A Japanese Treat: Emon Restaurant

Emon is a low-key, family-run Japanese restaurant found in the corner of Crown and Cleveland Streets in Surry Hills. From the frontage, you'd think it was a run-down place, but once you step inside, you can see that what it lacks in pizzazz, it makes up for in menu offerings.

For one, its sake menu is expansive and informative. I would strongly recommend the sake sampler, which is really a bargain. Feel free to ask the owner about the sakes as she recommended sakes for us to try, all of which were excellent in their own way. When we got our sake sampler, she wrote down what we were getting and she recommended which one would go with what we ordered. She was truly great.

The food wasn't bad either - the pork belly is to die for (don't go entree size! Go main!) and the mushroom tempura is fantastic!  

However, not everything was great as the karaage was underwhelming and sashimi was just normal - nothing to write home about. The soft shell handroll could have used a bit more umph as well.

Still overall, it was a great night out, and for the 8-hour cooked pork belly alone, I would come back to this place. Emon - 3.5/5 slices

A Nordic Surprise: Headhunters

It's really difficult to talk about a movie without revealing any spoilers, so at this point, I can almost guarantee that this will be a short review.


Headhunters, a dark comedy from Norway, revolves around the story of one man's will to survive versus one man's will to succeed. I would recommend that you read nothing about the plot early on because the twists and turns that the movie makes are the most delightful aspects of the film. The genre itself is a dead horse, which is why it is so refreshing to see the Nords have their way with it, and perhaps unsurprisingly, they succeed in pulling it off really well.


The subtitles, a necessary evil in foreign films, can get tiring at times, and I admit that in the first 15 minutes of the film, I nearly fell asleep. However, that was before the ride actually began - after that, I was gobsmacked at where the film went. I'm not saying it is perfect - there are a couple of parts in the film that really were stretched thinly, and the amazingly discomforting nude scenes were really... discomforting... especially in the morgue.


Yes, nudity in the morgue. The movie certainly takes interesting twists.


Anyway, definitely definitely worth a watch. Hodejegerne (also known as Headhunters for you non-Norskies)  4/5 slices.