superb value set dinner & nice views - Southern Court @ Granvia Hotel Kyoto

my wife and I had a great dinner at Southern Court recently (18.12.2008) during our stay there.
generally we avoid western and chinese food in Japan since wagyu and Japanese food are of great quality and value and there is no need to risk paying high price and getting mediocre non Japanese food (though we were presently surprised to have nice cheap comfort food italian/spanish pasta/paella at Pronto @ Kyoto station - that's another story)..
so the 4200Y (inclusive tax) almost fine food 4 course set dinner +coffee at Southern Court was a real treat.
there was the usual amuse bouche and bread (quite average). my wife then started with a raw tune salad and I had a "smoke" salmon. the smoke salmon was Japanese style and we realized that Japanese smoke salmon at international buffet breakfast (mostly bad) and ryokan (good) were the slightly dry, smoke variety..this is quite unlike the usual western smoke salmon or chef's own freshly cured salmon. As it turned out the smoke salmon was a braised salmon that was prior smoked and it was really good-very flavourful and not too salty, even better than the tuna salad which itself was tastier than most you get in Singapore.
this was followed by a pumpkin soup, quite ok decent quality I guess nothing fantastic.
next we both had sirloin rare for main course. this is no "black hair Japanese beef" of course but it was still a rather good steak and nicely done and flavourful.
this was finished off with dessert and coffee..both good...
service quality by the young waiting staff is above average and polite as in 99% of Japanese outlets.
for 4200Y tax inclusive this is really great value (even with the ridiculously high 100Y=S$1.70 forex rate).
go give yourselves a treat!

superb teppanyaki course dinner @ Osaka

my wife and I had an excellent teppanyaki set at Chibo Dotombori Osaka last evening before flying back to Singapore today.
we chanced on the restaurant Chibo while strolling along Dotombori and trying out the Okonomiyaki and level 1. realizing that there is a teppanyaki restaurant on level 5 we went back the next evening and really enjoyed a superb meal.
our set was 4980Y and we added 1000Y for Japanese beef ("black hair wagyu") so 5980Ypax.
the set started with a quite extraordinary amuse bouche (chef's compliment) of abalone in light vinegared sauce (about 4 thick slices, maybe it is just shellfish but it sure taste like awabi)...I think the Chinese style braised abalone with brown sauce is tastier and better textured but my wife is completely bowled over!
next came a tasty dish of tuna (diced cubes) mille feuille with 2 nice pieces of crab cakes, followed by scampi teppanyaki - just a small 1/2 scampi each..fresh, tasty, not fantastic but I guess part of a quite good course dinner...
this was followed by a teppanyaki seabream with crispy skin on top, very enjoyable indeed.
next came the highlight of the evening, the teppanyaki steak. each person only has 75g, but this is superb stuff - the meat is so marbled and flavourful and really unforgettable. the 2 sauces-vinegared with some radish and teppanyaki sauce with dash of mustard are good but just a touch of sea salt is really good enough to enjoy the full flavour of the wagyu! being greedy and really you can't get this quality of wagyu in Singapore and the price is much cheaper in Japan, we ordered another 100g wagyu to share for 3700Y.
the carbo dish was a choice of okonomiyaki and sobayabi with choice of toppings, so we picked 1 each - okonomiyaki with octopus and pork (nice but honestly the one at level 1 Chibo "bistro" is even better!) and yakisoba with bacon & scallop. dessert was a mango parfait nice but not spectacular.
the service is sterling and the chef was really artful and the dishes all appeared like french fine food, quite unlike in Singapore.
this is really one of the best value for money course dinner. the only that rival is the teppanyaki course lunch at Gosanbo at Hotel Granvia @Kyoto station, and kaiseki at some ryokans.