Asakusa 浅草

After hearing so many people rave about this restaurant, and all that high ratings on online forums, I was really excited to check this place out. Especially since I haven't had my staple japanese meals ever since I left Singapore, (Bento Box does not count) I was pretty desperate for good japanese food.

I was surprised that this place required a 2 day advance reservation, or you'll never get anywhere near that precious slab of sashimi. So my standards were pretty up there by the time I actually arrived at the restaurant. The place isn't the most luxurious, but very homely. Feels as if you're just having a meal at a japanese friend's house. This place feels authentically japanese. The waiters/waitresses were all japanese, not the british born japanese sort mind you. Felt as if someone packed them into a box and shipped them right over here. Although that meant that communication wasn't the most effective, but it was sufficient to get us through the night.

We ordered food to share, so there were 3 dishes between us. Asakusa salad, beef teriyaki and the sashimi set. I must say that I wasn't terribly keen on the salad, I'm not very into greens, especially if there is seaweed involved! But the salad was surprisingly good! Must be all that dressing/peanuts/salmon, disguising the veges. The sashimi set had sake, maguro and I suspect saba. I was too busy talking to notice what fish I was putting into my mouth. It was alright, quite fresh, in rather generous slices, but I wasn't blown away. Nothing too exotic. The beef teriyaki was the least impressive dish in my opinion. The sauce wasn't the most fragrant, and the beef was a bit tough. The bean sprouts were a tad oily. It wasn't a bad dish, but it just wasn't great either.

The most disappointing bit of dinner had to be the desserts. I ordered the mandatory green tea ice cream. It didn't come with red bean paste. Which is a huge crime for a reputable japanese restaurant! The green tea ice cream wasn't very smooth either, you could feel the icicle lumps, which meant that it was not very well made, and had been in the freezer for too long. Next came the japanese red bean pancakes. Don't ask me why, but they called it japanese sweets. It was probably marginally better than the ice cream, but still, the pancakes would have been better warm, and if they had been more generous with the red bean paste.