Went in March. Spring is a comparatively humble season, mountainous vegetables and shellfish, subtle, earthy flavors. If you're after crab, matsutake, inoshishi, hamo, fatty fish, you'll have to come during a different season. Note, Nakashima is increasing prices soon (if not already) to around ¥24,000.
Food:
+asparagus okayu, simple, heartwarming
+salt and lemon hirame, soy marinated engawa, salt and lemon helped tenderize the hirame. Initially quite skeptical, but was much tastier than hirame on its own which I find plain and chewy.
~katsuo no tattaki, spring bonito is lean so we were told to enjoy the meatier flavor. I was hoping for a meatier taste. Still tasty.
~squid and shaved karasumi, not the biggest fan of raw squid, too creamy – still OK by itself – but adding shaved karasumi for more creaminess not for me.
++hamaguri, takenoko, wakame, kinome, huge hamaguri, sweet and umami, airy and slurpy wakame, numbing and peppery kinome. Every component was delicious.
++tairagai, miso sauce, huge tairagai, 3 thick chunky slices (completely different texture vs at a sushiya sliced thinly & horizontally), firm, meaty, plump, fantastic.
+tai wrapped in cherry leaf filled with Sakura rice
+chicken, thigh meat nice and moist, skin crispy (similar to a crackling texture), chicken breast was just okay
+takenoko, sesame donabe
~yuzu jelly, strawberry
My favourite Japan meals so far have been Wakuden and Nakashima. Think I want to focus on more kaiseki going forward. Anywhere I've missed below? I'm not hot for Japanese beef, so I've ruled out places like Miyoshi.
The unicorns, Miyamasou, Ogata, Tokuha Motonari, Matsuyama, Onjaku, Fuji
4.1/5
by lexicalsatire
1 Comment
This was our first dinner in Japan on our trip 2 years ago and we both loved it. They are certainly justified in increasing their prices.