View of the Opera House on the way to Ocean Room
The tasting menu at Ocean Room has a whopping 12 courses. You may think that a handful of sashimi slices along with some other smaller sized dishes may still leave you feeling hungry at the end of the night. Dear friends, I am telling you now, don't be fooled. I was struggling to finish the last few courses that night and we all know how much I eat.
Pretty cocktails
The cocktail menu had quite a range of flavours from sweet and fruity to chilli and spicy. Ocean Room is currently a two for one deal. How does one say no to half price cocktails?
Tasting menu at Ocean Room
Top left: Course 3 - Japanese modern take on the Caprese salad
Top left: Course 2 - cold drip dashi and green tea
Bottom left: Course 1 - freshly shucked oysters
Bottom right: Course 4 - prawn and calamari croquette
Course 2 - cold drip dashi and green tea
Course 3 - Japanese modern take on the Caprese salad
We started off with a couple of freshly shucked oysters topped a layer of yamazaki silk. The clear layer of jelly as so soft and silky. It went well with the smoothness of the oysters. This was followed by the second course which was a cold drip dashi and green tea filed with rice crust. The presentation and the taste were both as interesting as eat other. It was sooo pretty. I thought the rice crust which looked like rice bubbles would be soggy but it was still slightly crunchy with a hint of green tea. Delish!
The third course was one of my favourites of the night, Ocean Room's modern take on the caprese salad. The salad was fun to eat. It was a bit like a tasting plate where you would use the tomato chip to pick up some of the tuna and onion and so forth. I wish this dish came with more tomato chips though. They were so light and crunchy, I secretly wanted a whole bowl's worth.
Speaking of crunchy, the first warm dish of the night was the Shinjo house-made croquette filled with prawn and calamari. There was no way you could eat this dish in a politely quiet manner, every biteful was loud and crunchy.
Course 5 - Autumn vegetable onsen
The fifth course was another fun dish to eat. It always is when it involves being a bit more hands on no matter where you are dining. Please excuse the poor quality of the photo, it was almost impossible to photograph with the blazing candle light. The heated anchovy and garlic dip was quite strong but the shichimi spice on the side helped balanced it out.
Course 6 - seasonal sashimi selection
Course 7 - Wagyu beef shabu2
The fresh selection of sashimi just melted gracefully your mouth whilst the shabu was warm and comforting. Although it could of been warmer, the lime chilli soy along with the tenderness of the wagyu beef and the mini soft tofu blocks made me want to crawl in bed and snuggle under my blankets. Hello winter, I am officially ready for you.
Course 8 - Miso Cod
Course 9 - Butabara
So by the time the miso cod arrived, I started feeling a bit full and I swear, I believe the sizes of the dishes also got bigger and bigger... but that could of just been me hallucinating. The miso cod is a signature dish of Ocean Room. As you pressed down onto the cod fillet with your fork, the char grilled fish would break into small flakey pieces amongst the mayo. Absolutely a well cooked dish.I know I have pointed out quite a few favourites throughout this post but the highlight for me would definitely have to be the butabara. It looks so fun. Wrapped in cellophane, were pork belly, tofu pieces and chilli ponzu in a pool of hot simmering soup. I loved everything single bit of this dish.
Course 10 - Sansui
Course 10
Left: quinoa crusted prawn
Top right: wagyu iron steak
Bottom right: agedashi taro potato
Course 11 - selection of nigiri sushi
Course 12 - Amaguri chestnut mont blanc with green tea angel cake and cognac persimmon
By the time the tenth course was placed in front of me, I wasn't even sure I could stomach anymore food from that point onwards. Nevertheless I extremely dislike wasting food, especially good food, so I powered on and on.
The sansui was full of different textures. The quinoa crust on the prawn had a hard crunch, the wagyu steak was chewy while the potato was fluffy on the inside. Although the portions may appear tiny, this was one the most filling dish of the night.
After demolishing every single part of the tenth course, I thought there would be no way on earth I could digest another three pieces of nigiri. Surprisingly, they weren't as filling as I had thought (in a good way) because there were was more sashimi than rice.
Last but not least came dessert. Finally. The green leaf along with the pomegranate sprinkles was a great resemblance of autumn. The green tea angel cake was accompanied well with the persimmon which had been soaked in cognac.
The tasting plate is $120 for 12 comforting courses. If you do the maths, it works out to be 10 bucks per dish plus dining with a view. That plus half priced cocktails sounds like a winner to me.
Food is our religion dined as a guest of Ocean Room, courtesy of Wasamedia.
Gotta go eat!!
