Mr Munchies Sushi - Mt Lawley

Mr Munchies isn’t the first name I think of when I want fresh Sushi…but maybe that’s about to change…

An ‘Our Deal’ online voucher we purchased gave us the opportunity to try the newest member to the Mt Lawley restaurant strip on Beaufort Street – Mr Munchies Sushi.

We paid $25 to have anything on the menu (minus the sashimi) for up to the value of $50.

For me, this meant eating as much as I normally do - a lot -for the cost of a normal person. So I was a happy camper!

Mr Munchies is the first Sushi establishment in Australia to offer customers a chance to customise their sushi – build your own from scratch!

1.    You choose either sushi roll or a salad

2.    Pick your base: Chicken/beef/pork/salmon/tuna/other seafood

3.    Stuffing (up to 3)

4.    Toppings

5.    Sauce

As appealing as this process was, we were too tempted to try the already made combinations on offer (I’ll have to come back another time and make my own!).

A small roll is four pieces of sushi (priced from around $8-$10) and a large roll is eight pieces of sushi ( priced from $13.50-$18.50).

Chatting to the friendly co-owners of Mr Munchies – Ricky and Henry, I was told they want to try offer freshly made sushi for prices more affordable than the popular Aisuru Sushi in Northbridge who they are in direct competition with. They assured me they pride themselves in only using fresh ingredients. I could definitely tell the quality was there when the sushi rice was still warm upon arriving at my table.

Henry and Ricky were so keen to chat and make a good impression which was nice to see as the service throughout our meal was also fantastic.

We ordered the Seafood salad and Squid Salad:

Squid Salad $5.50

This salad I would order again in a heart beat! I loved the fresh squid, spiced and tossed through seaweed and spring onions. For $5.50 this was a lovely side dish to add to our meal.

Seafood Salad $9.50:

To be honest, this wasn’t the best value for money I hoped for. I think it was because I was comparing it to a wonderfully generous seafood salad I had at ‘Is Donburi’ on William Street just a few days earlier which gave me a huge amount of seafood in a wonderfully fresh salad. These small bits of sashimi were sitting on a huge bed of rice and I chose the teriyaki sauce to accompany it. Whilst the salad mentioned “cherry tomatoes” I had one baby cherry tomato sliced in half….I feel this was a little underwhelming and not worth adding “cherry tomatoes” to the menu description… The sashimi on the rice was however very fresh.

Small Chicken Lover roll $9.00:

Grilled Teriyaki chicken, avocado, tamagoyaki, topped with mayo, spring onion, and chopped karaage, served with sliced lemon.

The chicken was cooked so superbly that it still held its moist texture and was wonderfully fresh. The teriyaki flavour was not hugely pronounced, however this did not matter as the roll was a delight to eat.

Large Seafood roll $18.50:

Fresh salmon slices, steamed prawn, cucumber, topped with fresh tuna flakes, and served with double sauce (wasabi aioli and chilli mayo).

Beautifully fresh seafood in a roll that had been made minutes before sitting on my plate! I loved the fact that it had a chilli mayo on top as there is nothing I love more than seafood and chilli!

Small Mr Munchies Roll $9.00:

Tiger prawn fritters with crabsticks, avocado, tamagoyaki, topped with chilli mayo.

Mr Munchies Roll

I also tried a piece of the Mango Chicken sushi which was a special on the night – this was chicken and prawn fritters in a sushi roll with sweet chilli and coriander, topped with mango. So delicious and fresh – they used real mango pieces which I was quite impressed by! I love that Thai-inspired combination of chilli, coriander and mango! The chicken as in the Chicken Lover roll was also wonderfully moist and fresh.

Mango Chicken sushi

My friends had the Philadelphia roll which was smoked salmon, cream cheese, topped with black and white sesame seeds, with mayo and sweet chilli sauce.

If I wasn’t so full from all this wonderfully fresh Japanese I would have tried the Miso soup for only $2.50! I love a good Miso Soup and usually cannot pass it up, so I’m surprised I didn’t try it here. I think I was too busy catching up with good company!

Mr Munchies is located down the corridor from Grill’d Burgers on Beaufort Street – you don’t really know it’s there unless you are looking for it or stumble upon it on your way to the toilets.

The painting on the wall is a funky Astro Boy drawing which adds a youth feel to the sushi café. The décor is simple: wooden chairs and tables with wooden chopsticks on each table and the café is small and would seat around 25 people max.  

Sushi master in action preparing our sushi fresh!

I really hope this place does well! It’s an interesting concept to have a “build-your-own” sushi establishment and I hope Perth embraces this wonderfully fresh and affordable sushi café.

I wish Ricky and Henry all the best and I’ll definitely be back!

Mango Sticky Rice with Thai Custard

There is one dessert I will get every time if it’s on the menu no matter what.

No matter how full I am of three Thai curries, rice, stirfrys and appetisers - I will still get this dessert. Although simple as it is, it would have to be one of my favourite desserts.

Most people either do not love this dish or have no opinion on it. It’s not hugely sweet, nor is it something you really feel like after indulging on huge Thai curries and filling up your stomach with ever-expanding rice. However, I stand strong that this dessert is delicious.

Sweet Mango Sticky Rice.

Typically, it looks a lot like this:

I am luckily enough to have a Thai friend who upon request will make sticky rice and Thai custard for me if I give her a few days notice (you need to soak the rice overnight).

When I receive the bowl of sweet sticky rice; covered in coconut cream and the sweetness of palm sugar, and the Thai custard; which is an unflatteringly grey/yellow colour, I portion out my servings in an attempt to make the goodness last as long as possible.

As the sticky rice and custard looks quite unappealing, I have restrained from photographing it and instead utilised the fantastic capabilities of the world-wide-web to showcase a much more presentable version which was most likely at a restaurant. You get the idea.

All in all, I encourage you to try this dessert when next faced with the opportunity at a Thai restaurant or otherwise. I’m not claiming it is rich and indulgent, chocolately or have any world-standing textural or flavour-compelling features.

I will however tell you it is delicious. And I am luckily enough to tell you I have some sitting in my fridge at the moment.

*had some sitting in my fridge thanks to my lovely Thai friend.