Tetsuya's

Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar and Ginger

S and I dined at Tetsuya's almost three months ago. My procrastination may by attributed to a number of things: I have been busy at work, the photos did not turn out well because of the low-lighting in the restaurant, but most of all, when I thought about writing a review of a thirteen course degustation meal, I just didn't know where to begin. 

Of course, it was fantastic. Even though we had very high expectations (that were met), there were still certain elements of the experience that were delightfully surprising. The problem with a thirteen course meal, however, is that no matter how amazing it is, you just can't remember and/or gush about every single element on all the various dishes. It's just too much. You remember you had a wonderfully decadent meal and enjoyed it immensely. But like being at a good rock concert, you are exhilarated throughout the event, and you recall particular favourite moments, but at the end of it, you can't really begin to describe every little detail about the experience. It's a sensory overload that leaves you happy and on a high, but foggy on the details (no, we were not drinking).

Special mention must go to the staff, who were all extremely professional, exceedingly charming, friendly (which is something that is sometimes traded-off in fancy restaurants), and very, very easy on the eyes. Absolutely unparalleled, superb service. I can't wait to return and would love to have the opportunity to host a dinner with a larger group of friends in of the private rooms one day. But there are so many other famous restaurants to visit too........and that's just Sydney!

S and I couldn't stop talking about moving to Sydney after the fantastic time that we had there - especially at Tetsuya's, Zilver and Jersey Boys. Of course that's barely scratching the surface and there's so much more of Sydney to experience, but I think we're already sold.

Now the food: I freely admit that I didn't know what quite a few of the ingredients were, and that was half the fun. Unless otherwise stated, everything was really good and almost everything was novel and interesting. Like I said, I remember how I felt about some dishes and the meal in its entirety, but not the specific details of each dish. I apologise for the poor quality of the photos. You'll notice that I have only uploaded photos of eleven of the thirteen dishes, because the photos of the first and last dishes were just not fit for publishing. My favourite dishes were the Chilled Cucumber Soup with Sheep Yogurt Ice Cream, which I failed to photograph properly unfortunately (the excitement of the first course might have had something to do with that), Tetsuya's signature ocean trout, the lamb and the sorbet of peone grapes. I didn't have the oysters, but S said that she had never had oysters like that - naturally sweet, meaty and very tasty. Her expression when she had the first bite was priceless.

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Sheep Yogurt Ice Cream: Deliciously cool and refreshing. I especially loved the faint sourish zest that the ice cream contributed to the sweetish soup.

Sashimi of Yellow Fin Tuna with Shishito and Garlic Chips

Marinated NZ Scampi with Curd and Jusai

The startling saltiness and the flavour of the scampi really excited my palate and paired nicely with the soft, bland curd. Very nice.

Tetsuya's Signature Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple and Celery

There's a reason why he's famous for this dish. Luscious trout topped with a lovely salty layer of seaweed, complemented with the arresting acidity and slight sweetness of green apples. Beautiful.

Steamed Mulloway with Black Bean and Ginger

I was least impressed with this dish. It was tasty and perfectly executed but was just very similar to the steamed fish that is served in normal Chinese restaurants back home. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but I was just expecting something a little more unusual.

Braised Ox Tail with Sea Cucumber and Lotus Root

Pancetta Wrapped Quail Breast with Pine Mushrooms and Chestnut

De-Boned Rack of Lamb with Eggplant and White Miso

Gorgeous. Wonderfully tender, juicy, delicious lamb, paired with the most scrumptious eggplant/white miso thingy that I have ever tasted. Incredible.

Sorbet of Pione Grapes and Tarte Tartin

Loved the sorbet and the soaked grapes. Don't know what they were soaked in (I suspect there was alcohol involved) but the explosion of juice and flavours was deliciously intoxicating. The flavour of the sorbet was also quite unusual and incredibly refreshing.

Genoa Figs with Leatherwood Honey and Fig Leaf Ice Cream

Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream and Cinnamon Twigs

I thought that this would be a favourite. Unfortunately, I didn't particularly like the cream cheese ice cream and expected the pave to be chilled (not knowing what a pave is or how it is supposed to be served) - probably because it reminded of mousse. Having said that, it was nice and chocolatey. For me, this would have been the dish to end with. The Chai Mochi that followed was also chocolatey and that tipped me over my chocolate limit for the night - I went from 'decadently-full' to 'oh no.... too... much.....'

The menu - Thursday 14 April 2011

Tetsuya's Restaurant
529 Kent Street
Sydney 
NSW 2000
Australia

Jizo - Addicted!

