TSUKIJI

PURE QUALITY comes to mind when I think back to the dining experience I had at this premium Japanese restaurant in Makati a few days ago.  It's NO secret that well heeled filipinos have tremendous spending power and Tsukiji offers them the best of the best that japanese cuisine has to offer right in their backyard-for a hefty price.

They get their name from the world famous fish market in Tokyo where they also happen to get direct shipments of the best fish cuts 3 times per week.

The restaurant is located on Pasay right behind the Greenbelt shopping complex.  From the street it's very unassuming and appears to be inside a lowrise office building.  Once you take the lift to the 2nd floor and you enter the restaurant it looks like any standard japanese restaurant with the obligatory private rooms where you sit on the floor and a sushi counter with wooden seats.

However, open up the menu and you realize that this is going to be an expensive meal.  For  good reason though as most of the items are premium ingredients imported directly from Japan.

I ordered:

 

Sashimi moriawase (mixed raw pieces of fish)

This dish is always about freshness and quality of fish.  Super high marks for both requirements. The tuna belly (o-toro), salmon, hamachi (yellowtail), squid, uni (sea urchin), and salmon eggs were among the best I've EVER tasted.  The uni in particular deserves a nod.  Uni is by far one of my favorite foods and I've tasted uni around the world.  This was uni from the icy siberian waters of Hokkaido Japan.  The consistency was like eating spoonfuls of mayonnaise.  Probably just as full of fat as well because the cold water requires the uni to develop a high fat content.  It was also bright orange/red; a color I have never seen before in uni.  Easily the best I've had.  Yes, even better than the Santa Barbara uni......sorry Cali.  

Wagyu Yukke

This is Korean steak tartar.  It's a raw chopped beef dish marinated with soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and garnished with asian pear, cucmbers, spring onions and chili powder, and the force-de-resistance a raw egg yolk on top.  Furthermore it was decadantly made of fresh Wagyu beef that is among the best in the world.  The first bite of this dish at Tsukiji was a life-altering experience.  I grew up on eating dishes like this as a Korean.  However, I never thought the best yukke in the world would be eaten in a Japanese restaurant.  It was such a bittersweet moment as my taste buds viciously betrayed my nationalistic feelings.  But it was definitely NOT hard to swallow.

Kani Fry

this is deep fried battered oyster and I kick myself for ordering this dish in a high end restaurant like Tsukiji. 

I washed down the meal with cold sake and green tea.  This was easily a top 3 dining experience in my life.  Unbelievably delicious.

They offer a 13 course menu called Kaiseke that basically is a chef's selection of all the best and freshest ingredients.  However the catch is you have to order 3 days in advance and a minimum of 3 persons is required.

Expect to drop about 5,000 pesos ($120)  if you order premium fish and beef.  Worth every single peso-trust me.