Sunday, September 15, 2013

Hamanoya@Marina Square

Had lunch at this newly opened Japanese restaurant at the revamped Marina Square shopping center.  The ambient is quite alright, the green tea is served with typical Japanese tea set.


We ordered a total of 3 dishes to share among the two of us.


The yakitori don has a nice presentation, making you feel good.  Yakitori don, if you have no idea about Japanese or Japanese food, basically it means skewered meat with rice.  The small little chicken wings are more on the dry side, not much juice left.  The sausage is, well, you know, processed meat.


The part of Japanese cuisine that I like very much is actually their small side dishes, the preserved vegetables.  Mmmh...It is not very healthy, but they taste good.  For example, this preserved reddish is crispy and a little bit sour, just nice to enhance your appetite.


I am not very sure whether beef tataki is something original in Japanese.  It seems to me it is more like a borrowed way of cooking beef from Western food.  They slice the beef into thin slices, then use a gas gun to briefly sear the beef.  The version we have at this restaurant is more on the dry side, the juice is gone.  However, I must say the presentation is nice.


The great expectation of the lunch is the Ayu Fish.  We had seen it on TV times and again, and it is always with great praises.  Our Ayu fish came about half an hour's time.  The presentation again is nice.  I had the honour to eat the head half of the fish.

I must say the experience is not very pleasant.  Firstly, the fish is obviously the frozen type, hence the meat is a bit soft and tasteless, less the taste of salt.  I can quite understand this, no matter what, we are thousands of miles away from Japan.

Secondly, the belly portion of the fish is bitter!  This is quite obvious that the fish was not properly prepared or selected.  I dislike bitter fish!  The aunty at my neighbourhood supermarket may have problem in cleaning the fish properly, that I have no complaints, but we are in a restaurant.  The minimum standard is to provide your customers with proper food.

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