The name Busy Suzie pinched from the term Lazy Susan, the name for that revolving table top that we find in Chinese restaurants. The main dining area of Busy Suzie is also circular but the table doesn’t move.
Traditionally robatayaki, or Japanese barbecue, would be cooked in a large charcoal pit. The diners would sit in a circle around the pit and the chefs would pass the orders to customers on the oar of a fishing boat.
There is no charcoal pit but diners still sit in a circle where they can watch the chefs prepare their food and who will be deliver it to them on a wooden paddle. To add authenticity the wait staff shout the orders to the chefs and all staff, chefs included, bellow greetings whenever a customer enters.
The interior is sleek and circular with wooden floor and fixtures finished off with bamboo and round paper lanterns. There are private dining areas and small booths for those who prefer not to sit at the main table.
There were no major surprises on the menu. I have to confess, I eat so much supermarket sushi and sashimi that I tend to skip it in restaurants. The major benefit of that is that it does help keep the cost down. And since Busy Suzie is one of the more expensive places that, for me at least, is an important consideration.
The drinks list did offer Ozeno Yukidoke Brown ($90), a German style Dunkelweizen so I ordered a bottle of that to get proceedings underway. To go with it I ordered some dry piled sardine ($78). Both arrived promptly. The sardine was pressed into cracker like slivers and were very tasty indeed. A good appetite sharpener but an even better snack to go with a beer.
The beer had a spicy sweetness, think cinnamon, that went down rather too well. It wasn’t long before I was ordering my second. I also put in an order for a chicken and a pork skewer ($75 each) and some vegetable tempura ($128).
By this time quite a few people were arriving and there was a lot of shouting going on. The shouting itself wasn’t unpleasant, it was all good natured. But when added to the rather loud disco music that was playing it made having a conversation difficult.
The skewers were very good as was the tempura, which consisted of pumpkin, mushroom, lotus root and sweet potato and I added to that a Robatayaki rice ball with miso ($50).
I finished off with umeshu and lime jelly ($78), which mad a pleasant change. Both sesame and green tea ice cream were available but I always have one or the other so it was nice to find something a little different. Umeshu is a kind of liqueur made by steeping unripe green plums in Shochu and sugar. Used as a delicious sweet sauce it went went well with the tangy lime jelly.
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Shop 209, 1881 Heritage
2A Canton Road
(entrance on Salisbury Road)
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel. 2369 0077