California, Rolled and Twisted

Location: Il Terrazzo, Tomas Morato, Quezon City

Love Japanese food with a twist? Love California rolls?To me, the answer to both is no. California rolls are for the faint of heart, or those who can't stomach raw food on its own. And what about Japanese fusion food?? Maybe I haven't had enough of the authentic thing to be ready for the downgrade.

However on the day I stepped into Omakase last week, I made an exception to embrace both.

The colorful platter below is called the GDR platter (Php575). It has 8 pieces each of three kinds of sushi: Golden Blossom, Dynamite and Rising Sun.

I'll start with the Dynamite Roll, which I've read good stuff about. It's the one on the farthest side of the plate. It's an eel tempura maki with spicy salmon on mayonnaise and roe on top. I like it just because it's spicy. I also like the crunchy contribution of the eel tempura in the rice roll.

The Golden Blossom, on the left, is the regular California roll but with shrimp tempura inside. At first I thought it's good, but I realized it's only because of the crunchy shrimp tempura (I like a mixture of textures). Normally there's avocado, but either there was none or we couldn't taste it. We noticed that some parts of the roll were sneakily dipped in tempura, batter and crisped a bit.

Lastly, on the right is the row of Rising Sun maki. The roll is made of rice, nori, crabstick and cucumber inside, and topped with slivers of tuna and salmon sashimi, mango and spring onions. This was our least favorite. B noted that the sashimi was sliced with a poor knife, plus their paleness suggested they were not very fresh.


The GDR came with this dipping sauce made of Japanese mayo, soy sauce and sesame seeds. I think the effect would've been similar to oyster sauce, except more egg-y. I barely touched this, and B said it was sickening after a while.

This is the highlight of our meal, the Uni Tempura (Php200+). The soft and slimy uni is perfect with the crunchy nori deep-fried in tempura batter. I ate the okra also. :) This dish is quite pricey but worth trying

Omakase's fresh take on california rolls--incorporating a crunchy element in the mushy maki--obviously makes it a hit among the locals. I haven't read a bad review of Omakase online, and when we went at 130PM, the place was still packed with people of all ages. The creativity put into the maki makes you wonder about the other things on the menu, but honestly, the bad service (waiters ignoring us, forgetting to provide dipping sauces, failing to give water and refill our glasses) could make you think twice.