Tinu Menachery: Japanese Cuisine

Showing posts with label Japanese Cuisine. Show all posts

Tanuki is the newest addition to Dubai Mall’s gastronomical delights. It’s situated on the lower level offering Japanese cuisine, close to the water fountain. It makes for an ideal place with a beautiful view while dining especially at night, where you can watch the fountain and the Burj Khalifa – its one view that never gets old.

With both outdoor and indoor seating, Tanuki offers an amazing dining experience. We chose to sit inside as it was more private and cozy inside. The interiors were done in earthy hues of browns and greens with a pop of colors using the furniture and wall décor, with an open kitchen.

A friendly fun robot welcomes you inside the restaurant – you can place your order with the interactive robot. I also loved the Japanese live wall art which was a constant throughout the dinner with anime and et al. The place was truly a mini modern Japan.

The Menu is simple, which makes the ordering process easier. Images of how the food looks like aids selection.

We started off with Avocado Mint and Kiwi Celery. Of the two I loved the Kiwi celery. Both were fresh, however I loved the taste of Kiwi Celery more, and would definitely say it’s a must try (P:S – I love KIWI).

We were then served a delicious bowl of chili garlic edamame, and it’s so addictive – I just couldn’t stop eating them. When the miso soup was served, it looked really tiny for a one person portion – but it was equally filling and sumptuous.

For the next course, we ordered for maki’s – Philadelphia maki, mango ebi, Tanuki Kogase and Philadelphia unagi.

The Philadelphia maki had salmon, cucumber, avocado, green onion, soft cheese and sesame seeds . This was a huge bite but delish at that.

It was my first at tasting Unagi and what better way than a Philadelphia Unagi. It was a beautiful explosion of smoked eel, cream cheese, cucumber with unagi and Caesar sauce. One word – Yum.

Mango ebi was another delish dish which had Shrimp tempura, cucumber, mango and tobiko. The flavors were very nice and it is definitely a must try.

The star of what we ordered was undoubtedly the Tanuki Kogase. It’s served warm, and literally melts in your mouth. The lightly seared salmon and eel mixed with cream cheese are definitely a delight to one’s palate. It’s definitely one of their signature dishes and it’s a loss, if you don’t try this at Tanuki. It was so sumptuous we ordered a second helping.

We tried the chicken and mushroom XLB’s. I liked the mushroom more than the chicken bao. However, the maki’s were definitely the star in our tasting session.

We completed our dinner with Kuro Eru and Manila Roll. Being a chocolate lover, my choice may be a little biased towards the Kuro Eru. It’s sweet kiwi maki with fruits like pineapple, strawberries, banana, almond and cream cheese. It was novel for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The service is quick, our cutlery was changed post every meal. The staff was extremely warm and friendly and were making sure all their patrons are comfortable.

I would definitely recommend Tanuki, if you love Japanese food. And if you don’t, Tanuki would be the right place to start with.

Tanuki

Location: Near The Waterfall, Lower Ground Level, The Dubai Mall, Downtown Dubai, Dubai

Cost: AED 200 for two

Reserve your table at: 045808228

I was invited to Tanuki and all views and images are © Urbanmodish, unless stated otherwise.

Mega Brunch is such a novel concept and I was beyond thrilled to savor the same at Venetian Village. Located at the Ritz Carlton, Abu Dhabi it hosts many restaurants within its beautiful hotel.

The Venetian Village is Abu Dhabi’s newest dining destination. Located within the grounds of The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal and overlooking Khor Al Maqta, the Venetian Village brings together a collection of internationally acclaimed artisan restaurants offering exquisite cuisines from around the world.

The Mega Brunch included four of its restaurants – Bar fly by Buddha bar, La Brasserie, kaizen and Todd English’s Olives.

We walked around and chose to start with Bar fly owing to its seafood counter. It also had an amazing grill station, sushi counter, a dessert station and gin and tonic bar. The place is so beautiful, the interiors had me gaping in awe. The bright vibrant hues of red and yellows complete with soothing music in the background provided an amazing ambiance for the brunch.

