There was a recent (16 June 2014) change of management to the restaurant we are reviewing this week. Sushi of Masuya was formerly known as Musashi Dining Bar. The new management preserves the former restaurant’s concept of Japanese Izakaya.
The first plate coming to our table was the Sashimi Deluxe Platter. It is only befitting that the first test for a Sushi establishment was the freshness of the fish! The types of Sashimi presented in their Sashimi deluxe platter did not disappoint. The presence of Scampi and beef tataki was a gigantic plus in my good book. They also had the ‘usual’ suspects, such as Tamago (egg), Salmon, Tuna and Kingfish. They also include a little side of tsukemono (Japanese pickles), scallops and squid with fish roe.
Sashimi Deluxe Platter – $58
For our second dish, Deep fried salmon belly, I don’t think it requires a big introduction. The formula is quite simple: Salmon + its belly section + deep fried = happy face.
Deep fried Salmon Belly – $9.80
Wagyu Skewer was a little bit flat and looked a bit uninteresting when compared to the previous dish. It was also a little too well done to my liking.
Wagyu Skewer – $14.80
Our third salmon dish of the day was Spicy Salmon Fin. The salmon wasn’t exactly spicy by our standards but there was still a decent amount of spice.
Spicy Salmon Fin – $9.80
Just when you think you had enough of salmon, we had Salmon Sushi. This one was actually my son’s dinner (he loves salmon so much!).
Salmon Sushi – $8.80
The last dish of the day, Karaage Chicken, was quite a ‘standard’ one.
You should definitely stick to the Sushi and Sashimi in Sushi of Masuya.
Did you know?
At the time of publication (16 December 2014), Sydney was mourning because of the death of Two Sydneysiders (Tori and Katrina) caused by a gunman at Lindt Cafe Martin Place. Our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families and friends.
Edogin is located in one of the most posh hotels in Jakarta. At a price point of $40 per person, it should be one of the most expensive dinner experiences in Indonesia. However, if you look at what they have to offer, that price is ridiculously cheap compared to other ‘big name’ restaurants with really crappy dishes and overly jacked up price.
So, what do they have to offer?
Quality All You Can Eat
I have been to Edogin twice now and I have yet to find any dishes that are below my standards. Some of them actually exceeded my expectations for non-Indonesian food served in Indonesia. They were as authentic as you could probably ask for!
They have several sections that serve different kind of Japanese cuisines. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the wonderful food from Edogin.
Fresh Sashimi
The obvious first spot to check for quality is its Sashimi range. They have a diverse selection of fresh fishes, octopus, fish roe, and fresh oysters – specifically I think it’s the big pacific oysters!
Rumour has it that they were one of the select few restaurants in Jakarta that received premium grade sashimi straight from the dock.
But seriously, their sashimi is the best I have ever tasted in Indonesia. They are on par with great sashimi place in Sydney.
Teppanyaki
I think their Teppanyaki has the biggest selection of meat and vegetables. They have assortments of fishes, different cuts of meat including beef ribs, poultry, and mushrooms to name a few.
What I like most about its teppanyaki section is its tiger prawns. Gigantic prawns and sometimes with eggs are there (and unlimited) for you to enjoy.
Robatayaki
If I told you above that Edogin’s sashimi was fresh. One of the creatures in their Robatayaki range is still alive! Better yet, they are live baby lobsters! They can even cut your finger if you are not careful in picking them up. You can see a video of the lobster walking off the plate here.
They also have ikan malas (Marble Goby), salmon, tuna, lamb chop, sausages and fish head ready to be grilled.
Noodles
I didn’t get a chance to taste the noodles (even my tummy has its limit!), but just to let you know that they have made-to-order noodles counter.
Assorted Japanese
There were quite a few fried stuffs in this section, including assortments of tempura. In this occasion, I tried their okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and fried salmon skin. I also tried its curious looking prawn and glass noodles in a short glass.
Assorted Desserts
By this point, I think you already got my point that there are lots and lots of options in every section. They seemingly have millions of mini bites, fruits, bread and butter pudding, and some things in shot glasses.
Assorted Ice Cream
And…. If your tummy can still handle it (or you can skip straight to this section), they have no less than 10 selection of ice creams with various toppings to enhance their flavours.
You can choose to have the ‘standard’ scoops and toppings scenario or they can mash them up on a bed of cold rock to create your personalised ice cream.
For this occasion, I ordered Pandan and Malaga ice creams with dragon fruit and lychee. You can also opt for the heavy options like chocolate ice cream with choco chip, cookies, and stuff.
Edogin might be a bit pricey to some Indonesians, but this all you can eat restaurant has the best value of any high-end restaurants in Jakarta!
Did you know?
