Sunday, 25 January 2015

TOKYO: Sukiyabashi Jiro @ Roppongi hills

So the story goes.... We became obsessed about Jiro-san's restaurants after watching the documentary Jiro dreams of sushi. We wanted to book the original restaurant in ginza, but as previously mentioned we just couldn't get a seating. Thankfully we managed to get a dinner reservation at the 2 Michelin star roppongi branch, which is helmed by the son of THE LEGEND. With that, we were ready to experience the true art of edomae sushi.

Takashi-san gave us a choice of either sushi or sushi-sashimi. Being sashimi lovers, we opted for the sushi sashimi Omakase. 


We were led to some side tables for ocha before being formally seated. Nick is really excited now and can't wait for sushi to start ! 



The master Takashi-san appears. 

Flounder and akagai sashimi 

Boiled abalone 

Takashi San says that abalone is too chewy to be eaten raw and best served boiled 
Abalone liver. Forgive me, I may sound totally pompous saying this, but I've eaten many abalones in my life yet I never knew abalones had livers :o not really a liver eater, but can't ever say no to abalone ! Hmm, taste wise, if given to me blindfolded, there's no way i would not identify this as liver. 

Cured mackerel

Takashi san suggested I put the onions on the mackerel. Yummy ! 

That's the end of our sashimi course. 18 courses of sushi came next in quick succession. As an overview, all sushis are brushed with appropriate amount of shoyu on the fish, so no dipping is required. However should you require more shoyu, the option of dipping still exists ( not recommend tho ! ). The  flavour of the rice differs from that of other sushi joints we have tasted, with jiro 's having a slightly stronger taste of vinegar. However, we felt the added taste blended extremely well with that of the fish. 

Hirame/flounder 

Ika/squid 

Akami


Chutoro 


Otoro. I think I could die happy here 

Kohada

Mirugai/ geoduck

Takashi-san was super cute. I had no clue this was geoduck he kept telling me it's name in mandarin, Cantonese hoping I would know what it is, but yeah just no clue. Oooopps, sorry laoshi! I should have learnt my mandarin better last time :/

Saba 

Ikura

This ikura is house made. So fantastic, I can't even.... 

Kurumaebi
The time when the prawn starts to get cooked is extremely precise to suit the diner's meal pace, so that as little time as possible is wasted being already cooked before entering the diner's mouth. 




Uni. I could have died happy here again. I've had many uni, and I can confidently say this is the best. The texture was extremely smooth and creamy. 

Hamaguri 

Scallops 贝柱

His sous chef worked in australia before going back to Japan to train under  Takashi, he did a good job in both cooking as well as translating and interacting with customers. he was super Cute by the way, I thought this was hotate , and takashi san kindly corrected me, said something in japanese, and as usual I was clueless. So the sous chef took out a book, flipped to the page with a picture of this scallop and its mandarin name. Haha i still had no clue what it was but hey, I thought them how to pronounce the name in mandarin ! :D 


BEST ANAGO EVER. So creamy, it just melts in the mouth. And there was just the right amount of sauce as well. Takashi-san says that some customers were a little apprehensive to try the anago given bad experiences prior with hard and unfresh anagos. However, they all became converts after trying his anago. 
Sorry for the blur picture, such a shame I didn't get a good shot ): 


Their signature tamago. 

I loved this whole dining experience ! The fish quality was over the roof. The service was amazing. Despite being asian, and using the chopsticks for over 2 decades, I am hmm ummm yeah still not quite good with it. I dropped a couple of seaweed and onions on the table, but the thing is, within 5s, someone is there to clean my table up for me. How amazing is that ! I felt soooo apologetic ! 

And takashi-san is so friendly and nice! Oh, and plus point, a pretty reasonable command of English too! Nick always says that people were born with mouths to eat, but my mouth is made for talking. I feel really awkward not talking. And to sit thru a 1 hour meal without any interaction with the chefs, please kill me. Takashi san and his team were so accommodating with me, takashi san initiated small talks with me, answered my questions, he just made me feel so at home. 

Our bill came up to ¥65000 ( lunch is cheaper, ranging from ¥23000 onwards )  for the both of us! And We will definitely be back when We have the cash/special occassion hehe maybe with nick's first pay check as a doctor next year :p 

Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi 
6-12-2 roppongi, minato-ku, tokyo 1060032







No comments:

Post a Comment