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Saturday night, I met Satoshi in Umeda for dinner after his German class.We had dinner at a wine bar called Luxe Tajimaya. Tajima-gyu is a brand name of beef, similar to Kobe beef.
The restaurant is actually a lounge, so we started out with some wine and some amuse bouche. Amuse bouche, in Japanese is called tsukidashi, this is something that is automatically served and charged for, though no one orders it.
The amuse bouche was a cold corn cream soup and spoonful of homemade beef tongue sausage. This sausage's flavor reminded me of the days when my mom used to make her own salami.
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Since we were hungry for dinner and this place was a lounge, we ordered some pupus (appetizers).Marinated olives. These were delicious. It was marinated in an agrodolce sauce (which I googled to mean sour-sweet in Italian).
We loved the sour yet sweet flavor plus the saltiness from the olives and crunch from the walnuts. I gotta try to re-create this, it was so good!
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Bagna Cauda. True bagna cauda is an anchovy olive oil sauce, but this lounge uses dried beef as the base of their sauce.The flavor reminded me of sukiyaki or nikujaga because it was a little sweet, different but delicious with all the different veggies to dip.
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Then came our steak. A 100 grams of Ibaraki beef. I actually saw the chef drop part of the veggies on the floor then put them back onto the hot stone!! (5 second rule..sigh)The filet steak was cooked medium rare and was so tender and juicy. Talk about melt in your mouth!
We ate it by itself, then with a squeeze of kabosu (a type of lime) and with then with freshly grated wasabi. We were amazed that the freshly grated wasabi was not hot/spicy.
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Lastly we had a cheese plate. It came on a 2-tiered tray. There were so many different cheeses that I could only catch mimolette as one of the cheeses..JPG)
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For the two of us, with 4 glasses of wine and 1 beer and all that food, it came out to just over 10,000 yen (about US$100).We're not sure if we would go back regularly, maybe for a special occasion.
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Luxe TajimayaE-ma 5F
1-12-6 Umeda
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6440.0029
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it looks like you enjoyed a really nice dinner. the bagna cauda looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat looks absolutely gorgeous. I'll remember it for next time we're there. I'm kind of horrified by food being picked up off the floor though! Does this happen often in Japan? Is it acceptable?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it happens too often Momiji, I just so happened to be watching the chef as he cooked our steak. :0
ReplyDeleteIt was delicious Genki :)
Take care you two.
Kat
Your meal looks delicious--especially the steak and those olives too. Yum!
ReplyDeleteI hope I can re-create the olives Debinhawaii, it was so delicious!
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat
He picked the vegs up off the floor???! Drat that 5-second rule thing. Anyway, I was holding my breath until the end of the post because I was so curious on what the meal would cost. That was definitely "luxe"! Awesome meal.
ReplyDeleteRowena,
ReplyDeleteI think the cook thought I didn't see it fall, but I did. And then I saw it on the grill afterwards, so I knew he picked it up and cooked it...I told Satoshi and he said "at least they are cooking it". He said he would have complained if they didn't. I probably would have too if they didn't.
Take care.
Kat
The steak looks delicious! I'm intrigued that in Japan the amuse bouche is automatically served and added to your bill even if you don't request it. What if you don't like what they're serving for that? Does anyone complain?
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of foreigners complain about this Jenster. Most Japanese are used to it. I know if I don't like what they serve, I give it to Satoshi or don't eat it at all, kind of a waste and we still have to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Kat