Kinki – a fatty Japanese delicacy
arrived Tokyo on 9apr2013.
had dinner arranged with my daughter & JH. they were already travelling Japan. decided to book a course dinner in a comfortable environment & easy to locate place, so booked Asahi Sushi at 50F, Shinjuku Sumitomo Building. They had a few course menu promotions for the month & great views up there. 🙂
JH & I had the 7-course with kuroge wagyu beef dinner. My daughter had a 10-item sushi moriwase set.
for the course dinner, we also had a small veg salad with mayo otoshi. The 7 courses were-
- hokkaido crab claw with unagi & vinegared pickles (below photo left)
- maguro & tai sashimi (above photo middle)
- chawanmushi (above photo right)
- kinki (japanese delicacy & chef’s favourite here)
- kuroge wagyu grilled
- 8-item sushi moriwase
- miso soup
the veg salad, chawanmushi & miso soup were non-events. the crab & unagi vinegared dish was very tasty. the sashimi were very average even for Singapore.
the kinki was fabulous. this very sweet tasting fatty fish is like between a cod (not as fatty) & chilean seabass (the latter is my perennial favourite). super! 🙂
kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) rare
the kuroge wagyu was good I guess but kind of underwhelming. I always felt Japanese wagyu were so good they were best eaten teppanyaki or yakiniku style rather than western fine dining style. When Andre Chiang was at Jaan years back, we use to frequent there a bit more. he had this kagoshima wagyu done in this Gordon Ramsay style similar to what’s done here in the above photo. It was good of course but I would much rather have it sizzling hot & with the freshly seared aburi marbling flavour. 🙂
10-piece sushi platter
my daughter was not too impressed with her sushi platter (above photo). It had anago, 2 pieces maki, hamachi? (not sure), ikura (these were small & I much preferred the large ones so maybe it was not ikura), tai, aji, prawn, hotate, maguro uni & akamai (lean toro). after I later tried the very good quality sushi at Daikokuya 大黑屋 kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi, I had to agree with her that you could get equal or better quality sushi at much lower price but of course ambience and view was a world apart. 🙂
her set also included the vinegared crab dish & miso soup.
8-items sushi moriwase
for the course dinner, we had a 8-item sushi platter-maguro, saba, akamai, hotate, amaebi, uni, ikura (small ones) & anago. It was good but same observations as my daughter. 🙂
was the dinner worth it? my daughter’s set cost 2730yen=S$30++. good kaiten sushi not withstanding, S$30++ for a plump, succulent, sweet hokkaido crab claw + 10 piece sushi including akamai, uni, anago, ikura, hotate would really be nothing to complain about in Singapore.
the 7-course dinner cost 6090yen=S$67++. here with kinki & kuroge wagyu thrown in, I would say it was still a very good set c/w say Kuriya Dining which offer very good monthly S$88++ set but my usual eat at Mikuni would beat this hands down in terms of overall satisfaction if not value of ingredients. 🙂
& that was before factoring in the free view of Shinjuku night skyline, privacy & quiet ambience.
c.h.e.f andy
c.h.e.f 