Location: Dusit Thani, Makati City
If one day you wake up with thoughts of meat filling your head, when you're feeling so carnivorous that you can eat a pony, stop yourself before you head to the nearest steakhouse. If you're going to have yourself a piece of beef, by all means treat yourself to the best with Umu's Wafu Steak. I am not exaggerating when I say that you'll die happy if it's the last meat dish you will eat. Well actually, no, you will be sad because you won't be around to have it again.
I know this blog is turning out to be a declaration of passion for Japanese cuisine. Is it obvious that Jap food has a big following among Filipinos? In our case, it's the default option when we're not feeling adventurous; our tried and tested Japanese restaurants always let us go home happy and feeling healthy. Sometimes though, it's nice to discover new Japanese restaurants reserved for special occasions.
Umu is located in Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City. You will never imagine a fantastic Japanese restaurant in a Thai hotel, but there you go.
I'm going straight to the highlight of our dinner and move backwards from there. The steak I want to describe deserves nothing less.
When the Wafu Steak arrives at the table, it devilishly casts its onion-and-meat aroma towards you, pleasuring the olfactory senses until you realize you've got your nose half an inch away from the bowl. The plating is beautiful: all pinks, browns and reds. You can tell that the beef is a perfect medium-rare by its pink center, while the browned exterior means it's seared just enough to seal in the juices. Spring onion, red peppercorn and garlic flakes (I think, if not potato strings) are used to garnish the dish.
I can't describe enough how mind-blowing the beef is. It's soft and so so juicy... like really tender pork meat. I don't like steak because I end up wanting to spit out the chewy beef after sucking the juice. The unbelievable un-chewiness of the Wafu Steak is a revelation to me. The sauce is sweet and peppery. It was so good that when all the beef was gone, we seriously considered taking away the remaining half-centimeter of sauce!
And now for the rest of what went down. Since we opted to sit outside on the patio to afford the view of a pond with koi and waterfalls, the pictures were taken with the Night Shot setting. The result was ten minutes of picture-taking everytime a dish arrived before we could get a nice shot! Please appreciate my effort! :D
View of restaurant interior from the patio
Complimentary Tuna while waiting for our dishes. The pieces were chunky in a light sweet sauce. It was a little dry for me so I gave most of it to B.
The Sashimi Gosyumori seems to be Umu's most requested signature dish. Comprised of five different sashimi around a box of dry ice, its arrival is an event of its own. Since the sashimi are Chef selected, they vary from time to time.
We were looking forward to some uni but ours had grouper (or maybe red snapper) instead, along with salmon, tuna, kampachi and one more we couldn't identify. Presentation aside, we liked the freshness of all the sashimi.
This is Kaki-Furai or deep-fried oysters. There were three oyster shells, each sitting on their own bed of salt and containing two pieces of Kaki-Furai. Chili, tomato and an unidentified herb garnish the tempura dish and lend a spicy-tangy kick. The oysters did not have a funny after-taste to them, which means they were fresh.
The Miso Soup (not pictured. Hello, it's soup) came next and finally the Wafu Steak. After the meal, we took some pictures around the restaurant. Umu was actually nominated for best restaurant interior design in Asia some years ago, and we could definitely see why.
The hallway of the restaurant
I love the kimono-esque upholstery
Orchids
Some floral plant I see around in most commercial establishments
Yakiniku area
The staff even let us play around and took our picture :)
For more privacy, there are rooms like these which you can reserve. It opens up to the garden so it must be nice here during daytime. I was not able to take pictures of the pond but I'm sure it's nicer during the day too.
The only thing I can complain about Umu is that when you sit out in the patio, it becomes hard to get service because it's so dark that the staff can't see you from inside. It would be nice to put more lights out there, or at least have someone regularly check for customers needing a glass of water or waiting for their bill.
A four and a half star dining experience. Ohh that lip-smacking steak... Seriously, it's a sin to live in Manila and not try it.
No comments:
Post a Comment