I have previously raved about the Original Teriyaki Chicken sushi at Jizo (twice, because once just wasn't obsessive enough) and most of my friends here know that I am addicted to the food at Jizo. I have since discovered several other divine, mouth-watering dishes that quickly became 'must-orders' every time we patronised Jizo (which is pretty much weekly and sometimes even twice a week!). The following is my dutiful report on my favourite Jizo items:

Karaage Chicken - Juicy, crispy, crunchy, deliciously tasty, succulent fried chicken pieces, which I think is even tastier when dipped in the Jizo mayonnaise salad dressing, even though it comes with plain mayonnaise. The problem is, I prefer the garlic dressing for the salad. Nevertheless, my desire for Karaage dipped in Jizo mayonnaise always supersedes my preference for the garlic dressing because having the Karaage without the Jizo mayonnaise dressing is a diminished experience, in my opinion.

Salmon, Avocado & Mango roll - This is one of the most refreshing, delicious, bright, clean tasting sushi that I have ever had. I don't even like raw salmon, normally, but this is an exception. I think it's the mild sweetness of the mango slices, coupled with the perfectly flavoured (and cooked), sourish sushi rice, that gives it its delightful fresh and bright quality. And, the light, creamy sauce dabbed on each piece rounds it all off with just a little richness. The combination of ingredients also make it beautifully colourful and pretty and I get a little happier just looking at it. Like bites of rainbow. Stellar.

Kushiage Tofu - Grilled (I think) tofu pieces with a tasty, sticky, caramelised coating of teriyaki or miso sauce. Smells heavenly and is mouth-watering-ly tasty. Yum yum!

Teriyaki Chicken with Curry - Bite-size, tender, teriyaki chicken pieces, accompanied with rich, thick, tasty Japanese curry. Hearty and so satisfying, especially if you're hungry.

Agedeshi Tofu - Tofu with light, crunchy coating, in nice, light, clean tasting soy and ginger sauce, topped with spring onions. The spring onions and the ginger in the sauce gives the dish a nice freshness and, combined with the sauce and the crunchy tofu, results in a delicious dish with a wonderful combination of textures and flavours.

Chicken Katsu with Curry - J's favourite. Can't go wrong with the curry and they know their way around the fryer at Jizo, so you don't get thin, hard pieces of overcooked chicken. You get, as you can see, a nice, juicy, thick piece of crumbed chicken breast.

Jizo's Original Teriyaki Chicken Sushi - I just had to put up another picture this because they're just so beautiful I could weep. I can't get enough of the Teriyaki Salmon sushi either. This is just about as close as you can get to perfection on earth. Glorious, exquisite, euphoric, and unrivalled....for  now.

Jizo Japanese Cafe & Bar

56 Princes Street

Dunedin

Jitsu

I have to admit that I haven't been to The Jitsu in quite some time. These pictures were taken in February. Since then, I have been infatuated with Jizo and the infatuation is only wearing off now. I am at that point in the relationship where the rose tinted glasses have come off and I've discovered that there are some things that they don't do well. And, there are some things they don't do at all, like Unagi Don or Prawn Tempura.

Enter The Jitsu. Whenever we needed a sushi fix (and to whine and unwind), S and I used to go to The Jitsu and order a couple of sushi rolls, Agedeshi Tofu and Age or Yaki Gyoza. There's nothing like good food and great company to put me in the right mood again. It's my 'reset' button. If I am agitated and tense before (as I usually am at the end of a work week), I am mellow and relaxed after. It's a fail-safe formula.

I digress. These are the dishes that I like the best at The Jitsu:

Yaki Gyoza: These are the best that I've had in Dunedin. The bottom of the dumpling is crispy, which gives it a little extra bite, and the filling is juicy and delicious. I get lucky sometimes when I bite into them and there is (what looks like) a spoonful of broth or juice in the dumpling and I get to slurp up the juice before gobbling the rest of the dumpling. Yummy. The deep fried Age Gyoza is also good (crispier and just as tasty), but I prefer the pan fried and steamed Yaki Gyoza.

Agedeshi Tofu: It's tofu with a nice, fried, crunchy coating in a soy sauce mixture. I love it but there isn't much to say about it. Not the best that I've had but still pretty decent.

Unagi/Unaju Don: I don't know why they call it Unaju here when it is Unagi everywhere else. Regardless, I love the grilled eel on rice, especially when the soft, slightly chewy eel has been grilled well so that the edges are just a little bit crisp and the sweet glaze is caramelised. Like all fatty fish, this is delicious when warm, but not so much if you let it get cold, so wolf it.

Prawn Tempura Sushi: As I have mentioned numerous times, I love prawns, so of course, I love Tempura Prawns. What's not to love? Stick them in a a sushi roll? Great! These are particularly good if they are freshly made and served hot (i.e. the prawns have been fried to order). Some places make it with cold tempura prawns that have just been lying around, and it's usually a big disappointment, but I don't think that I've experienced that here.

