Kabuki dining worth the trek
The Marriott Phuket's Japanese Restaurant is a sizzler of a feast
IF YOU’RE looking for a decent teppanyaki place in Phuket, look no further than Kabuki Japanese Cuisine Theatre at the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa on Mai Khao Beach, where you are guaranteed top-quality dishes.
It’s a bit of a drive if you’re staying in Patong, but the meal makes it worthwhile. The simple yet elegant restaurant is quite compact (compared to the massive hotel). It’s sectioned into several private teppanyaki rooms that are perfect for both couples and families.
Whet your appetite with a bowl of refreshing fresh sashimi. The sizeable Samuirai Sashimi platter (Bt1,900) includes great tuna, yellowtail, salmon, octopus, scallop and ark-shell clam in bite sizes, accompanied by shiso leaves, grated daikon and crunchy, savoury seaweed.
Another must-try is the beef tataki (Bt380), which is lightly seared, thinly sliced beef served with fried garlic, spring onion and salt-sour ponzu. There’s a subtle pang of chilli oil to round out the flavours, too.
The main event of your dinner should be nothing other than the Japanese Miyazaki rib-eye teppanyaki (Bt3,880), Four hundred grams of award-winning Miyazaki beef is grilled with only a little butter and salt to bring out its famous melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Japan’s Miyazaki Prefecture has an abundance of natural spring water and, as a result, Miyazaki beef is so highly valued that the region sends calves to other cattle-producing areas, including the more famous Kobe. The meat has almost equal amount of lean meat and fat, making is very succulent and juicy.
The beef from Miyazaki is of high enough quality to merit the Prime Minister’s Prize in the National Japanese Beef Ability Expo, which is known as “the Olympics of Japanese Beef”. For the meat to be sold under the brand name Miyazaki-Gyu, it must rank at least fourth in a five-level ranking system.
Other recommended dishes include Spaider rolls (Bt520), in which soft-shell crab, cucumber and chilli mayonnaise are wrapped in sticky Japanese rice and topped with sweet-and-sour mango shavings.
Electrify the evening with skyrocket rolls (Bt550) of yellowfin, salmon, tobiko and yellowtail, served with a firework – literally.
Leave some room for dessert. Recommended is tempura ice cream (Bt320) – chunky vanilla ice cream served with tangy berry sauce.
FOOD FIREWORKS!
>> Kabuki Japanese Cuisine Theatre is at the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa and open daily from 6.30pm.
>> Reservations are recommended at|(076) 338 000.