This is the first restaurant in Indonesia that was given a score of 9.0. It is also possibly the only 9.0+ restaurant that I would come back to without severely damaging my pocket!
It is also nice to have the waiters and waitresses address you by your name when the food is delivered to your table.
Ippudo is located on the fifth floor of the buzzing Westfield Sydney precinct. We have visited Ippudo a few times before, but it was always during lunch. On this occasion, we were invited for a three-course dinner meal at Ippudo. They have a lot more items on the menu when compared to the lunch menu.
Entrees
We ordered the Ippudo Pork Bun. Overhearing the loud conversation from the table next to us, this pork bun apparently has reached the ‘legendary’ status amongst food enthusiasts. We think it was quite a nice pork bun to set the mood for the evening. The braised pork was a perfect match with the sauce.
Ippudo Pork Bun – Steamed bun with braised pork and IPPUDO original sauce – $4
Our second entree of the night was Camembert Tempura. I love camembert cheese and I love crunchy stuff. Enter camembert tempura and I instantly got the best of both worlds! It was an interesting combo because both were pretty delicate and were masterfully fried whilst retaining its shape. The only thing missing here was the substitute for the cranberry sauce. Personally, I would love something sweet to accompany the tempura.
Camembert Tempura – Camembert cheese dipped in batter and deep-fried – $8
A La Carte
We were very pleased with the first a la carte dish, Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon. It was a very well-presented dish. The grilled salmon was presented with maitre d’hotel butter with an accent of Japanese shiso. The salmon was complemented with potatoes and asparagus. In the end, the salmon was mainly devoured by my son as he loved it so much. I only got to taste it a bit.
Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon with maitre d’ butter with an accent of Japanese shiso – $15
Presentation wise, the second a la carte dish, Wagyu Steak with Sauce Japonaise, was comprehensively beaten by the first one. However, the taste was quite on par. The steak was cooked according to what we wanted and laid out in a bed of bean sprouts atop a teppan plate. Its strength was in the sauce Japonaise. The inclusion of mirin and ginger invoked my memory about Tetsuya’s legendary vinaigrette. It worked very well with the steak!
Wagyu steak with sauce Japonaise – $18
These two dishes were more than enough to enhance my Ippudo experience.
Ippudo Ramen
It is not an Ippudo experience without their ramen. There are five different noodles dishes at Ippudo.
Shiromaru Motoaji
Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, black mushroom and shallots. Classic Hakata-style ramen.
The only ramen in the menu that we have not tried. Judging from the description above, this is supposed to be the ‘classic’ ramen.
Akamaru Shinaji
Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots. A refined, modern-style ramen.
Akamaru shinaji is my personal favourite. The miso paste worked well together with the fragrant garlic oil! On this occasion, we did not order this because we wanted to try the other on the menu.
Ippudo Karaka Men
Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso & ground pork.
Karaka Men Tamago – $20
Karaka Men was a pretty simple miso ramen. Unfortunately, I underestimated the word ‘spicy’ in the menu. The ramen was quite spicy for someone who only eats spicy food sparingly.
Tori Shoyu Ramen
Description from the menu: Topped with original chicken chashu, menma, leeks, naruto and nori.
When we first came to Ippudo, we did not see this menu. It was quite an option for people who doesn’t eat pork. Instead of miso-based, this ramen was soy-based (shoyu) and that gave the clearer soup based. However instead of chashu looking chicken, the meat looked more like thinly-sliced chicken breast fillet.
Tori Shoyu Ramen – $15
Vegetarian Noodles
Description from the menu: Topped with avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, yogurt, mandarin, corn flakes, mixed nuts, and a side of greens. Noodles mixed with a special sesame based sauce and topped with balsamic vinegar.
The vegetarian-version of the noodles was actually a dry one. I am not a big fan of large amount of vegetables, but my wife said that this dish was her favourite in Ippudo.
A few interesting things about Ippudo:
– You are not allowed to have BYO at Ippudo Sydney.
– When you ordered the soup-based noodles, you were offered how well you wanted the noodles to be cooked (Soft, Medium or Hard).
This week our review is about an interesting Teppanyaki restaurant, Tem Ichi Teppanyaki. I went there because of an interesting deal from one of those deal websites that resulted in a very cheap price for a Teppanyaki.
We got the Kawasaki Set (Banquet-B) with supposedly 10-course banquet menu. However, we didn’t get the mixed stir-fried vegetable.
The first three courses were quite uneventful, a small bowl of Fresh Salad, a bowl of Miso Soup with beansprouts (?), and two spring rolls. They were… well… quite uneventful, except maybe with the introduction of bean sprouts in our miso soup.
