Ihashi Japanese Restaurant     井橋日本料理  

Notwithstanding the large amount of sake bottles used as decorations at the entrance, the drinks menu was pretty limited.

They did not have Sochu or draft beer. They had a few types of sake provided but we weren't too sure about those so we ordered a lemon soda and a canned sapporo:



They had quite a lot cooked food to chose from, as well as quite a large selection of sashimi. We were becoming a bit more cautious at this point and didn't order too much. Since the spoon sushi set was a featured item, that's what we ordered. Also since the prawns was another featured item, we also ordered that, plus a few more.

First came the "Ankimo" and "Scallop Sashimi":The scallop sashimi was OK. Not super fresh but acceptable and was of a decent size. Reasonably priced. Not something I'd specifically go for.

The ankimo (fish liver) was bad. This is a dish that could go wrong easily. Just as bad as the one I've tried at "Ishiyama" in that the liver was partly dried up and partly soggy. It tasted a bit "off". The large amount of seaweed and vinegar could not cover the "off" taste. Those provided at the nearby "New Kotobuki" and those provided at "Ginza Okura" were much much better.


The spoon sushi then arrived. Those looked quite interesting. The vinegar rice was a bit small - the whole dish wasn't small but again was not overpriced. Essentially, the idea is to dispense with the seaweed and to serve it on a spoon, which may make it a little bit easier to eat? The rice was packed a bit harder than normal and was marinated with vinegar.

The rice in each of those were nothing special but nothing to complaint about either. Standard stuff. Just a little bit small.

The quality of the toppings varied quite significantly:
-Scallop was again quite nice;
-Tako (octopus) with some wasabi: was normal. Tasted a bit like a spoonful of "takowasa" on top of a spoonful of rice - contained on a spoon;
- Crab meat with cucuber: a spoonful of Crab meat salad on top of a spoonful of rice - also served on a spoon;
-Salmon: was acceptable but just similar to what you get at supermarkets (the fresher ones).
-Tuna (magiro): was bad Again, it tasted a bit off. This was even less fresh than the ankimo. Not recommended.

Interesting but definitely nothing to rave about.

At this point, we'd like some sake to neutralize the shock in some of the food and to clean our palates.

Apparently, many Japanese people will go for the hot sake if they're not too sure about the sake. If you're not too sure about the quality of the sake provided, especially the house sake, I suggest you do the same. It's usually very hard to mess up a hot sake. Even if the quality of the sake was less than perfect, the warmth will still bring out the rice aroma and render it more drinkable. That's what we did:It's either a "Kiku Masumune" or "Zawa no Tsuru". Either way, there's only one hot sake to choose from.

Then the asparagus wrapped in pork came:These were quite good.

The asparagus was fresh and crisp. The pork with some yakitori sauce was quite thin but quite tender in the middle and a bit crisp on the outside, a bit like a nicely done bacon.

This was the prawn dish we ordered, the three "Prawn Musketeers":I was a bit disappointed with the size. Those were medium/small sized prawns cut into half. Having said that, those were quite interesting:

-One was a normal ebi fry. Like the normal one you have inside a bento. But it's warm and crispy. The prawn was quite sweet.
-The other one was coated with almond: Quite interesting. A bit similar to the fish balls wrapped in almond I've tried at the "Shunde Restaurant" (surprisingly, at the time of writing, my review was still the one and only one! That was quite a while ago. ) .
- The last prawn was coated in some crispy rice crackers. That was quite interesting too. Felt a bit like a prawn toast. Quite interesting.

At this point, there were some hits and misses. It's still barely OK on my scale since the service was good and the price wasn't crazy. The last item really dragged it down to "Not recommended" on my scale. We asked the manager to recommend the freshest sashimi they had on offer. I was somewhat expecting him to recommend the geoduck (which was, according to a board hanging on the wall, the first item on the list and claimed to be freshly delivered to Hong Kong).

Instead of recommending me anything in particular, he gave me a complete run down of about 10-15 different types of seafood. None of them being the geoduck. The first item he mentioned was Hamachi, as well as the Tuna (which was not fresh), lobster, scallop, oyster...etc. So we ordered the hamachi as per his suggestion:

It might look quite thick cut. In actual fact, those were completely not fresh at all.

Filled with tendons. Not crisp enough and a bit soggy. This is the typical sign of a fish which which had been defrosted for too long but not kept cold enough. Definitely not fresh. My wife was quite angered by this recommendation.

If this was one of the top recommendations by the restaurant, then I had no choice but to give this a "Not recommended".Two complimentary ice cream mochi were given to us at the end of the meal.

In conclusion:

To be fair, the cooked food seemed OK.

The service was good. The manager and the staff were all very polite.

The price was not too expensive as well.

These couldn't save the day as the quality of the sashimi were quite bad.

Not recommended.

If you are willing to pay at least double the price but want to have good quality sashimi, I recommend "New Kotobuki" along the same street. The cooked food there is also nice but pricier than here.

Another good option for high quality sashimi is "Ginza Okura". Again, it's at least double the price here.

Would you rather have 2-3 standard meals or 1 high quality meal? The choice, as always, is yours.



總評：


沒有太多酒類選擇。冇生啤，冇燒酎。小量日本酒。

熱清酒：澤之鶴-熱飲唔錯。

原來很多日本人如果對清酒牌子不熟悉或對質量存疑的話，會選擇熱飲。熱飲對一般質素的清酒有拉上補下之用。

服務好。

環境有點擠擁。

熟食可以。價格相宜。

-露筍豬肉卷：香口，新鮮。
-炸蝦三劍俠：麵包糠，杏仁及米通蝦多士？唔錯

但星期一的魚生很不濟:

-鮟鱇魚肝：唔新鮮。一邊乾，一邊太淋。帶子：可接受。

-匙羹壽司：冇乜意思。只慳了紫菜及飯。

1.吞拿有雪藏味及潺。
2.三文魚一般。
3.帶子可接受。
4.一羹蟹柳青瓜沙律加在一羹飯上面。及
5.一羹不太新鮮的芥辣八爪魚加在一羹飯上面

-鰤魚：叫店方推介最新鮮的魚生，他數了多款魚類(包括很不新鮮的吞拿)。第一款為鰤魚，但有筋，全無鮮味，質地潺。很不濟。

中招.