Harajuku ~ Meadow Lodging

June 25, 2008

The newly opened ‘O’ Hotel in Koregaon Park, bang opposite the German Bakery, has a cozy Japanese meadow lodging ~ Harajuku. It’s a well set, but as of now a sparsely populated restaurant. The maroon ambiance is well balanced by the use of gold and curvy arrangement for private seating (and we thought it was the tank which held fresh sealife, sheesh!). The lighting is appropriately dim and the sake goes down well with that. 🙂

On entering, we saw a party comprising of some desis and japs. One good sign of authenticity of the food there.

We’d come decided to gorge on sushi, R being the ‘expert’ and yours truly having some eating experience in that area. The menu is compact enough to enable a patron to make a choice and has helpful notes. But it is constrained by the grouping together of sushi varieties. I wish they’d just open it all up and let patrons make their own sets. After all, make-your-own works well these days. We had soups, a salad, lots of sushi and downed it all with a bottle of sake between the four of us.

The Verdict:

The not so nice first: The service is a bit slow…its new so maybe they are taking time adjusting….they don’t have the more exotic listings on the menu yet..like octopus and tuna….yet..again I’d give them some time….they had just one brand of sake….the menu listed about 8…but that made it easier for us..not being habitual sake drinkers..we asked for it and they just got the bottle over with smallish cups made of fine china.

Now the good: The cutlery and crockery is fantastic..good taste there..the sake cups were perfectly sized to hold 4 deep sips..the glasses had an angular bottom, so they stayed tilted when kept down..nice touch that….. and the sushi was good..and i mean it…the avocado one, the California sushi had crab….the prawn sushi was well cooked….sushi ingredients should be raw without seeming so…..i liked that..the wasabi was perfect..gave a head rush..as was the vinegar..the service though slow was impeccable and they did it in style..the soups were really good…had those thin noodles…lots of water…i like the clear variety….they tasted unlike anything I’ve had before…..and the sushi was better than what I tasted in a jap restaurant in Chicago…only wish they had Asahi…the jap beer to go with all this. 🙂

And oh! I managed to eat everything with chopsticks (thanks to A!). No, not the soup, if you must ask.