Sanco Degustation (Fremantle)

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Before reading ❗️

The details 📝

We've covered Sanco Japanese Dining in an earlier version of Ate It & Rate It. Sanco offers an unadulterated interpretation of Japanese dining. Flavours are true to more traditional flavours rather than swaying towards contemporary tastes which are all the rage.

The small restaurant is run by husband and wife team - Ken-san and Tomo-san. Ken-san runs the kitchen and comes from a lineage of sushi chefs from Kobe, Japan, while Tomo-san manages the front of house. It's not Ken-san and Tomo-san's first dive into hospitality as they've previously operated a restaurant in Gold Coast before migrating to Perth to help set-up the well regarded James Parker. The duo opened Sanco in mid-2021.

As of June 2022, Sanco are currently offering an omakase (Japanese degustation) on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Three different omakase starting from $55pp are available and change with the seasons and availability of fresh ingredients. Each menu is named after flowers and fruit you'll find in Japan:

• Sakura - cherry blossom
• Momo - peach
• Fuji - wisteria.

Note that you must specify your choice of menu when booking. One day of advance notice is required for the Fuji menu.

Fuji

The Fuji menu was our choice of omakase for the evening. It was a no brainer to fork out the extra $10 on-top of the $70pp Momo menu, for chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg), roasted & braised duck and Sanco's giant and fluffy serve of tempura.

Perhaps the most memorable dish for us was the Sanco's tapas plate. The tapas plate set the bar high and offered 9 different dishes. Our stomachs were already starting to feel full given the amount of spread this plate offered!

We can't exactly remember all the dishes we had as it differed slightly to what was on the menu.

Sanco tapas plate (subject to change based on ingredients):

• Pumpkin nanban (fried & marinated pumpkin)
• Fresh oyster with tobiko, shallot & citrus dressing
• Grilled snapper (marinated with sake and grilled)
• Stewed bluefin tuna with daikon
• Umani octopus (simmered octopus)
• Omelette

The sashimi came next. It was all superbly fresh. Our favourites were the fatty toro / chutoro, ebi and sweet hotate.

Next for the night was a roasted and braised duck, served in a chilled glass.

Silky chawanmushi was served next. Plentifully packed with ingredients.

The last before the mains was the tempura. By the time the tempura came out, most of us were pretty full already! The batter was light and fluffy.

A choice between five mains are available. We opted for the combination nigiri, seared salmon and grilled eel.

The nigiri was a no brainer to order, given Ken-san's experience as a sushi chef. You'll find a hint of wasabi with each piece of nigiri. Don't be afraid to to use your hands (100% acceptable when eating sushi) and be sure to use the radish to cleanse your palate between each bite.

Look at those delicate score marks! Incredible knife skills.

Paige opted for a delicious bowl of seared "aburi" salmon, beautifully garnished with ikura (fish roe) and negi.

Our friend opted for grilled eel, otherwise known as unagi.

We finished with their homemade ice-cream with taiyaki (fish shaped pancake with waffle inside). Taiyaki is named after "tai", red sea bream while "yaki" means to bake or grill. We loved the contrast between the cold, slightly salty soy sauce flavoured ice-cream and the warm, sweet red bean in the taiyaki.

Having tried a number of omakase in Perth over the years (Nobu, KiRi, Ichirin, Dining Akashi, Marumo, Egawa-An and Kokucho), this one has rated highly. You won't find crazy A5 wagyu or a crazy piece of toro topped with uni and caviar, given the coin you pay, but you will find well executed food at a great price point.

Before visiting 🚙