakaya offerings. Perhaps a drop of sake or the fragrant lychee and ginger saketini cocktail will ease the mind into a decision. Head chef Atsushi Nishibuchi fuses traditional Japanese techniques with modern flourishes to create a collation of bites designed to be shared. Share the love with spicy soft-shell crab and grilled duck fillet, eggplant and a sweet miso paste. Satsuma’s green papaya and prawn salad takes cues from the traditional Thai dish and recreates it with a Japanese flourish. Delicately soft teppan tuna belly marinated in garlic ponzu sauce is a satisfying main, or carve into the popular Wagyu beef steak with a marble score of +9. Nibble on traditional sashimi dotted with soy and wasabi or experiment with Atsushi’s imaginative “new style” sashimi, in which a delicate foam balances upon salmon, tuna, Crystal Bay prawns, octopus or cuttlefish.
Lauren Barker, February 2009
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