Delectable flavours
View(s):This week on Take 3, we’re sitting down to teishokus at some of our favourite Japanese restaurants in Colombo. What should you expect to see in your set meal? Most will include a bowl of miso, rice and pickled vegetables aside from the main dish but what they all promise are the clean, utterly delectable flavours that make Japanese food such a pleasure to eat. Here’s what you need to know.
Nihonbashi Honten | No. 11, Galle Face Terrace, Colombo 3 Tel: 011 2323847
Nihonbashi’s ayame set is the godfather of all teishokus: there’s serving of crisp, golden tempura prawns and vegetables, there’s delicate slices of sashimi fish, there’re the neat rolls of tuna and cucumber maki, the trio of delectable sushi, the fat omelette bursting with sweet rice and a mound of light, palate cleansing radish. To wash it all down is a piping hot bowl of miso soup with its soft cubes of submerged tofu and squares of sticky seaweed. The meal which is served in a bento box is an eternal favourite with customers who shell out Rs.2,400 to dig in.
Fans of Japanese food will tell you that Nihonbashi serves up world class fare and it’s true they make the most of Sri Lanka’s wonderful seafood. (Proprietor Darshan Munidasa has been known to deprive foreign fish markets by claiming A-grade tuna fresh off the boat.) Their teishokus reflect some of that ambition – drop in at lunch time and you are spoilt for choice with a dozen offerings that range from Rs.1, 400 nett to Rs.3, 800 nett. (This week, they’re also serving beautifully grilled barramundi steaks with rice and miso for 1,400.)
In all the meals are little flourishes that make Nihonbashi a fun place to eat at – from their karapincha or curry leaf tempura, to their coffee flavoured dessert jelly. This is also the best place in town to eat pink salmon sashimi. In the beverage department, we’re fans of the subtle sencha (Rs.380 per pot) they serve – it’s bright green, fragrant and quite unlike any other green tea on the local market. The only drawback to Nihonbashi really is price – this might be more than you’re willing to spend on a quick lunch, but their outlet at Odel is cheaper, offering a smaller selection and lower prices.
Naniyori | No. 14, Narahenpita Road, Nawala Tel: 0777 300306
Naniyori deliver their teishokus in little bento boxes straight to your doorstep. This does mean that since they’ve spent the last hour weaving in and out of traffic your food tends to be a little on the cold side but in the kind of weather we’ve been having it’s not worth complaining about. They have quite a wide selection of bentos, some of which you won’t see anywhere else. The most expensive dish on their menu is the Rs.1800 lobster bento, which is served simply with white rice and vegetables (including slices of sweet, crunchy, pickled lotus root) They also have duck (Rs,1300) and king prawn (Rs.1190). A simpler range of ‘special bentos’ is where we went looking for our lunch. Prices range from the BE11 Katsu Curry Rice Chicken (Rs.660) to the BE07 Special Bento (Rs.860) that is made up of pink salmon, tuna and cuttlefish sashimi.
Try and get your hands on a menu before you call because they like to know the number of the bento you’re ordering – in our case it was the Ebi Sakana Bento (BE01). The stars of the dish are the various seafoods encased in a shell of crunchy batter – think squid, fish and prawns. We polish these off, though they’re a little limp by the time they get to us. On the side is an oily yet delicious fried rice made from thick grains and studded with little vegetables. Very thoughtfully, they include a green tea sachet with the meal and a small box of fresh fruit to finish. We enjoy the pickled vegetables in our bento and from previous experience prefer the sashimi at Sakura and Nihonbashi to Naniyori. That’s the cons, but on the list of pros they’re competitively priced and deliver with a minimum of fuss.
Sakura Japanese Restaurant | 14 Rheinland Place, Colombo 3 Tel: 011 2573877
One of the oldest Japanese restaurants in Colombo, Sakura is the place to go for tempura and katsudon (batter fried chicken, egg and leeks served over steamed rice). The place has character – there’s floor seating, plates of plastic sushi in a display box, what sounds like Japanese radio turned on and a little artificial pond outside the window. Reportedly, all the staff speak Japanese. Plenty of Japanese people frequent the place which is a testament in itself, we suppose.
If you’re unfamiliar with the cuisine, ordering can be a little bit of a process – if you want to know what you’re eating you’ll have to look up the dish in an English list provided along with the giant menu card. The Ika Butter Yaki (Rs.640) is a favourite: luscious squid rings simmered in melted butter and served with salad.
Sakura has a smaller selection of teishoku than the other candidates in our column this week, but many of those are quite good. While the sashimi at Nihonbashi triumphs, Sakura gives them a run for their money in the all-things-fried department. Try the chicken/beef katsu teishoku for Rs.800 or the ebi sakana fry for Rs.850. There are noodles served in light broth – both udon and somen – and just about everything on the lunch menu is under Rs.1, 000. One of the most appetising on the menu is the tempura-sashimi teishoku.
Accompanied by miso soup, the batter fried prawns and vegetables plus assorted sashimi are beautifully served and priced at Rs. 950. While there’s sake (cold and hot to be had) the free, never ending refills of green tea win Sakura brownie points.
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