Everyone who has read my Aqua reviews (yes, I wrote two), knows how much I love Terry Zhou’s sushi. The restaurant itself may not have been run all that well, but you could never fault it on the quality, range and inventiveness of the sushi.
But then Aqua closed down. The night I found out I honestly felt a sense of loss – ‘kinda like when Spur stopped The Salad Valley. I loved Salad Valley.
Last week I got a message. A message that inspired such happiness, I could barely contain myself. TERRY IS WORKING AGAIN.
SushiBox. An ickle restaurant in Newlands, giving the peeps of the Southern suburbs an alternative to try out, and making the old favourites of the ‘burbs quake in their chef’s hats.
The owners are 3 brothers from Zimbabwe, none of whom have owned a restaurant before, but are passionate about feeding people and ultimately, making people happy. The menu is limited to the various types of sushi, oysters and edamame beans, but will be increased as they find their feet.
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To place an order, you are given the menu and the dishes you want, you tick. You then hand in your menu, which goes to the chef and it’s given back to you as a bill at the end of the evening. This, as well as the little boxes that the food is brought to you in, is a cute mechanic which makes the process flow easily.
Although the sushi is far simpler than that of Aqua, there is none of the fancy-shmancy, over-the-top fusion variety, but the traditional sushi they have, is stunning. Plus, Terry says that he will add some of his fusion sushi to the mix soon.
We had beancurd and prawn California rolls; rainbow rolls; spicy prawn and wasabi rolls; beautifully seasoned edamame beans; and oysters with sesame seeds, sesame oil and eel sauce, a combination that I wasn’t used to, but would definitely have again. Terry even made some sushi filled with a mix of veg, salmon and beancurd for a friend who doesn’t eat rice.
The restaurant seats about 20 guests inside and has space for another 30 outside. The décor is simple, sleek and minimalist, without the pretentious ambiance that this styling so often tends to be because it’s small, intimate and welcoming.
They don’t have a full liquor license yet and they are still waiting for permission to put seating throughout their entire outdoor area, but this restaurant has enormous potential. They do sit down, take-away and will soon do home and work deliveries – the thought of which makes my toes tingle. The ONLY complaint I have is that the restaurant wasn’t open when I lived in the ‘Burbs.
Directions to Sushi Box
Kildare Shopping Center
Corner of Kildare and Main Street
Newlands
7708
Photography by the lovely Zoë Mclean.