YATAII — A MIXED ZEN EXPERIENCE.
My persistent desire for Japanese landed me at Yataii. This place was long desired but my life being what it is, I am lucky if I can manage a 6 hr sleep session for 6 straight nights. But nevertheless, some days the gods seem to smile on me and make things possible. So, I guess this is one of them.
Yataii — Walk in — get blown away with the courteousness of the very affectionate staff starting from the security to the valet to the lobby and not to mention the very very courteous staff inside the restaurant too. These things touch me and I am impressed, maybe fake but it helps especially when one is constantly exposed to the grind — niceties are always nice.
Ambience — beautiful but very very chilly. I really hope they re-work the temperatures to make it easier for people like me who do not prefer extreme temperatures. I almost froze as I walked in and spent a lot of time wondering why it was so cold. The cutlery was beautiful and delicately painted porcelain and I simply love those. The view out the window was of my most favorite city in the whole wide world glittering away with the night lights. It was perfect if not for the chill in the space.
And then we were welcomed by the waiter who graciously helped us through with the menu. They do not have a menu on Zomato and my memory is not great with names so will try and write about the dishes with the help of the pics.
To kick off — my husband got a sweet lime and I got a drink called Gari Sho I think (please do not hold me to it as I could be wrong), it’s an alcoholic cocktail made with sake, pomegranate juice, ginger and some other stuff which all blended very well and flowed down quiet smoothly.
To start off Yataii served some complementary veggies in paper rolls which were nice and crunchy and very refreshing. We started with the Nigiri Salmon which is a basic salmon on rice and I always order this because the quality of Salmon is what helps me define the restaurant as good or mediocre or bad and also because it is husband’s fav. The Salmon was perfect, pink, plump, succulent and absolutely fresh.
Then we got the seafood soup (the name of which I miss) which was a light, steamy soup with crab, fish and prawns. The soup is simply japanese and if one is not used to the fishy, misoyi, teriyaki flavours then they must pass. I thoroughly enjoy these flavours — though some may think they are extreme — I personally revel in these flavours. So I was quiet pleased and having a steamy hot sip in the chill felt very very good.
Considering that I had missed my Sushi desperately, we went on a Sushi overdrive and we tried 3 different types of Sushi. The first was the California Maki with crab, fish roe and our absolute fav and I must confess we thoroughly enjoyed it.
The second was yellowfin tuna with spices and I did not enjoy this one as much but that is mostly attributed to the fact that I am not a Tuna person. I for some reason have never liked tuna and I hoped that yellowfin tuna would change that but, clearly it hasn’t. I may have to completely give up on the tuna bit.
Moving to the third one, which was a tempura prawn with avocado and fish roe — now this one was simple delicious. The prawns were perfect and the avocado on the top just sort of brought it all together and the flavours simply burst with each bite taken.
Post this we really could have sat and chatted but mainly the chill did not allow us and we did sort of walk in for an early dinner which is something we must avoid so we decided to get a take away which we could eat at home watching a movie together. I went with a teppanyaki which used lobsters and prawns and fish in soya and lemon sauce and my husband got a Phad Thai.
When we reached home and settled after half a movie to eat again, I pulled the dishes out and was quiet disappointed. One mainly because the food did not match up to what I expected. The teppanyaki is essential served with a selection of vegetables and that was not made available in the take away — also I really wish that atleast these big giants started to think differently and stopped using plastic to hand take aways esp. for food that is not even touched at the restaurant. While for this dish, I complain about missing elements and the packaging — the taste was spot on. Very well made and a definite try but please try at the restaurant. A take away is a terrible idea.
The Chicken Phad Thai however was a terrible terrible mistake. It was packed in plastic and the flavours were all wrong. I have had a better Phad Thai in a much much smaller restaurant called Nasi and Mee. This infact I would say is one of the worst I have ever had.
So all in all, a very mixed experience. Will definitely suggest the place and the Sushi and Sashimi. The Thai they are serving may be really off as experienced and sticking to Japanese may be the best bet. However, I will really insist that they re-work their take away strategies and also attempt to better their Thai or even better just take it off because it is so poorly done.
And when I have now just looked at the Zomato page they also need to work with the Social networking team and seriously redesign their presence here.
Pointers -
1. They definitely need to update their Cost on Zomato — it’s easily 2500 per head and not 1500 for two.
2. They need to put up a Menu there
3. They need to stop writing flighty responses to bad reviews on Tomato and instead put on their thinking hats to really try and tackle the criticism more effectively.
Signing off….