Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Seian -Kaiseki@Numazu- Izu Gourmet Guide

Seiyan is a Kaiseki (Japanese traditional) restaurant situated in the Hotel West on the North side of Numazu station.
If you are a hotel guest you get a 10% discount and it is quite strict in that it doesn't allow smoking or childeren under 12 years old.








The decor is modern Japanese style and offers romantic views of the outside through oval windows.
There are 3 menus for dinner and as is often the case in Kaiseki restaurants they are called the snow, the moon and the flower.
The snow is 10,000 yen, the moon is 7,000 yen and the flower is 5,000 yen and we ordered the moon.






The drink menu had many famous and high class Japanese rice wines and of particular interest was the Emperor's choice "Ishidaya" which is 6,000 a glass. We ordered tea.







The first dish was semi-dried sea bream with spring onion like vegetables and wild mountain vegetables. It had a fresh and delicate taste.
Next that was sea urchin "chawan mushi" which is a steamed egg dish which also had soft fish roe in it. It was very creamy and didn't have the strong smell often associated with sea urchin.

Next was lightly roasted bonito, raw blow fish beatifully presented with some special spice for the fugu.
It was excellent but made me really want to drink sake but I tried to resist the urge.
After that was teriyaki yellow tail with pickled white radish.
The fish was deliciously fatty and made further resistance of drinking sake impossible so we ordered a small glass of the Emperor's choice sake.
The "ishidaya" sake was every bit as good as I expected it to be and made me wish I could afford to drink it more.

The next dish was conger eel and a special potatoes from Kyoto known as "ebiimo". They were both boiled and served with rose blossom petals and had a unique delicious flavour that made us wish we had more sake.
Sushi was served next and consisted of tuna, alfonsino, horse mackeral, and egg amongst others.
We were really impressed with the taste and texture of the sushi and the rice base was particulary good.
Dessert was salted icecream which was sound strange but is popular in Japan as the salt brings out the sweetness in the icecream.
It was a simple dish but a nice way to finish an excellent meal.

In conclusion Seiyan offers very comfortable surroundings, excellent and knowledgable service, interesting and tastey food so I would recommend you try it.

written by


Seiyan
Address:5-11,Hotel WEST,Takashima-cho, Numazu
Tel:+81-55-922-7110
http://www.numazu-seian.jp/
Budget:Lunch 3,000 yen Dinner 8,000 yen
Open:12:00pm~2:00pm,5:00pm~10:00pm
Closed:Sun.
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