Teppei Omakase Dinner (yet again)

We managed to get a last minute (read: 2 weeks) dinner booking at Teppei just in time for Mother's Day, which was fantastic timing. The mother loved it, and was even more excited after hearing about the waiting list being 3 months. That being said, I've heard from friends this week that the next available dinner date is in December....is that insane or what.

We were perched at the counter all ready for an amazing evening- there was one sad soul who sat alone watching everyone else eat for a good half hour before her dining companion showed up. 

House sake to go with the food.

First up was a salad with sesame dressing. Decent.

Inari sushi was next- this was average.

All the sashimi being prepared.

Edamame came next.

This was seaweed jelly....an interesting texture but not much flavor.

Sashimi, with ototo, hotate, ama ebi, swordfish, maguro and sake. 

My favorite - negi toro hand roll with crispy tempura bits inside. The chef just hands it to ya.

Gotta eat it while the seaweed's still crispy

Chawan mushi with curry sauce....this was kinda weird. Plain chawan mushi would have worked better.

There was a piece of sweet potato in there. A little odd.

Clams in dashi stock- this was brilliant and slurpworthy. 

Sake was consumed too quickly so we got a beer too.

Eggplant with ikura. Pretty yummy.

Uni with tofu skin- the uni was a bit too fishy for my liking.

This was really interesting- Japanese barnacles.

The chef showing the mother how to peel it at apart.

This looked seriously inedible, to be frank, and slightly scary.

Interesting but not terribly tasty. 

Tempura fish- always good.

Japanese squid in stock- this one was kinda weird cos there were still the inside squishy bits. It was also semi-cooked, which got the husband slightly worried. 

Fermented squid on tofu- this was good with beer.

Wagyu beef with garlic- decent, yummy, tasty. Finally something normal and cooked, to the husband's relief.

Somen with duck- I really liked the texture of the noodles.

Finally, the carbo dish signaling the end of the meal. This was sashimi rice.

I had the udon.

Mum had the soba.

And the standard ice cream serves at the end. 

Next Teppei booking: July!

Mikuni - The a la carte Menu

I haven't been making good use of the FAR card so far, so going to Mikuni for dinner twice in a week was a pretty good way to catch up. After the discount, dinner worked out to around $70-90 per person including drinks, which was quite decent considering one would also pay that amount at another Japanese restaurant of poorer quality. 

Beer plus crackers

Hamachi with truffle soy - I preferred the Satsuma version over this, which was a little too salty for my liking, but it was decent overall.

Fast to cook, good to eat.

The salmon roll was decent too.

Another look

I liked the negitoro maki, but it had to be eaten rather quickly before the seaweed got too soft

There could have been a little more fish :)

The chirashi was the winner for me - with lots of different types of seafood. It was like a sculpture to be admired from many different angles.

Like this....

And like this. Extremely fresh seafood, including swordfish, otoro, uni, ika, hotate and one huge amaebi.

Scallops baked in yuzu butter. Heavenly.

A close up - the juices were good enough to slurp up.

Roasted sesame seeds for the katsu that was yet to arrive.

King crab fried rice - pretty tasty, but I wouldn't have missed the crab had it been omitted.

The deep fried prawn head was delicious also.

Kurobota pork katsu - very well done.

Crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside.

Foie gras and wagyu gyoza arriving on a rather strangely decorated plate, with (s)mashed pumpkin that looked like it had been smeared over.

I'm not sure I appreciate such upmarket fillings for gyoza...it was nice, but I would have been perfectly happy with the standard pork and chives.

Another round of the extremely attractive chirashi.

This time with more attractive otoro.

Chicken wings-  these were done very very nicely, with crispy skin and juicy meat. The only problem was that they had been rather generous with the salt.

Teppanyaki cod - good as well. It's difficult to go wrong with a cod and a teriyaki sauce.

Squid, that would have been much nicer if it didn't arrive on a bed of taugey! Sigh.