Is Donburi is located on William Street, right next to Jus Burger and just around the corner from Superstar Waffles (my favourite waffles place!). My friend suggested dining here as we could not get a booking at Nine Fine Food (this is for a Saturday night). I walked in and realised it is quite a different establishment. Very casual! We were probably overdressed as we were heading to a bar later to support a friend’s gig. Oh wells! One thing to note is that there is minimal air conditioning in this place. No good at all on a hot summer’s night. Needless to say I was sweating like a pig! Amidst this though, I looked around and thought, quite a funky looking restaurant!

The menu is quite extensive with assorted entree, sushi, rolls, mains, salads. We were excited with the food variety! We had:

• Salt & pepper calamari ring ($7.50) with garden salad and sweet chilli sauce – nice and crunchy!

• Takoyaki ball ($7.50) – one of the better ones I’d eaten in Perth, they were not too doughy and came with mayo and special Japanese BBQ sauce.

• Scallop Shell ($7.50) with vinegar rice, salmon, cheese, scallop & chef’s special sauce – this tasted like seafood risotto in a shell. Very delicious…but un-Japanese like.

• Tuna Tataki ($10.50) / Beef Tataki ($10.50) with mixed salad and yuzu-ponzu dressing – I really like these especially the Tuna Tataki. Fresh on the inside, meaty and seared faintly around the ages to seal the taste. Love the salad that came with it as well, the yummy Japanese seaweed and fried grated carrot!

• Soft Shell Crab ($10) with green salad and ponzu sauce – I didn’t quite like this dish, the crab was big in size but did not taste fresh, there was more batter than the meat itself.

• Teriyaki Chicken Caesar Salad ($11.50) – love the succulent chicken, and there were lots of them in this dish. Didn’t taste much like a caesar salad though. Love the way the eggs were cut and yay more seaweed salad.

• Dancing Crab Roll ($15.50) with soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, pineapple, fish roe, crunch sweet potato, balsamic reduction
• Dragon Roll ($16.50) – block cream cheese, cucumber, grilled eel, pickled ginger and dried fish flakes

The rolls were the least of my favorite dishes that night. The soft shell crab in the Dancing Crab Roll was too soggy and the rice was too sticky as well. I wasn’t fond of the cream cheese in the Dragon Roll either.

• Chicken & Avocado sushi ($13.50) – this simple combination turned out surprisingly nice with fried chicken strips wrapped with avocado placed on sushi rice block. Nice!

Check out the amount of wasabi they gave for each sushi dish! With each bite, a tear rolled down my face :P

Overall it was an enjoyable meal especially with the dishes from the entrees section (everything posted here except for the sushi and salad). I also love how they have so many varieties of veggies in the salad! The plates were full with all these extras. Service was very casual but I did not expect much in this setting.

My colleague told me today that this is his favorite Japanese restaurant at the moment and and had recommended me to order the fried eel! Apparently that’s the best dish there! Hmm I must go back to try it!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Rating by: N.L.

Is Donburi William Street
Telephone: 9328 2621
Address: 10/189 William Street, Northbridge