Tasting Menu at Nadaman
Eating with chopsticks has been a source of great social anxiety.
Growing up in Kenya there was limited opportunities to veer away from the traditional knife and fork set. In school we had etiquette lessons where we were scolded for resting our elbows on the table, and given strict instruction on which spoon was for soup. Chopsticks however, did not feature prominently on the learning outcomes.
Of course much has changed now in Nairobi with Japanese restaurants aplenty, but sadly that doesn’t really help me!
I clearly remember dining with friends in Furasato (one of Nairobi’s best Japanese restaurants) and waiting till everyone was distracted before picking up a piece of sushi with my hands and quickly scoffing it. The shame!
Obviously this track record with sushi had me quite nervous when I was invited for a six course tasting menu in Nadaman Tokyo. Six courses!! I definitely thought I was going to starve.
As one would expect with the signature restaurant of the Shangri-La Tokyo the place was beautiful! I simply loved the delicate Ginko leaf art piece at the entrance.
First up was a 3 part appetiser. I eased my way into the meal by using the spoon first, and amazingly I swoop up the beef and sushi without incident. The flavours were so light and zesty, perfect for summer.
As each course went by my confidence with the chopsticks grew, no doubt helped by the finest of sakes. I really don’t think I will be able to drink sake outside of Japan again, the difference in taste was so notable.
The presentation of each course was exceptional, even down to the leaf placement.
It was also such a joy to try such high quality sushi. The fish was so fresh and the portion size was perfect.
Everything was going swimmingly (pun intended – poor little prawn) until the beef course served with Japanese abalone, a speciality of the house. I was more than a little relieved to see the beef had already been cut, as I was wondering how that was going to go down.
Turns out I didn’t need to worry, my chopstick skills were near pro at this point and the beef was no bother, in fact it turned out to be one of my favourite courses after the 5 piece sushi selection. It was cooked exactly to my liking, juicy but not raw.
Dessert was the only slight let down of the whole meal. I am a die hard chocolate fan, or seeing as I was in Japan anything infused with Matcha would have gone down a treat. I just didn’t feel the Mango dessert had enough oomph to it.
Overall the food was superb, I couldn’t get over how good the sushi was, and most importantly I can know use chopsticks fairly confidently!
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