Went to Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant just now for dinner. Used the vouchers from AllDealsAsia that made a $250 10-course meal cost only $68. Per pax, of course. So for the 5 of us, the $1250-meal cost us only $348.
Epic numbers for us.
The meal itself consists of:
Wafu salad (mixed salad with seaweed in vinegar sauce) worth $12
Hassen (3 kinds of appetizer) worth $12
Sashimi (6 pieces) worth $35
Hokkaido Tarabayaki (grilled Hokkaido king crab leg) worth $24
Teppanyaki salmon (1 piece) worth $18
Ebi Saikyo miso yaki (grilled king prawn with Saikyo miso sauce) worth $22
Wagyu tenderloin beef with foie grass sauce worth $35
Sushi and maki (7 pieces) worth $35
Mekajiki Yunomi (double boiled salted fish soup) worth $15
Homemade Ume shu jelly worth $8
(copied from AllDealsAsia)
Great food, all of them (I really like the king prawn in miso sauce, and we thought the miso sauce was cheese lol), but it took me a while to realize I shouldn't judge the price solely on the food.
Fine dining is an experience. It's not just about the food but also about the ambience and, well, everything else involved in the meal.
Initially I felt the food wasn't worth $250 and it was only after I left and saw other restaurants outside that I noticed the environment Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant was excellent. It was pretty quiet, spacious and the waiters were all very attentive, eg our cups of hot green tea was always refilled promptly, 80% of the time without asking.
If I'm not wrong, they automatically refilled our cups at intervals related to the serving of each course. Maybe before and after each course, but I didn't really watch them then.
Except for HX who ordered iced green tea and somehow the waiters were watching the glasses for cold drinks less often.
Despite the apparent quantity of food in each course, it was filling even for me. The servings were really as tiny as I expected. For example, the wagyu beef was only slightly smaller than a McDonald's Hamburger patty while the jelly dessert came in 2 slices about 1.5cm wide, 2.5cm long and 2mm thin.
I'm 100% sure it's all because the chef paced us by serving our food at regular intervals but not immediately after we finish each dish.
This gave us time to talk, drink our tea (or drink more tea) and visit the bathroom without coming back to find our dishes long served and already cooled.
I'd say those 10 courses would have took us 30mins to devour if they had served everything promptly like regular restaurants, but tonight this took us over an hour.
And we didn't complain. I never once felt anything negative about the speed throughout the evening.
It was relaxing, and we left feeling satisfied. Not hungry, not too full (like we do after buffets), but satisfied.
The only complaint I have about it is the single 1cm-long fishbone I found in one of the sushis. I didn't get hurt so I didn't bother to complain, but for an elite chef of such a classy establishment, that's way below my expectations.
As for returning, no thanks, I'm not that rich. I might do so, though, if there are any special occasions in the future. Or maybe I'll try other fine dining restaurants then.
I've always wanted to try Les Amis.
No comments:
Post a Comment