The dinner at Yamazaki on Tuesday was fantastic in terms of foods, their deliciousness and simple yet elegant presentation but unfortunately the service felt quite distant and unwelcoming to say at the least. I felt like I was presented with the dreaded gaijin counter experience we all hate to have and dreaded ‘not a member’ treatment sprinkled on top. Nobody was checking up on me during the meal regarding how everything was going, how I felt about each dish and etc, despite the fact that chef Yamazaki was doing all of them to literally everyone but me in the room during the evening. It was not due to the language barriers since nobody including me used language other than Japanese as if I am not a Gaijin (outsider/foreigner) from the moment I entered the room. There are standards and expectations that should be met by the restaurant of this caliber. Yamazaki flunked out of that department. Quite bad, I might add.
To reiterate, the food was fantastic. There are several ingredients that I have never tried and yet, everything was intuitively and simply tasty. TMI, It was quite interesting they share some of the ingredients and how to produce them with Ginza Ooishi that I had a day before despite the genre difference. But again, if this level of poor hospitality is the price to pay for seating at this notoriously exclusive establishment, well, I would rather not having it next time.
Without further ado, the course contents were following. 10 courses including the 2 rice courses and the dessert. Usually, I would comment how I felt about each courses and everything, but since the experience was such a letdown, I am just going to state what is what and move on.
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Seared heart clam, prepared as a vinegary dish.
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Tempura made of Japanese whiting on top of salted sea cucumber row and rice served with nori seaweed, not grilled or torched.
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crab, bonito broth soup and junsai (waterlife vegetable of sort)
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Kinmedai (Golden eye snapper), cauliflower mousse underneath, sakura shrimp furikake sprinkled on top
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chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), beans and various vegetables on top and madai shirako hidden underneath.
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fried cutlass fish and an eggplant
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Megumi-gamo duck breast, duck broth sauce, sea cucumber intestines and lotus roots stir-fried with duckfat.
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Ainame (fat greenling) tempura mixed with the rice, firstly served as tamago-kake gohan, the yolk was simmered in soy bean sauce.
9.Ochazuke, the same
10.dessert, milk ice cream, blood orange and vanilla sauce, meringue underneath. A small amount of gin got poured after serving
by ExSogazu