All aboard the train at Sushi Wawa

Earlier this year right next to Ikea in Innaloo opened up the Southern Hemisphere's longest sushi train - Sushi Wawa. At 62 metres long, this sushi train wraps itself around the entire restaurant, boasting a variety of dishes to choose from.

I first visited Sushi Wawa not long after it opened, but I'm not the biggest fan of blogging on places in their infancy if they haven't blown me away. I figured since the location was so close to me I'd end up back in time to try again. That time came when Jeremy and I had tickets to watch Guardians of the Galaxy in Gold Class. The session was later in the day and while I quite like the food at the cinemas, we knew we needed to have a small lunch before.

Katsu chicken

Arriving around 12.30pm we're seated straight away at the window seat looking out at Ikea. There's food streaming by constantly on the sushi train and my boy starts picking items off to eat. I let him choose since he hasn't been here before.

As with all sushi train places, we help ourselves and stack our plates for our waitress to total the cost afterwards.

First up is the katsu chicken sushi ($4.20). Crispy chicken, fresh crunchy lettuce and tonkatsu sauce sit wrapped up in fluffy sushi rice. As far as sushi goes, it's your expected flavours but it tastes good - a nice combination of textures and while not the neatest sushi I've seen, it goes down a treat. A nice way to start things off.

Takoyaki

I love takoyaki so we both reach out for the plate at the same time ($4.20). These little octopus and batter balls are a bit more chewy than I usually like, but you can see there's actual octopus in them unlike other places I've been which are all batter. The sauce and mayonnaise is the perfect combination to accompany these.

Spring roll

The spring rolls ($4.20) catch my boy's eye so he grabs a plate of them to dine on. The pastry is crisp, shattering under our teeth. The filling is flavoursome but sadly cold which is always a bit of a risk when dining via a sushi train.

Kanikama

The kanikama ($6.60) is comprised of two rice blocks topped with crab sticks, kewpie mayonnaise and onion. I normally would bypass something like this for sashimi instead but we decide not to order from the ala carte menu, and there's not much sashimi circulating while we're there. The other diners must have been gobbling it up!

Popcorn prawn

I'd heard great things about the popcorn prawn ($6.60) at Sushi Wawa so the expectation was high as I pulled this dish towards us. Sadly it was cold and no longer crunchy, the sauce making the batter a little soggy. I do like the flavours in this though - next time it might be a case of needing to order it fresh.

Wagyu beef

The wagyu beef ($6.60) is a nice dish for beef lovers. Fatty, melt in your mouth  beef on top of fluffy sticky sushi rice and topped with a generous squeeze of kewpie mayonnaise. There's not as much marbling as I'd expect from wagyu, but the taste is still there.

Kanitsume

The kanitsume ($5.60) is actually my favourite dish of the day. I know that these fried crab claws are a little artificial tasting but these ones are sweet, flaky on the inside and crumbed to perfection on the outside. The spicy sauce they sit in works well with the crab. I like it!

Ika

We finish up with a serving of the ika ($4.20) which is cuttlefish atop of rice. I stop after the crab dish before since the Gold Class sundaes are calling my name, but the boy tells me this dish was fresh and tasty. A little lacklustre in the 'wow' department, but the produce is good.

All up Sushi Wawa isn't too bad. It's not a place that knocked my socks off but it did the job in providing some fresh ingredients and decently executed dishes.