We, however chose to sit outside (hello amazing weather) and enjoyed the lovely view and moreish food. The food was saporous and delish. We tried their sushi, dimsums and their fresh sea food which was grilled to perfection.

The sushi’s were just perfect. The beef dimsums were mouthwatering and delish. I would have preferred a thinner dough wrap for both the seafood dimsums. However, the filling was very succulent.

We chose Sultan Ibrahim and salmon, and they were grilled to perfection and served. The dessert counter was heaven. Loved the macaroons, tarts, and baked Alaska.

The service was prompt, the staff were extremely polite and warm and assisted us with out food dilemmas.

Post a good hour and half at Bar fly, we ventured out to try La Braserie which had a cheese counter, Crepe and waffle station, cheese counter and a fresh seafood counter along with a Martini Bar.

Our next pit stop was Kaizen, they had a sushi and sashimi station along with a salad counter, with some far eastern cocktails. Needless to say the sushi and sashimi were an absolute hit. I loved how the staff were dressed in traditional Japanese outfits. The staff were extremely pleasant and helped us with our orders.

Olives had some fun live entertainment complete with live pasta and risotto counter along with a salad and bread station with a complete Mediterranean buffet.

The weather is perfect to enjoy the brunch one’s own pace. It is a wonderful concept to be able to savor from all four restaurants, while enjoying the amazing view overlooking the canal.

I would definitely recommend you all to try it out. They have entertainment activities for kids as well.

The packages are as mentioned:

AED 290 - soft drinks

AED 390 – House beverage

AED 490 – Bubbly package

Venetian Village

Location: Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, Al Maqtaa, Abu Dhabi

Cost: AED 650 for two

Reserve your table at: 024041951

Have you been following Venetian Village yet in social media? Like and follow them on Instagram and Facebook and check their website for updates.

I was invited to Venetian Village and all views and images are © Urbanmodish, unless stated otherwise.

The revamped Roda Al Bustan (previously Rotana Al Bustan) has a plethora of restaurants. I tried Hibachi (previously Benihana) and was not disappointed one bit.

I was invited for the Japatapas, and was pretty intrigued to see Japan mixing with Spain.

Cherry Blossom trees were placed on either sides welcoming it’s patrons to a beautiful night of Japanese cuisine and hospitality. The restaurant has a live station and also a sushi station.

The Japatapas had a set four course menu. We started off with a sushi platter and kale & quinoa salad. Had I known the food that was to flow, I wouldn’t have devoured the scrumptious Sushi platter and fresh salad.

We were served a bucket of peanuts to strat our Japatapas journey.

The second course had a lot food. It included – peppered tuna, salmon and hammour, tofu steak with paratha, seafood diablo, hibachi goreng and Yakichorva.

My favorite were, the perfectly cooked tuna, the delish salmon, tofu steak was very tasty however the parathas were a miss for me. Prawns were perfectly cooked and the sauce was exceedingly saporous. I was too full to try the hibachi goreng and yakichorva – but my friend loved it.

We moved onto the third course (I was almost ready to burst). The third course has many star dishes, almost all of them were in their own way. The chicken wings were so succulent, juicy with the right amount of spice. Crispy chicken in garlic sauce was again palatable. Both the beef dishes – with teriyaki and sake were mouthwatering. Perfectly cooked and small bites ensured one could savor all the food.

Ram and an ever smiling server were always around to assist us. We enjoyed amazing Red wine and Sake as well.

We moved onto dessert and had a full house on the table with Crepe Ice cream, Chocolate brownie and Japanese cheesecake.

The brownie wasn’t something I liked as much as I loved the Crepe ice cream.

The problem with being a blogger is that you have to take pictures and then satiate your taste buds. In the interim the ice cream melted away to the wrap. However, inspite of that the crepe was toothsome.

My expectation of the Japanese cheesecake was that it should wiggle (Instagram videos, keep messing with your mind) I did everything to make it wiggle and then gave up. But on digging in, I realized that wiggle or not – the taste was amazing.