A satisfying lunch ...
Was having a farewell lunch for one of my colleagues at Great World City where I chanced upon the Kuriya Resturant on the 3rd floor. Always thought that Kuriya was only the counter that sells the take-away sushi and was part of Ichiban resturant. Turns out they have a very classy resturant just 2 floors above.
Decided to give it a try today for lunch when no one could decide where we should go. Boy, was it a great decision. At the door of the resturant where they usually get the guest to "Wait to be seated", the short stretch of passage way to the inside was tastefully decorated with excellent gentle lighting and 3 elegant pots of orchid. Wish I took a picture of that but decided that I would look too much of a tourist and maybe a little too country bumpkin.
Took us a while to decide the menu. One reason was that we did not really know what to expect (since its the 1st time for all of us) but mainly I think the key reason has to be that the cheapest set meal I could see at a glance was $23. Guess was kinda out of our usual lunch budget, felt kind of embarressed that I made everyone spend so much for lunch. Well, eventually we all managed to decide on something that the price is something we can swallow. I chose the Teriyaki Cod Fish set which came with a Chawamushi, miso soup, rice, some preserved radish, some "sichuan" preserved vegetable, desserts and coffee. And on the spur of the moment, I added yakitori not knowing the portions which were to come.
I must say, it was one of the best lunch I had. The cod fish was tender and the teriyaki source blended perfectly with the light taste of the cod fish ... excellent! I would definitely recommend this set to anyone who visits. The appetitizers were delightfully complementary and made the rice definitely much easier to finish. I must say miso soup was average though.
Next was the interesting chawamushi ... well ... taste was ... different. Quite unlike most chawamushi I've had. However, the only ones I've ever tasted are from Ichiban, Sakae, Sushi Teh, etc... all local products so I can't tell which is really authentic. It not bad though, just different. Bruce, Wendy and Wanting (my colleagues) all order set meals hence we had the chawamushi. The funny thing was that Bruce ate first and was telling us his thoughts as well and some of the contents in the cup. Mushrooms, naruto, chicken ... Wendy was next (she did not quite like it so she did not really finish). I went on to the chawamushi after my main course and hey! There was this extra prawn. Wendy and Bruce both exclaimed that theirs was without any prawns. So we all waiting for Wanting to have hers and hey presto, hers had a prawn too! Wendy decided to dig deeper into whats remaining of hers. At 1st yielded no results, but finally lying a the very bottom of the cup .... was the prawn! Hmmm.... writting it here doesn't feel very funny, but it was quite hilarious during the time when Bruce ended up the only one who did not have a prawn in his chawamushi.
By this time, we have totally forgotten that we still have desserts and coffee to go and we were all stuffed to our neck in good food. But hey, there's always room for some desserts. It was a small scoop of ice-cream, some fruits and cheese pudding. Shan't go into details about the fruits and ice-cream, was rather normal. The cheese pudding is worth mentioning though. At first, all of us looked at each other and our faces were like ... yucks, cheese pudding? Must be super rich and sweet and super hard to finish. To my surprise, it turned out to be a very light dessert. The pudding was smooth and the cheese taste was mild. Just enough to let you know that its cheese pudding, yet not strong enough to overpower you. Wasn't that sweet as well. A very good ending to a definitely very enjoyable meal. I will give it 4 out of 5 stars!
Leave a comment