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2022-08-14
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Dinner at Usbidoki, which shares a space with adjoining Kicho, a yakitori restaurant.Usbidoki serves kaiseki, using "Odagyu" beef (鹿兒島小田和牛), named after its producer, Kenichi Oda, who owns one of the biggest farms in Kagoshima.Counter seating 10-12, with private room seating up to 6. Whole team seemed to be fluent in Japanese; the 2 Japanese chefs at the counter were conversant in Mandarin. Impressed with the plates and cups. Red chopsticks for ladies; gold for gentlemen.One set menu of 11 cours
Usbidoki serves kaiseki, using "Odagyu" beef (鹿兒島小田和牛), named after its producer, Kenichi Oda, who owns one of the biggest farms in Kagoshima.
Counter seating 10-12, with private room seating up to 6. Whole team seemed to be fluent in Japanese; the 2 Japanese chefs at the counter were conversant in Mandarin.
Impressed with the plates and cups. Red chopsticks for ladies; gold for gentlemen.
One set menu of 11 courses ($2,000 pp).
Here’s what we had.
Lightly seared wagyu cooled by being immersed in cold water. Mixed with very sweet tomato. Topped with tosa vinegar jelly, sprinkled with Karasumi (烏魚子).
Hot soup with beef tongue, water shield (水葵) and winter melon. Winter melon was cold; soup too peppery for me. Had to ask for a spoon to eat the water shield.
2 pieces of beef sushi, being:
-picanha aka Rump Cap (牛臀蓋) with dried caviar and
-rib eye.
Beef Tartar mixed with chopped pickles, topped with caviar and uni. Served with a piece of tempura-ed seaweed. Liked the flavor balance of the tartar; but seaweed was not crispy enough.
2 slices of A5 sukiyaki, with onion that had been cooked for a long time. Served with a soft boiled egg, topped with truffle slices. Supposed to go with a bite-sized ball of rice, also topped with truffle. Egg was cold. Rice was colder- as it had been left out in the air-conditioning for so long, it had turned dry and hard as well. Disappointingly unenjoyable.
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Palette cleanser: Sweet green plum on ice. Surprisingly enjoyable.
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Deep fried sirloin cutlet sandwich with black truffle sauce. Portion was too small for people to appreciate the texture. Quite a lot of tendons in the sirloin; PickyEater thought rib-eye would be a better choice. Wheat bread was used here; we both preferred toasted brioche. Underwhelming.
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Chateaubriand (thick cut of the tenderloin) with eggplant, smoked with sakura wood, in red wine sauce. Very nice smoky aroma drifted out when server removed the lid. Favorite dish of the night.
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3 bite-sized prices of grilled sirloin with a white strand of deep fried noodle, green oblong of 艾草腐, deep fried garlic strips, baby corn, red plum etc. Yuzu pepper and yuzu vinegar as condiments.
Chilled noodles with ikura, oxtail jelly and sesame. Refreshing and flavorful; a bit too strong to the point of salty tho.
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Dessert: egg custard. And whiskey flavored ice Cream monaka- another dish with temperature control issues. Even tho I was really quick with taking photos, IceCream was already melting. Melted IceCream kept seeping out of the wafer sandwich as I was trying to bite into it. Whole hand was covered with IceCream.
In summary: some creative dishes. Wasn’t too full; didn’t feel fatty; which was good. Room for improvement re temperature control: some hot dishes weren’t hot enough; ditto re cold dishes. Friendly service tho. Corkage $400 per bottle.
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