Madono, Haymarket Chinatown Sydney

Wagyu beef sashimi $13.80
Rare cooked Wagyu beef sashimi with lime citrus jelly

EDIT: Madono has now closed

Always keep your eyes peeled in Chinatown. Change is constant. One minute there's Ippon Sushi. The next it's morphed into another buttercup yellow Bread Top.

Change doesn't only happen at street level. Just as you should never forget to look up for hidden treaures, you should also remember to look down. Next door to the newest Bread Top chain there's been a change in the basement - once a hidden seafood restaurant, now it's a Japanese eatery, still hidden unless you look.


Miso soup

A short set of stairs leads you to a cute stepping stone pathway through a bed of slate grey pebbles. Downstairs there's plenty of warm wooden chairs and tables, black shiny walls and a chirpy pink and red wall feature with maple leaf and flower cut-outs. It feels like I'm sitting inside a Japanese metal pencil-case - all cute quirky motifs with splashes of unexplainable happiness.


JSK roll $13.90
Smoked salmon, salmon caviar, semi-dried tomato,
avocado and omelette

Madono describes itself as "progressive Japanese cuisine", a tag we can only presume refers to it's embracing of all things cheese. There's a camembert cheese agedashi tofu, a cheese asparagus chicken cutlet and a House special roll that comes with cream cheese, avocado, omelette and flying fish roe.

Other than that, the menu is reasonably familiar. We start with bowls of complimentary miso soup followed by the wagyu beef sashimi which is unbelievably tender. The lime citrus jelly is soft and yielding, and although I love tobiko flying fish roe, I find the crunch of it detracts from the sublime smooth tenderness of the beef.

The JSK roll is replendent with salmon and fat glisterning pearls of salmon roe. The sushi rice is delicious - plump and sticky and flavoured well. We struggle to find any sign of the semi-dried tomato though.


Crispy veggie chips salad $9.80
Baby veggie with crispy lotus root, beetroot and carrot chips
with sesame vinaigrette

The crisp veggie chips salad is a delicious mix of baby greens with crisp deep-fried discs of vegetable. The beetroot and carrot chips are lovely and sweet and the lotus roots have a subtle nuttiness.


BBQ eel with teriyaki sweet potato $16.80

I'm impressed with the barbecue eel, which is plump and tender. The fatty flesh melts on the tongue, tempered by the salty sweetness of the teriyaki marinade. It lies on a generous bed of sweet potato mash, a smooth puree that possesses that tacky starchiness that the Japanese so do adore (I do too).


Kurobuta pork katsu $14.80
Deep-fried crumbed Japanese high-quality pork loin

The Kurobuta pork katsu is a lesson in deep-fried perfection. Golden crunchy exterior protects the juicy fatty tender pork within. Thankfully there's been some restraint on the tangy barbecue sauce - the crazy squiggle on top is just the right amount.

And that pretty much sums up Madono. Not overly progressive, but perhaps in hindsight, just the right amount.


Madono Progressive Japanese Cuisine (CLOSED)
Lower ground 398-402 Sussx Street
Haymarket Chinatown Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 3534

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