belated anniversary

Our wedding anniversary was on Sunday, but the places that Satoshi had chosen to have dinner at weren't in operation on that day.

So we just had a pupu party at home.

Then, I had an appointment in Umeda on Wednesday, so we met afterwards at Daimaru for dinner.

Satoshi chose Grill & Bar Sun, a restaurant run by Suntory, the beverage maker.

We started with some salmon tartar, the taste really reminded me of lomi-lomi salmon.

If you look carefully at the dish, that "chip" looking thing on top is actually a fried piece of salmon skin.

We also tried the stuffed cabbage made with chirimen cabbage. From the looks of it, I think chirimen cabbage is savoy cabbage.

This was delicious. The broth was a consomme type.

Next up, a whole tomato, some mozzarella and basil roasted in a tiny pot then served with an anchovy cream sauce.

Mash up the tomato and pour the sauce over the whole thing, then eat it with these tomato cheese toasts. So good!

A little rant: Japan serves these "mopping-up" type of dishes with several slices of toast. Most times when you ask for more, they charge you...

So, we asked for more toasts, we got it but had to pay more for it, sigh!

The dish we had been looking forward to trying...a whole onion beef stew.

In Japan, beef stew is demi-glace based. (In Hawaii, it is tomato based.)

Inside of a whole onion, is beef, tender beef.

When you cut the onion open, you'll see just how much beef is in there.

Very impressive dish, no wonder the chef won some kind of award for it.

Satoshi was still hungry so he ordered the vegetable sushi: (back row) asparagus, eringi, tomato, (front row) pickled ginger, zucchini and avocado. He enjoyed these.

I liked the dish it was served in. The top plate can be removed and ice can be placed underneath, this is to keep the food cool while not getting it wet.

To finish, we shared this special eclair. A l-o-n-g eclair filled with rich custard and a slice of strawberry. Delicious.

With 3 beers and a glass of red wine our bill came out to 8380 yen. A little pricey, but the food was delicious and it was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary.

Grill & Bar Sun
Daimaru Umeda 14F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.4796.7330
Hours: 11:00-23:00, Closed when Daimaru is

p.s. It's Friday, I hope you have a great weekend!