New ‘sushi’ spot offers bargain $35 omakase experience just off Newtown’s meat-free mile

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There are no fins or fishtails in the kitchen at Kimusabi in Newtown. Sure, the restaurant specialises in sushi, but everything plated is entirely vegan.

Playing with the palette (and palate) of the sea – like the light blush of raw kingfish or sunset-orange intensity of salmon – doesn’t seem an obvious direction for a plant-based menu. But for executive chef Peter Varvaressos, it’s a way to reinvent something he loves. “Before I became a vegan, sushi was one of my favourite cuisines,” he says.

Switching to a fish-free diet meant he was soon bored of the few choices he could try. “There are only so many avocado and cucumber rolls that you can eat.”

So Kimusabi, which officially opened in January, reimagines raw fish and rice in vegan-friendly ways. With outdoor seating on ever-busy Enmore Road and walls splashed with hyper-bright, genre-mashing murals, it’s not aiming for the high-end reverence of sushi temples, where perfume is banned and diners sit hushed at a counter carved from centuries-old hinoki cypress.

The edamame guacamole on Kimusabi’s menu won’t win over purists, but it has the welcome citrus zing of yuzu and is served with snackable rice and black sesame crackers – “essentially a Japanese interpretation of a tortilla”, the chef explains.

They’re a link to another nearby plant-based venue he oversees (Vandal taqueria on King Street’s vegan mile) and reflect the multicultural ways Newtown restaurateurs have regenerated traditional dishes for diners with dietary restrictions, from the faux pho at Golden Lotus to the meatless Greek wraps at I Should Be Souvlaki. So a sushi restaurant that skips seafood is in keeping with the neighbourhood’s vegan-friendly status.

Kimusabi draws on many Japanese flavours to amp up its menu: “salmon” nigiri is placed in a miso bath with soy and citrus to evoke the fattiness of traditional salmon. It’s served with chilli citrus pearls and the nose-clearing tang of wasabi creme. This plant-based seafood is made like the “kingfish” splashed with citrus ponzu: the colour comes from beta-carotene and its slippery texture is mainly water.

What really sells the nautical sensation, though, is the briney “fish skin” on the plate: rice paper dunked into ocean-flavoured water, attached to seaweed, crisped in the deep fryer, then seasoned for a salty crunch.

There’s also “squid” nigiri shaped from jellylike konjac (the Asian root vegetable with the most punk-rock alternative names: devil’s tongue and snake palm), steeped in chilli, ginger and yuzu juice. Extra flourishes, such as shiso herbs and tempura crumbs scooped from the fryer, level things up.

Kimusabi serves everything from Okinawan doughnuts to winter-friendly korokke (croquettes) with miso butter and shishito peppers. The latter repurposes leftover parsnips from Greens, the neighbouring vegan supermarket Varvaressos co-founded with Sophia Stewart-Kasimba.

The korokke is filled with the mashed vegetable, then presented on a swoosh of parsnip puree. It reflects the sustainable connection between the venues: Kimusabi features specials made with imperfect produce or excess goods from its sister supermarket. Perhaps this keeps the pricetag accessible, too. Kimusabi’s $35 omakase experience, for instance, is a bargain for a tasting menu experience.

The menu’s inventive spins on dishes can sometimes take getting used to: when Kimusabi riffs into yakitori territory with the charcoal flavour of “hemp chicken”, I wonder if skewered king oyster mushrooms – left to smoke and blister over a grill – might better capture the sensation of this Japanese cooking tradition?

Let’s see how Kimusabi’s experiments with firepower evolve when it opens its 12-seater chef’s table centred on teppanyaki and robata grills soon.

Sushi originated centuries ago as a way to preserve fish and the rice was initially thrown out. The dish has shapeshifted throughout Japan (in landlocked Nara, it’s wrapped in persimmon leaves as Emiko Davies explains in her Gohan book). At Kimusabi, this ever-changing dish has been adapted by a vegan chef once in the sushi fan club.

Like nearby Japanese cafe Comeco Foods, which sells vegan rolls flavoured with eggplant miso and pumpkin tempura on weekends, it takes an inclusive approach to everyone’s dietary circumstances – and goes well beyond the nori-wrapped avocado and cucumber seen everywhere.