HAVE YOU BEEN patiently, eagerly waiting for the second season of FX’s Shogun, too? Have you been taking measured, mincing steps in long corridors like the noble ladies of the Japanese court, too? Have you been silently repeating Lady Mariko’s line of poetry, “a flower is a flower because it falls”, to yourself, too? Have you become obsessed with Hiroyuki Sanada, too? Have you added ‘a long vacation to Japan’ to your bucket list too?
Well, for your quick fix of Nippon, make a beeline for EDO, the Japanese joint tucked into the lush ITC Gardenia. It’s all zhuzhed up! It used to be bright, light wood furnishings, speckles of green upholstery, but now: it’s vibrant, colourful, streaks of neon lighting and an extra dash of dark mystery. “Like roaming through the bustling izakayas of Tokyo sampling tasty bits,” our hostess sums up, while handing us our complimentary shots of sake. “Kanpai,” we shout, adding to the restaurant’s cheery chorus.
Good things come in small packages
While browsing through the tightly edited yet inviting menu, our server brings us a little pretty plate stacked with rice crispies dusted with an in-house spice blend that teases the deliciousness ahead. Like all of our Japanese meals, we start off with a bowl of edamame. EDO’s version of this simple salty, steamed tender soybeans comes drizzled with truffle oil, bringing hearty notes into this familiar profile. This waltz between striking flavours continues with our Duck Usuzukuri, a checkerboard pattern of sliced squares of roasted duck and pickled cucumbers topped with little hillocks of delight. One hops between the earthy notes of miso, little salty orange bombs of tobiko or flying fish roe, creamy dabs of kewpie mayo, the warming spike of tonkatsu sauce and the tart kick of ponzu.
We also dance between techniques through the course of this dinner: precision gives way to pluck with our next appetiser: fresh bluefin tuna dressed up with a bright squeeze of ponzu and golden foil sits on a crispy rice toast; absolutely decadent, it’s like eating a seafood toast that has graduated with flying colours. We’re invited to celebrate the Yamayaki Festival, a winter festival from Nara, Japan, where the grass on Mount Wakakusayama is set on fire. Open-fire cooking is the charm of this festival, and so, on a hot lava stone trimmed with mashed potato, strips of lamb loin are prepared for us tableside. A generous splash of whiskey flambes the meat, an onion-soy sauce injects flavour and scallion chiffonade, sesame seeds and fried garlic round off the party. Think: meat-and-potatoes but in a handstitched suit.
There’s the jig between textures introduced with our portion of Golden-eye snapper tempura: batons of crispy satisfaction; the pleasant, unctuous, flash-fried Fuji oysters drenched in sweet, sticky soy sauce had us pause for a brief moment; the silken pumpkin sauce brightened with yuzu koshou was a great foil to the perfectly grilled, plump scallops.
Sake your booty
Between these tasty bites, we did sample a selection of libations from the Manga-style cocktail menu. You’ll be forgiven if you think you’re buzzed before your first sip, having had to open the menu from right-to-left. We got the Royalty and Jett Black; the former a soothing, thrill drink with the volume on the fruity flavours of cognac turned up with the addition of plum, grape and umeboshi, salted Japanese plums; and the fizz of sparkling wine. The latter was a refreshing wake-up call: coffee-infused whiskey blended with citrusy yuzu, crispy green apple and a jab of soda.
For our mains, we got Pork Kakuni and Teppan Salmon with soy-glazed vegetables. Thick pork belly marinated in rice water, braised in soy, mirin and ginger and slow-cooked for 18 hours is served on a robatayaki, a Japanese charcoal grill. These charred, caramel-y chunks pair delightfully with the sharp, refreshing side salad of daikon radish and green apple. And we could have eaten a bag full of the crispy salmon skins – the stand-out in our second mains.
Feeling like Sumo wrestlers in training, we wrapped the night with For the sake of mango, a thrilling concoction of rum, sake, mirin, ginger beer and tonic water that tasted like our memories of summer bursting with that still seasonal fruit. And for dessert, we shared Matcha tres leches; my dinner companion, a fan of this trend, devoured it in a jiffy.
We walked out to the whole joint singing Happy Birthday to a blushing, large man. It seems everyone’s got the memo: EDO is for celebrations; the big milestones and the little feats.
EDO, ITC Gardenia is at 1, Residency Road, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru. For reservations, call 080 2211 9898; the restaurant remains open from Tuesday to Sunday (12.30-2.30 pm & 6.30-11.30 pm).