Salmon Jitsu Plate: I've only had this once. I liked it but the glaze was a little too sugary sweet (as opposed to a more natural sweetness like the sweetness of honey or fruit) for me and picking out the bones from the salmon steak was a real pain in the butt. On the plus side, the mango salad was really tasty and although the dish is probably not an authentic or traditionally Japanese dish, at least it's something different.

Verdict: The Jitsu may not be the most authentic Japanese restaurant in town, but the food is decent and some dishes are, in my opinion, among the best in town. Hmm, now I feel like some Yaki Gyoza and Unagi Don.

Edit 29th June 2010: I may have to take this back. Ate at Jitsu last night and was very disappointed. The Yaki Gyoza, in particular, was nothing like what it used to be and the Unagi Don was just alright. I also tasted a little of D's Yakiniku Beef and was not impressed - meat wasn't charred enough and the sauce was too heavy and sweet and there was too much of it.

The Jitsu

133 Stuart Street

Dunedin

Jizo - Revisited

Jizo's Teriyaki Chicken Original Sushi

I went back to Jizo last night to introduce S to (and take pictures of) the aforementioned divine Jizo's Original Sushi. From the expressions on S's face when she first placed a piece in her mouth - the pause, the widening of the eyes, the "OMG!" moment - I knew that she shared my sentiments. These delicate, heavenly, 'melt-in-your-mouth' works of art were, once again, fantastic - which means that Jizo gets another vigorous nod for consistency of experience, which is extremely important.

There is quite a specific kind of disappointment you feel when you return to a restaurant where the food was amazing the first time, then erratic or steadily worse the subsequent times you visit. Particularly, the embarrassment and slight betrayal you feel when you return with friends, to whom you have raved about the food at that place, expecting to wow them with your fabulous find, only to have them sit through a sub-par meal. I am pleased to report that thus far, Jizo does not fall in this category.

Jizo's Original Teriyaki Salmon Sushi

In fact, I am going to go out on a limb here a little and say that Jizo is probably the best Japanese restaurant in town in terms of authenticity. I am taking a risk saying this because I've never been to Japan, nor do I have the benefit of being able to confirm this with a reliable authority on Japanese cuisine - i.e. a Japanese person. Still, my claim is not completely baseless.

Out of the eight Japanese restaurants that I know of in town, apparently Jizo is the only one owned by a Japanese person. Coincidentally (not), Jizo is also the only restaurant where the food is a little different than all the other Japanese restaurants. For a start, their yakiniku beef is served with thick, juicy, perfectly cooked cubes of proper steak in a thin layer of sauce, rather than the usual thin slivers of overcooked, sweet beef at all the other restaurants. I've always heard that authentic teriyaki sauce is not the thick, sticky, sickly sweet sauce that we used to over here, but a thinner, lighter, more subtly flavoured sauce. This probably applies to the yakiniku beef dish also. In the same vein, they serve their chicken katsu with a thick, juicy crumbed chicken piece, not the flattened, dry/hard (over-fried), you-need-lots-of-sauce-to-go-with-it stuff that you would eat at the other restaurants.

Finally, the rice. You might think I'm just nit-picking here but the magic is in the details. I loathe being served mushy, clumpy and/or burnt rice. No matter how good the 'main' meat dish is, it just ruins the meal. Especially since Japanese cuisine is famous for its short grain rice in general and vinegar rice for sushi. I have been served mushy and burnt rice at a couple of the other Japanese restaurants. I have also had sushi from from some of these places where the 'vinegar' rice is tasteless. Come on! These are restaurants with professional chefs. How hard is it to cook rice properly? Fail. Fail. Fail! I don't know how many times I can get away with saying 'perfectly cooked' in one post but the rice served at Jizo has been perfect every single time. You can see each clearly defined, individual grain of rice, as opposed to melded clumps. With their sushi rice, specifically, they have struck the fine balance between tasteless and 'can't-taste-anything-else'. You will immediately notice the sourish and almost faintly sweet presence of the rice's flavour, but it quickly blends with the taste of the other components of the sushi and becomes the lovely accentuating backdrop to the headliner.

Miso Chicken Don

You're probably thinking Jizo sounds like it's far more expensive than the average Japanese restaurant here, but it's not. The prices on their menu are actually about the same as the other Japanese places, and cheaper than some. The only issue that some people may have with Jizo is that the portions of some of their dishes are a little daintier (not by much) than the usual fare at some of the other places. Before last night, I thought that this might be a bit of a problem when dining with boys with hearty appetites. I was appeased, however, when our Miso Chicken Don arrived last night. Good portions of rice and chicken, served in a very chic, giant black ceramic bowl/plate.

