Suzuran
1025 Burke Rd
Camberwell
03 9882 2349
Located on a fairly quiet strip of Burke Rd, the store is inconspicuous yet is almost always flocking with people. It is a retail offshoot of parent importer / distributor company Japan Food Trading, offering largely made-in-Japan Japanese ingredients – quality soy sauce, sushi making material, green tea powder (to make your own green tea ice cream cake), kilogram bags of ginger (*ahem, so we eat a lot of ginger…) and a large range of snacks, drinks and frozen goods.
Their biggest drawcard however is in the other half of the store – the takeaway sushi bar where they make their own sushi with the freshest local sashimi.
I personally think they have strange opening hours closing around 6pm most days, which would practically be the busiest time of day. No doubt as a consequence of this, the queue in the preceding 1 hour before closure becomes increasingly long as punters try to get hold of dinner. So note to all readers: PRE-ORDER your sushi over the phone!
Unagi Maki – Covered in a light but sweet glaze of soy sauce, the soft creamy texture of the grilled unagi is extremely lick-a-licious. The ratio of rice-to-filling is good. I like the attention to details, unlike most places the cucumber is finely sliced giving a subtler crunch so as to not overshadow the subtleties of the unagi. Albeit, there is the haphazard sprinkle of roe to add a tinsy-bit of sea-rawness.
Deluxe Inari and California – The fresh, supple slices of sea-fresh salmon sitting alongside the subtle aromas of egg are a perfect marriage with the creaminess of Japanese mayonnaise, avocado and crab. These guys have seriously upped the ante for ‘take-away’ California rolls. The inari is a little less impressive for me – somewhat ‘blah’. Pockets of juicy inari filled with rice, lots of mayonnaise and selection of prawn, high mountain ferns and roe.
Black sesame and red bean mochi – every bite is full of the toasted aromas of black sesame crunch, and subtle sweetness of red bean filling. Sorry, forgot to take a photo.
Rating: quite easily Yummy+1. Very fresh, value for money and definitely worth the long queues – the perfect lazy dinner / lunch. I was completely stuffed after 2 boxes of sushi – clearly it is quite hard to not be greedy.
Anyways, final reminder: please pre-order!
You may also like: Kenzan at GPO, Koko, Al’s cooking: Green tea ice cream cake, DonToo.
Almost Always Ravenous 
Such a great little place! Mmm… Japanese groceries and fresh sushi. I can tell I’ll love it there.
It’s too far away from where I live. 😦 Would love to go there.
Ooo… I never knew they did food here too! I always see it from the car waiting at the lights on the outside and figured this was just a really big authentic jap grocery! OoOOoo
I effking LOVE Suzuran. Have you been to Uta Sushi Bar in South Yarra? (in a small street just off Toorak Road). I think they are associated with Suzuran as their menu is exactly the same (and tastes the same too). They don’t have a grocery section though 😦
Yum! I’m craving sushi so badly.. I might drop by for a take home dinner one day 🙂
They close 8pm on Fridays and the hour before is still crazy. I suspect it’s a last minute thing. I LOVE to get a pack of sushi and a block of salmon sashimi for the fridge for good measure.
leaf – me too!
michelle – haha, its a compromise. you live close to everything else
msihua – BE THERE!
libby – nope havent been there “yet”.
Catherine – you better! =)
Kat – hehehe. fridge? hope its not for long.
I love Suzuran, the supermarket portion is expensive, but well stocked with a good variety of Japanese food. The sushi is absolutely lovely however, and quite good value for money; I love it!