Ohnamiya, Myaree, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

When I used to live in Alfred Cove my local Japanese restaurant was Ohnamiya, located on Kearns Crescent in the shopping complex at the corner of Canning Hwy and Riseley St. Since moving to Bateman, we've become massive fans of Kai Japanese but decided to go to Ohnamiya's new Myaree branch for something different.

The new branch is located in the Asian food hotbed of Hulme Court in what used to be an all you can eat Chinese restaurant, and two stores down from an established Japanese restaurant called Nishi. Unless its closed down, there is also another restaurant across the road that does Japanese for a lunchtime trade as well!

The menu at Ohnamiya is basically centred around a choice of a main that is then served in various bento box sets, ranging from a simple rice box to the deluxe box with agedashi tofu, salad, sushi, boiled egg and cold sesame chicken. There are some other options - sashimi and sushi plates, curries and bowls of udon, though sadly no ramen - but I'd hazard a guess that most people order from the box menu.

Tea is free flowing with a dispenser in the middle of the store, similar to their other branch on Kearns Crescent and the main Taka's in Perth.

We decided to get an entree of the Aburi Maguro with Miso Mayonnaise - slices of raw tuna topped with mayo that were then blowtorched. This was the highlight of the meal, with the flavour of the runa and the torched miso mayonnaise being very delicious and umami-rich.

Alissa and I both felt like the Teriyaki Chicken for our main, though she decided to get the Deluxe Box without rice while I was craving for sushi so went with the Sushi Box instead. I think we've become very spoiled by Kai because the Teriyaki Chicken just did not hold up in comparison to the excellent, tasty and succulent chicken that Kai make. I'd compare Kai's version of the dish to more high end Japanese restaurants in terms of authenticity and quality, whereas this was closer to the standard I'd expect from cheaper food court establishments.

I was particularly disappointed with the sushi, which was very ordinary - I would rate it lower than what I can get as Sushi Sushi, let alone somewhere like Koh Grill and Sushi in Singapore. At this price point I don't expect very much, but I think their selection of California Roll, Teriyaki Chicken and Vegetarian was very unimaginative.

The Verdict: Good
The quality of Ohnamiya's food was decent enough but its mains were closer to the cheaper, Taka's end of the market - only the entree really stood out for me as being a cut above. With Taka's the price is so cheap that its well within its price point and while Ohnamiya are on the cheaper end of the market, knowing that we have Kai so much closer to us and with better food at very reasonable prices I just can't picture us going to back to Ohnamiya in the near future.