Verdict: The miso chicken don was good. Succulent chicken pieces in a tasty, light, clean tasting sauce. The teriyaki chicken and salmon sushi were outstanding - as previously described. The beautifully seared salmon pieces crumbled and melted in your mouth, along with the rest of the sushi. I do apologise, but I cannot reiterate enough what a difference it makes when meat/fish is perfectly cooked. Overcooked fish and beef are especially annoying. For me, I let it slide sometimes when we're just eating at a casual place because after a while, you get used to it and you don't notice it as much anymore. Then you go to a place where they actually know what they're doing and you immediately notice the difference in taste and texture when something is done right, compared to when it is overdone. I will definitely be going back again. - Jizo Japanese Cafe & Bar, 56 Princes Street, Dunedin

Jizo's Original Sushi

Jizo has, hands down, the best teriyaki chicken sushi that I've ever tasted! I was introduced to these delectable little suckers a few weeks ago when I went to Jizo for dinner with C. I didn't order them then, but caught a glimpse of them sitting pretty on a plate on the way to another obviously more 'in-the-know' patron. Even from a distance they looked irresistibly scrumptious. They must have made a significant impression on me because despite never having tasted a single piece, two weeks later I was inexplicably suffering terrible cravings for them. I satiated those cravings by having the teriyaki chicken sushi on Friday, and the teriyaki salmon sushi on Saturday! Muahahaha.

They call it "Jizo's Original Sushi' and you get a choice of teriyaki chicken, salmon, tuna or tofu. These sushi (what's the plural for sushi?) are the most aesthetically pleasing of the "cheaper" (<$15) sushi that I've had. Sorry folks, once again I fail to supplement my post with visual aids as I am still camera-less. I wanted to take a photo with the camera on my phone but was stopped by someone who insisted that I should photograph with a good camera or not at all. I was too hungry and crabby to argue.

They were still warm and melted in my mouth. What immediately struck me was that the teriyaki chicken pieces were juicy, tender and well sauced. They obviously cooked the chicken for the sushi to order - quite unlike the standard fare that you get at 'express' sushi places where the chicken would have been cooked early in the day and left sitting around to dry out. Also, unlike standard teriyaki chicken sushi rolls - which are usually made up of some chicken, carrots and cucumber rolled up in rice and a layer of seaweed - these were cute little domes of perfectly cooked vinegar rice, with a generous dab of creamy avocado-mayo 'dressing' cushioning the succulent teriyaki chicken topping. OMG. Smooth, warm, deliciously DIVINE! If you haven't already tried this, you must! [05092010 Edit: Pictures and a continuation have since been posted here]

The only complaint I had, which now after that torturous description doesn't seem to matter anymore, was that we got there at 'rush hour' and it seemed like forever before our food arrived. I didn't keep track of the time but I was starving so that might have impaired my sense of time just a tiny bit. Hey, you know what they say, "A hungry Tien is a crabby Tien".

Jizo Japanese Cafe & Bar

56 Princes Street

Dunedin

Minami

Minami is, in my opinion, the best Japanese restaurant in town. It's one of my favourite restaurants and the item I order the most is the chicken katsu don (pictured). Not because it's the only good thing on the menu. Of course not. Just about everything served in Minami is good. I order it so often because Minami is the furthest of the regular restaurants that I eat at, which means that I don't really get to go there all that often. Now Minami has the best food, but it's too far to walk to during lunch break and the other Japanese restaurants located closer to where I work and live serve decent (but not as good) everything except chicken katsu don (and yakiniku beef). Chicken katsu don everywhere else is tasteless crap. So I can get decent teriyaki chicken, sushi, Japanese curry, tempura and what not but not chicken katsu don, and that is why I always feel that should order chicken katsu don when I do go to Minami.

If you don't know what this thing that I've been going on and on about is, let me attempt to describe it. It's rice topped with battered, fried, boneless chicken pieces, egg, onions and spring onions and some shredded seaweed, steamed with a special savoury sauce that is like soya sauce but no where near as salty or strong tasting. I absolutely love it. Having a bite of the steaming rice soaked with the special sauce and runny egg with some of the sweet onion pieces, a bit of the tasty battered chicken and the contrasting taste of the bits of shredded seaweed (seaweed tastes like seaweed, I can't describe it), I tell ya, it is THE MOST satisfying and comforting thing on a cold day. And even though the serving doesn't look very big, it always fills me up. Man just writing about it makes my mouth water!

On the whole, everything at Minami is just that little bit (if not more) better than the equivalent item at any of the other Japanese places here. Their dishes just have that little extra flavour and 'kick'.