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Sushi meets burger at Sokyo spin-off Gojima, Sydney

Myffy Rigby
Myffy Rigby

Burgers with a rice-based twist at Gojima.
Burgers with a rice-based twist at Gojima.Supplied

Japanese

Can we please have a moratorium on "pictures or it didn't happen"? Not forever, mind, but just until restaurants stop creating dishes specifically geared for pictures on the great yawning maw of white noise that is social media. In the meantime, we live alongside with fast food and fast news.

So here's a fast review: line up, take your photos, harvest your likes. That's fine. But the end result may not be quite as delicious as your pictures may suggest.

Anyway, here's the background. Chase Kojima is the Japanese-American chef behind Sokyo at the Star. The house of arguably the best and smallest sushi counter in the city, it's the place I first learned about dry-ageing tuna like a nice piece of beef as well as being my first port of call when I want to empty my wallet in exchange for some truly exceptional nigiri.

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Japanese-style fried chicken and a frozen custard shake.
Japanese-style fried chicken and a frozen custard shake.Daniel Munoz

Kojima has tried his hand at something a little more accessible for casino punters previously – he did a highly successful ramen pop-up for a minute there offering seasonal soup noodles for big queues. Now he's settled into a larger more permanent spot across the way from Momofuku Seiobo, selling a pretty left-of-field concept.

Like many fine-dining chefs around town, he's mining the city's hunger for burgers but here with a bit of a twist. A rice-based twist. Think of his rice burgers as a sort of maxi-sized nori-roll-hamburger hybrid.

The Gojima cheeseburger, flavour wise, has all the hallmarks of a very good American burger – the juicy patty, the piquant special sauce, that almost sauce-like melted yellow cheese, refreshed with the raw salad.

Gojima's double 'cheeseburger'.
Gojima's double 'cheeseburger'.Supplied
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But you know what was missing? A bun. Because the job of bread in this situation is to act as a clean sponge to soak up some of the fat and juice. What the rice does – which has been fried on one side and covered with a sheet of nori to hold the thing together – is make everything kind of oily and sticky. I can't say that improves the joy of a really good burger.

The mushroom version, though, is probably one of the better dining options for vegos around the casino if you're eating quickly before a show. And the savoury-sweet chocolate miso frozen custard thickshake is an all-round win for everyone. Caveat lector, snap-happy diners: it's about as pretty as it is tasty. But damn the Instagram and do it anyway.

Bottom line Gojima cheeseburger and mushroom burger ($12.90); frozen custard thickshake ($7.90).

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Myffy RigbyMyffy Rigby is the former editor of the Good Food Guide.

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