Deconstructed Sushi at The Fatty Bao. Japanese cuisine has been around for a while now but a platter of sashimi or sushi is still greeted with a feeling of apprehension. With MasterChef Australia contestants using a lot of Japanese ingredients like miso, panko and wasabi this season the interest has piqued again. If you like comfort food, we won’t even ask you to go out of your way to try raw fish, even though they taste delicious with the right dips. A lot of restaurants that serve Japanese food are experimenting with their cuisine to make it more palatable for the Indian consumer with dishes like deconstructed sushi, ramen noodles in miso soup and black sesame seed ice cream. Safe enough for you? We bring you the top three places in Delhi you should definitely visit. Just go with an open mind and please don’t look for Indianised flavours there as these three joints are already toning down on the strong Japanese flavours by incorporating new techniques such as barbecuing and playing around with the strong flavour profile of the cuisine, such as fish oil and wasabi to slightly tone it down.

Take for instance, Fatty Bao’s Char Siu open bao. They are using a BBQ style meat to go along with the bao and it’s not even inside the bun. If you’re a bit unsure about what to try but still want to give Japanese cuisine a go (and we strongly recommend that you do), we’ve gone ahead an experimented for you. A popular Asian gastro bar already, their new sushi menu is amazing with options like ChirashiZushi (a colourful bowl of sushi rice topped with avocado, pickled veggies, cured mushrooms, grilled asparagus, wakame – which is a type of seaweed – and snow peas), Temaki (a cone-shaped sushi topped with smoked salmon capers, avocado and horseradish sauce), Inarizushi (crab meat and tokibo Inari stuffed in tofu pouches), Hosomaki (tempura fried babycorn, spinach, avocado and umeboshi stuffed in nori sheets) and Gunkan sushi (boat-shaped sushi topped with crispy bacon and cheese). Hosomaki (tempura fried babycorn, spinach, avocado and umeboshi stuffed in nori sheets) at The Fatty Bao.

If we have to rate them then we would go with the ChirashiZush first – this deconstructed sushi is quite a delight. Second, comes Inarizushi, full of flavours that bursts in your mouth and quite fulfilling on its own. where to buy eel meatHosomaki, which is supposed to be had like a cornetto, tastes good too as it plays around with the right amount of wasabi but can get a little tricky to eat since the rice tends to fall all over while tugging at the nori sheet. where to buy sushi rice in philippinesThe last on our list is the Gunkan sushi. buy sushi rice in indiaWe felt that it lacked flavour and failed to lift up the sushi experience.sushi kit buy online

But sushi is not the only thing that got our attention. We can easily say that the Char Siu open bao (BBQ pork belly with green apple kimchi, hoisin sauce, sesame oil and scallions) took our taste buds on a roller coaster ride. The pork was perfectly cooked and just melted in our mouths. We washed it down with a Wasabi Kaffir Lime cocktail and we are so glad that we did. For dessert, we tried the Zen Forest (Yuzu parfait with green tea mass, black sesame sponge rocks, beetroot and black pepper sorbet, sesame nougatine, varihana chocolate twigs and micro-greens), which was good minus the sesame sponge rocks. Address: 2nd Floor, Sangam Courtyard, Major Somnath Marg, Sector 9, R K Puram Meal for two: Rs 2,000 (approx, exclusive of taxes) Even though this place is best for a Sunday brunch, you can visit it any other day of the week too for its Teppanyaki style of cooking. But there’s a catch here. Other than their classics, the chefs here tweak their menu every seven months.

Chances are if you read this review now and visit it after seven months, you won’t get to enjoy the same food. Experimentation is high up their priority list. Cruchy Yasai Roll (top) and non-veg Philadelphia Rolls at Kylin Premier. We started our course with a Miso Soup with Tofu and Wakami. It was nice, clean, fresh and light. A great appetiser as it left us wanting more instead of filling us up like most other soups. We moved on to their signature rolls – the Cruchy Yasai Roll (filled with pickled radish, green apple, cucumber and chilli mayo with tempura flakes topping), Thai Prawn California Roll (filled with prawn tempura, cucumber, coriander, lettuce, chilli with shichimi powder) and both the veg and non-veg Philadelphia Rolls. The veg version is made of lettuce, carrot, cucumber and Philadelphia cheese with crunchy topping and the non-veg is made with salmon outside and the Philadelphia cheese and cucumber inside. We preferred the veg one here because it had a lot more crunch.

Also worth trying out is the Crunchy Yasai Roll. You can easily give the others a miss. The Teriyaki-style chicken is something you should definitely avoid. It’s not as good as it sounds. Also, be careful when you order for Sake (rice wine) to wash down your food. We requested for a Sake and got a Jinro Soju (a drink that is considered to be just like vodka and is more Korean than Japanese) in return. Since we were disappointed, we settled for a decent Sly Thai Martini. Address: T-302, 3rd Floor, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj Meal for two: 2,000 (approx, exclusive of taxes) Sakura – The Metropolitan Hotel Considered as one of the finest Japanese restaurants in India, Sakura stays close to the essence of Japanese cooking and flavours unlike The Fatty Bao and Kylin Premier. Even though the Japanese flavours are still strong, you will love the Kobachis (small appetisers), the Yellowtail Sushi (a favourite among the Japanese), Octopus Sushi, Ramen in Miso Soup, Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream and Black Sesame Seed Ice Cream here.

A platter of sashimi and sushi (top) and black sesame seed ice cream at Sakura. The Horenso Gomaae (crispy spinach in sesame seed) was unlike anything we have tasted till date. The spinach was crunchy yet juicy. We tried their vegetable, octopus and salmon kobachi too. We would any day go back for the salmon one. Moving on, if you’re adventurous with your food, you can go for the Eel Sushi and/or Octopus Sushi, which were interesting on the palate, and not entirely unpleasant. For the mains, the best bet for vegetarians would be the Bento Box filled with Veg Tempura, Tofu Stick, Veg Sushi Salad Roll, assorted Veg Kimchi, Yasai Itame (stir-fried vegetables), Yassai Korokke (Japanese croquette) and Yaki Udon (thick, smooth white Japanese noodles). Their Ramen in Miso Soup is something you definitely shouldn’t miss. We tried the pork one, and it was really good. For dessert, we picked up the Black Sesame Seed Ice Cream and the Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream and it nearly gave us a food-gasm.