When the two of us stepped in at about 12.30pm, the restaurant was half filled (can also say half empty;-)). The interior décor is dark which is the same as its Holland outlet but it looked a bit more spacious than the Holland outlet if my recollection serves me well. As usual, we asked to sit at the counter so that we could see what they have and how the chefs are preparing the food.
I wanted to ask for an Omakase course but decided against it as we did not want to eat so much. The lady manager recommended a couple of dishes which accordingly to her were very fresh and some were their specialties.
They gave us a Nama Uni Sushi (Japanese vegetable salad). I thought that this was free as I didn’t order it. It was part of the bill;-(. Nevertheless, I quite like the salad and find the dish cold and refreshing. It was a nice starter with such a hot weather that day.
Next dish was an Arakabu sashimi. I was told that the Arakabu is in the same grouping of fish as the Kinki (which I love) and that’s why I ordered it. We observed the chef deboning and preparing the Arakabu in front of us. We suspect him to be relatively new as he was deboning the fish very slowly and not that skillful. We didn’t really like the taste of the Arakabu as it was not as sweet as we expected. Nevertheless it was crunchy. The bones were later used as a base for clear soup and again we find the soup not to our liking. I should have asked them to steam the fish instead.
Next on the table was Tsubugai (a type of Japanese seashell) sashimi. The chef separated the meat from the intestines and the intestines were soaked in soy sauce. I quite like the intestines. They tasted like century eggs albeit a bit harder.
After the Tsubugai, the dishes came too fast for our liking. I guess the staff was not experienced in observing the eating pace of the customers. This is something that should not happen in a Japanese restaurant. Some of the dishes are not meant to be taken together as they have different flavors.
We were given the tenderloin beef teppanyaki, the Nama Hotate Miso (grilled scallop with the shell and seasoned with miso), and a tray of uni sushi, ikura (salmon) belly sushi, toro (tuna belly) sushi, mekajiki (swordfish) sushi almost all at the same time. So, if you are into Japanese food, you will know some of the dishes will overwhelm the others. And because all the dishes came at the same time, they filled up the space we have at the counter! Then we have to hurrying consuming them as Japanese food will not taste nice if one leave them for toolong. Sigh! BIG BIG SIGH!
However, I like the tenderloin beef teppanyaki . This was the best dish of the lunch. It was “teppaned” nicely and juicy.
The Nama Hotate Miso was too sweet but still okay for me. The toro sushi was a big letdown. It did not taste like toro at all, did not look fresh and was dry with an after taste in my mouth.
Will I go back again? I don’t think so; unless one of my customers need to have a quick Japanese lunch and does not like to travel far for it. I rather travel a bit further to Matsuo-san or pay more over at Tatsuya to satisfy my Japanese food craving.
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