a bite of brownie

Located within walking distance from our house, Azabu is a fairly recent contender in the Japanese restaurant business here in Cebu. At first I thought it was one of those overpriced places that tried hard to be called a Japanese restaurant, but upon our visit, I was once again proven wrong.

I guess you can't call a restaurant bad and pretentious from just the looks.

It was a small place that can hold at least two dozen pairs of people in its fold. Fairly decent, if I may say so myself. The ambiance reeked of class and fine dining, and it was a good thing I was dressed for the occasion. I mean, look at the menu.

What I liked most about this place is that this is the first place I've been to that sells ikura, or salmon roe. And also one of the few places that sell Uni, or Sea Urchin.

Those two are probably my favorites when we talk about sashimi. Yum!

Moving on, my mom had for herself a sushi-sashimi bento that had an array of fresh fish in it. My sister had a bowl of mixed sashimi while I had myself a bento plate of beef teriyaki.

To add to our already plentiful dishes, we had this Sashimi platter served in a wooden boat. There was octopi slices, squid with ikura, fresh uni served in a seaweed cup, salmon, and other white fishes.

They didn't have Japanese Tuna at that time so they changed that for Ikura.

 

To down the meal, there was free flowing house tea. I had the liberty to sample their sake though, since my companions didn't want to drink at all. It tasted nice while it was served hot, definitely steamy and alcoholic. The heat brings out the alcohol content in the sake, it seems. But I think I prefer cold sake.

Dessert time came soon, and we ordered a plate of Japanese cake and a cup of Macha Ice Cream. The staff were kind enough to give us a chilled sample of refreshing coffee jelly.

 It was very delicious!

And did I mention that they were also very generous when it comes to grapes? Almost all of our dishes came with several globes of seedless grapes!

Azabu
Lahug

Verdict:

A: 5/5

I liked this place a lot. It was a very enjoyable experience. I could say it is a complete opposite of Banri, whose ambiance felt homey and familiar whereas Azabu is somewhat formal and classy. This restaurant is probably in my top Japanese restaurants here in Cebu.