Satsuma at Gallery Hotel

I had a pretty busy week last week, and the gorgeous husband decided to bring me to Robertson Quay for some good Japanese food and beer to cheer me up. He had in mind Aburiya Tei, but after we drove past Gallery Hotel, I remembered Satsuma. It's located at one of the three round pods behind Gallery Hotel, and having been there a couple of times (none with the husband), I thought it would be a better place for a chill-out evening.

We got there around 6.30pm on Friday, and were only left with counter seats at the bar downstairs. Which was fine, because the bar was still pretty empty giving us a nice and quiet setting.
The appetisers of fresh veggies and miso dip. These were probably better than Aburiya Tei's. I have no idea if these were on the house, or if we were charged for them.

First up: enoki mushroom rolled in pork, and pork and leek.

Close up of the pork and leek.

Tebasaki, or chicken wings. These were quite good; crispy skin on the outside but the meat was still moist on the inside.

Okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake. We got a bit of a surprise when it came in the guise of takoyaki, but after biting right in, we found the cabbage strips and everything tasted right in the end.

Prawns wrapped in bacon and shiso leaf, and oysters wrapped in pork. The oysters were GOOD.

Onigiri came in the form of a maize-like skewer. It was a bit too salty for my liking.

Black Angus beef, with both sticks done to different degrees to suit our respective tastes.

Nankotsu, or chicken cartilege. The Aburiya Tei version is better. These birds were real skinny.

Garlic wrapped in pork.

Garlic fried rice. The waitress had the initiative to ask if we wanted the serving divided into 2 bowls so we could share. I really appreciated that...good service is so hard to come by these days.

The service was pretty good, although because we were sitting at the bar counter, we were constantly interrupted by the serving staff coming from behind and placing the food in between both of us. It would have been better to have actually used the counter (instead of decorating it with shochu bottles) to serve customers from the front instead. But that's a small gripe directed at the management....the serving staff were very pleasant and attentive.

Most of the pork skewers were $5 for 2 sticks, while the Black Angus was $13 for 2. We also ordered a 300ml bottle of junmai ginjyo, which cost us $29. All in, dinner came up to just over $120...dinner for the whole of this week will either be home-cooked or at a hawker centre : )