Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Tiroir -Wine Bar@Numazu- Izu Gourmet Guide

This restaurant in on the south side of Numazu station and is only 3 minutes by foot. It is on the first floor of the hotel Aria. It’s a bit hard to find the entrance because they don’t have a sign board and it seems that this place is for people in the know! When you enter the hotel on your left is a small glass door which is the wine bar entrance. It’s not very big and has seating for only 18 people. The lighting was low, the background music was bosa nova and it made me feel very relaxed.
As there is no drink menu you are asked what you like and given drinks that match your food order. While this lead to drinks that complimented our food it also was a little frightening as far as the bill went as you don’t know how much you have spent.



Before ordering the food the waiter asks if you dislike anything in particular. I ordered the seasonal recommended menu for 4180 yen which was a hors d’oeuvre, risotto, pasta, main dish of fish or meat and dessert.
The hors d’oeuvre was nine dishes served on one large platter.
They were homemade pickles, kinmedai (marinated fish) uncured deer ham, udo salad plant with fish soup, smoked sea perch, wild boar terrine, mushroom soup, cold cooked turban shell and chorizo sausage made from ‘Eberico’ pork. The pickles were burdock and tasted great and the uncured ham matched the wine perfectly.
Next was the risotto which was made with crab and spinach with a saffron flavor. The rice was a little crunchy but excellent.
After that was the pasta in a tomato, beef and spinach sauce. The pasta was perfectly ‘al dente’ and very thin and delicious.
The main course was fish ‘poware’ which was baked fish with boiled cabbage and broccoli. The taste was delicate and delicious. The meat dish was roast duck with glazed carrots and a herb called watercress which is like spinache. The duck was crispy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside and tasted fresh and very good.

Dessert was orange sherbet, campari gelee and chocolate mousse. I was surprised at how well the flavors matched each other and really enjoyed dessert.
There were many regular customers in the restaurant when we were there.

It has many types of wine and the waiter’s selections were excellent and all the wine we had was good.
It got quite busy after 10 pm and it seems that you can enjoy this wine bar by just having a single drink or going for a delicious course menu like we did.

written by





Tiroir
Address:2-4-8, Otemachi, Numazu
Tel:+81-55-963-0031
http://www.at-s.com/bin/guru/guru0040.asp?yid=E715935004
Budget:5,000 yen
Open:5:00pm~01:00am
Closed:Wed.
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Please see a page here about detailed information on WIREDiCON.

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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Please see a page here about detailed information on WIREDiCON.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Takashima -Sushi@Numazu- Izu Gourmet Guide

Takashima is near Numazu port amoung many other sushi restaurants.
From the outside it doesn't look very impressive but it has a nice atmosphere inside.
We went at 2:00pm to avoid the crowds and managed to get a seat at the counter.
We asked for the days specials and were told they were written on the whiteboard.
They offer set menus ranging in price from 1,000 yen and sushi menus starting at 1,500 yen which is very reasonable.
There were no prices written for the toro or fatty tuna and tamago yaki but we felt they would be reasonable as well.

We ordered vinegared chub mackeral, amberjack cutlass fish and tuna at first.
The mackeral was nice but could have had a stronger vinegar flavour.
My companion doesn't usually like this dish but when I suggested they try it they were pleasantly suprised.

The cutless fish was suprisingly thick with an excellent texture.Our next sushi was horse mackeral, sea urchin and deep sea shrimp.
The horse mackeral tasted like it was swiming only minutes before and was my favorite so far and made me think that it was the reason why we came to Takashima that day.
The seaurchin was sweet condensed and without any fishy smell.
It was excellent.

We ordered both boiled and raw shrimp.
The boiled shrimp was very large and you couldn't see the rice under it. The raw shrimp was also very large and delicious and made me feel happy to be able to eat such nice fresh food.
The last sushi we had was conga sushi.
I had read on the internet that if you go to Takashima you must have the conga so I decided to eat it last.
After trying it I think that people's opinion of it would probably be divided.
The sauce is very rich and strong which some might think overpowers the flavour of the fish whereas others would probably love it.
In conclusion Takashima sushi is probably most suited for women who can enjoy many pieces of sushi without getting full up due to the small rice size.
It offers excellent value for money even though ordering the sushi individually is more expensive than having a set menu.
The interior decor is quite old so it's probably not the best place for a first date but the sushi itself is excellent.

written by





Takashima
Address:115-3, Senbon-minato-cho,Numazu
Tel:+81-55-951-5105
http://www.at-s.com/bin/guru/guru0040.asp?yid=E715935004
Budget:3,000 yen
Open:6:30am~9:00am,11:30am~2:00pm,4:30pm~8:00pm
Closed:Tue.
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Please see a page here about detailed information on WIREDiCON.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Sushian Saito -Sushi@Numazu- Izu Gourmet Guide

Sushian Saito is a small restaurant with only one room and 8 counter seats.
It is situated among the many sushi restaurants in and around Numazu Port and is in the mid-range of price.
The sushi chef looks like a pro wrestler tough guy but displays remarkable finesse in his creations.
His appearance is somewhat intimidating and made me sit up straight and made it hard to relax.

The signature dish is a squid tube filled with sushi rice, seaweed and sea urchin which was my first dish.
The textures of the slightly chewy squid, soft creamy sea urchin, rice and seaweed really complemented each other and made this dish delicious.
Next was abalone steak served in a soy sauce and sweet rice wine sauce. It was presented in the shell and was suprisingly tender and soft unlike most abalone I have tried.
It left me wanting more but I knew that I had many more dishes to come.

After that was a very artistic "shellfish" sushi that looked so good I didn't want to eat it.
I had been looking forward to trying this for a long time and it was very fresh and delicious.
Next was horse mackerel sushi almost in the shape of a ball so that you could not see the rice.
The fish pieces were quite big and fat and tasted fresh and like the sea.
After that was "Kinmedai" sushi that had the skin roasted so that it was hot and crispy and contrasted with the cold and delicate flesh.
It tasted superb and we were in raptures about it but this didn't get a comment or even a sushi from the stern faced sushi chef.
Next was "O toro" which is the fatty belly meat of tuna.
It was pastically cooked and tasted suprisingly like beaf steak and was nowhere near as good as the previous dish partially.

After that we had some very large cooked shrimp sushi and the rice was larger to match.
It was very good and made up for the slightly disappointing "o toro" dish before.
The last dish was egg sushi that was about 3 times the normal size.
It was a little too sweet for my liking.

This shop's sushi is very artistic so the presentation is excellent.
It also tastes great and is excellent value for money so I would highly recommend it.

written by





Sushian Saito
Address:47-2,Kasuga-cho, Numazu
Tel:+81-55-963-1234
http://gourmet.gyao.jp/0003009101/
Budget: 5,000 yen
Open:11:30am~9:00pm
Closed:Thu.
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Please see a page here about detailed information on WIREDiCON.