Sora Jima - Muscat

For those of you Familiar with Jap Cuisine , this is the place to head to .Well i wasn,t thrilled about going to this place , but i must say i was surprised . I enter the place and there is a large buddha dominating the decor and there is a show kitchen where one gets to see how the food is made. I started to ease up as this wasn't so bad :Pthen I meet yasuhiro katayama (The chef) who suggested what to eat , i was happy that i didn't have to go through the complicated menu . For starters i had dash maki tomato Jap rolled omelets , for the mains i had ebi try hiyyaki torino karage , the best was the omelet it was crispy and just melts in your mouth  the tempura with was battered perfectly !The ambience was beautiful and as you leave you don't feel too light on your pocket :D

Although I have tasted sashimi I never had it as a dinner ,sashimi was disappointing it was indeed good for 750 rupees presentation is very good and I had a Hawaiian mocktail which was also superb ,sashimi platter worth trying decent to good interiors I would prefer teppan if I wanted to eat Japanese

A fellow foodie pinged me to inform about a bloggers meet at a Japanese restaurant and I agreed to give it a try despite being apprehensive about it. The hesitation was largely because of my lack of exposure to quality Japanese food and an inherent discomfort with sushi's. That said, after having tried and loved several new cuisines over the last couple of years I really wanted to get my palate accustomed to the globally loved and enjoyed Japanese cuisine.

‘But I am a Vegetarian’! This was my confused answer when I was invited to the Indo-Japanese food festival at Sora Jima,Accord Metropolitan,T Nagar. After reassuring that they can satisfy a vegetarian’s soul, I decided to experience the festival on a saturday night along with my foodie buddies.

A fellow foodie pinged me to inform about a bloggers meet at a Japanese restaurant and I agreed to give it a try despite being apprehensive about it. The hesitation was largely because of my lack of exposure to quality Japanese food and an inherent discomfort with sushi's. That said, after having tried and loved several new cuisines over the last couple of years I really wanted to get my palate accustomed to the globally loved and enjoyed Japanese cuisine.<br/ <br/ About the Festival <br/ <br/ This festival is in celebration of the Japanese summer and showcases some of their delicacies with a desi (Indian) twist. This made it perfect for a person like me to make a gradual progress and to enjoy and appreciate this cuisine. <br/ <br/ For authentic Japanese food lovers, sticking to their regular menu might be ideal. <br/ <br/ Ambience<br/ <br/ Despite the fact that they are the only dedicated Japanese restaurant (or so I believe) in a five star property in Chennai, they are styled in a mini restaurant model with a small and limited dining area. What was impressive though was how the restaurant was structured to accommodate large groups. <br/ <br/ With minor additions to set the theme, the private dining enclosure was one of the attractive aspects from an ambience perspective. <br/ <br/ Service<br/ <br/ The staff did a good job in ensuring we were comfortable and in guiding us through the orders. Mr. Sourav who attended our table was an enthusiastic chap and seemed reasonably informed about the dishes. <br/ <br/ The food however is served with a minor lag, which is relatively common among luxury diners. <br/ <br/ Pricing<br/ <br/ The promo menu was fairly priced for a five star hotel. However, if one was to benchmark to regular dining joints (I believe that may not be a fair practice though) it could be considered expensive. <br/ <br/ Food<br/ <br/ Soup Chicken clear soup<br/ <br/ A clear soup with made of chicken chunks and generous portion of seaweed. The seaweed usage resulted in giving a seafood aroma and taste to the soup and that did not work for me. Considering they had a dedicated seafood soup, I could have might as well tried that if that was the taste I desired. <br/ <br/ Sushi<br/ <br/ With Indianised stuffing like paneer tikka and tandoori chicken, these sushi were quite good. At least finding a familiar taste with a bite made it easier for me to accustom to the cuisine.<br/ <br/ Starter <br/ We tried the following:<br/ <br/ 1. Prawn tempura batter fried prawns served with a good dip. <br/ <br/ 2. Teriyaki Chicken grilled chicken cooked with teriyaki sauce<br/ <br/ 3. Masala okonomiyaki a pancake made of vegetables, chicken and fish and topped with mayonnaise. <br/ <br/ 4. Rock shrimp tempura a sauce mixed batter fried dish<br/ <br/ The okonomiyaki and rock shrimp tempura were; the former tasted fresh and the mayonnaise adulteration was a welcome one. <br/ <br/ Main Course<br/ <br/ Japanese Chicken Biriyani A hardcore biriyani lover like can not accept anything which is merely titled biryani but fails to have the necessary flavors. This dish ended up being a fried rice made out of sticky rice.<br/ <br/ Seer fish with Aleppey dashi the grilled seer fish with a bitter coconut curry was such a saviour and made the biriyani above an edible one. We went for refills of the curry and this was among the better dishes served to us. <br/ <br/ Desserts<br/ <br/ I had considered skipping desserts when I noticed all of them had a green tea base and to make it worse the options were: creme brulee and panacotta; two desserts I have appreciated on a handful of occasions. <br/ <br/ 1. Panacotta Served with a dose of strawberry syrup and infused with fine coconut chunks, it felt like this dessert was custom made to suit my preference. Loved the slightly unusual creamy taste and all of the aforementioned elements blended in perfectly. WOW! <br/ <br/ 2. Creme Brulee The ladies ordered for a refill and kept gorging on this one. I found it decent and torched top was especially well made.<br/ <br/ 3. Green tea Ice Cream By this point I had gotten tired of green tea. A typical green tea lover might appreciate this ice cream, however the inconsistency in mixing and adding of green tea powder put me off a bit.<br/ <br/ On a summary note, this place is to be tried if you are a Japanese food lover or one aspiring to try this cuisine.