The first action on the grill today was prawns and fresh fish. They were lightly coated and nicely seasoned. Unfortunately, the chef got rid of the crunchy prawn legs. Still on that same action, we also got Teriyaki Chicken. The chicken was perfectly grilled and I think was the nicest dish of the day.
Teppanyaki is all about theatrics and food entertainment and so far we haven’t seen that part of Teppanyaki. However, it soon changed with our next course, Misoyaki Steak. The chef started off by lighting up a huge flame on our beef. However many times you have been to a Teppanyaki place, seeing this is never boring! The misoyaki steak was grilled more on the medium side, but it is still okay.
Our chef didn’t do the egg-catching exercise, but he did do the ‘Gattling Gun’ egg show. He basically asked a volunteer to hold a small bowl facing the chef. He would then cut and throw the omellette in one swift motion, repeatedly. It’s a good fun for everyone… except probably the person tried to dodge the gauntlet.
The fun didn’t last long as everyone now got the chance to catch bowls, with the last being filled with fried rice – and you get to eat it afterwards.
We have a small scoop of soft serve ice cream as the last dish of the day.
The verdict for Tem Ichi Teppanyaki Japanese Restaurant
Like many other Teppanyaki restaurants, taste and aesthetic were the least things mattered to Tem Ichi Teppanyaki. The restaurant was sparsely decorated and the food was quite uneventful.
Back in 2011, I reviewed Sushi Tengoku with one major issue: wait time. So, what’s so different this time around?
Sushi and Sashimi
Sushi was the thing I love the most at Sushi Tengoku. They are nice, extra large, and served pretty fast! We never miss ordering aburi salmon and aburi scallops. Some people said that the sea urchin sushi was nice, but we always have difficulties in trying to find which one to cut from our order.
If you want variety, we suggest you to order sushi or sashimi moriawase.
Sushi rolls and small dishes
Whenever we are in Sushi Tengoku, we always ordered tamago roll and spider roll. Sushi tengoku’s sushi rolls were humongous as always! Trying to finish them was quite a task.
If you can stand fish head, I suggest you to try teriyaki salmon fish head. For only $5, it is by far the best value for money dish.
Specials
Specials are the one place that was problematic last time around. This time, we upped the ante and ordered two specials: Baked Scallops and Volcano Roll.
We were pretty pleased that the baked scallops were served reasonably fast and they were actually bigger. Baked scallops consisted of scallops, salmon, fish roe, and mayonnaise.
The volcano roll was pretty interesting. There were eight sushi maki with charred (aburi) crab meat.
We’re pretty impressed with the changes that happened at Sushi Tengoku! Still the same gigantic sushi and baked scallops, but now without the ridiculously long wait time!
Did you know?
My Japanese friend once told me that a good sushi was not judged by the quality of meat, but was actually the intricate process to produce its rice!
Sushi Tengoku is the second restaurant that All About Food blog revisited (Churrasco being the other one).
Why do we revisit?
Some restaurants we visit regularly. If we think that the restaurant has improved significantly, we’ll try to get a new post for that restaurant.
Urbanspoon listed All About Food Blog as 11% Japanese cuisines. I think now I know why as our first ever post in Gold Coast was (surprise, surprise) a Japanese restaurant! We were actually relying on Urbanspoon’s readers that showed us the best tasting Japanese restaurant around the area where we stayed. Our choice fell to Donto Sapporo Japanese Restaurant.
We didn’t order that many dishes because there were only the three of us. For the first one, we ordered the mid-range Sashimi that they called Fisherman’s Choice Sashimi ($35). The cuts were very fresh and neat as expected. However, the kinds of sashimi they put in were quite on the average-side for the price tag.
The second dish of the day was Donto Sapporo’s special: Duck Soup ($9.5) – my apologies that the name escaped me as it was a combination of long Japanese words. It was a nice and manageable portion of duck with clear broth/soup with some vegetables to accompany the duck. We were pretty happy that our first two dishes were refreshingly fresh!
Another Donto Sapporo’s special for our third dish: King Crab Tempura ($19.5). I must say I was quite surprised when I saw this special menu; there are not many restaurants in Australia that serve King Crab Tempura! In addition to the king crab tempura, they also did seaweed in tempura batter and also some vegetables. The crab itself was very juicy and meaty!
Our last dish was Tempura Udon ($24). There were the usual suspects in Australian tempura dish: prawns, sweet potato, long bean, carrot, eggplant. However, they also threw enoki mushroom into the mix. The udon was also textbook-spot-on. Strangely enough, this tempura tasted a lot crunchier than the king crab tempura. I think it was because the king crab tempura had a lot more meat in one piece than this one.
We left Donto Sapporo feeling pretty impressed with the restaurant. Honestly, we thought we would get those tourist-y over-the-top premium restaurants. However, it turned out to be a nice and homey restaurant with good food and great service.
