Lunchtime at Okku

Dubai's foodies have taken to Japanese cuisine like fish to water.

Despite a selection of high-end fine-dining restaurants that cater to discerning, high-maintenance taste buds, Okku, the two-level restaurant located on the first floor of the Monarch Hotel did not fail to please, even though it was lunchtime.

The restaurant has somewhat of a reputation for being the bee's knees of Japanese cuisine but that's to be expected because corporate chef Ryu Sato Gardiner has worked alongside legendary Japanese chef Chie Shirahata of Nobu fame, in New York, before coming to Dubai.

Simply tempting

The Okku Tezukuri lunch is simplicity in itself. Depending on how much or how little one wants to eat, there's a choice of soup with a Donburi set (Sui) or with an added starter (Daichi) or with dessert thrown in (Kaze), all served with organic green tea.

The choice, then, is to spend Dh59, Dh79 or the princely sum of Dh99.

My lunch companion had never tried Japanese food ever before because of his aversion to food that comes from the sea. I dragged him along anyway for a once-in-a -lifetime experience, or more than once if he decided to like it.

Since my taste buds veer more to fish and seafood I settled for the "O" style prawn tempura roll which came with cucumber, tobiko and avocado, all rolled in sushi rice and accompanied with a spicy-sweet soy sauce while my partner went chicken with Kusiwa Karaage, a chicken dish served with ginger, spring onion and sesame seeds.

Explosive zing

Both were deliciously delicate so we went on to something stronger when chef Ryu recommended the "O"style Hamachi Carpaccio which had an explosive zing to it — thanks to the slithers of yellowtail being delicately topped with a thin slice of Yuzu pepper while it lay on a balsamic ponzu.

The pan-fried Wagyu beef dumplings with their thin crispy skin coating and fine shreds of a Japanese vegetable — which the chef decided not to reveal because it was his secret ingredient — went down fast.

It was not fish and therefore very welcome to my partner.

For the Donburi sets we settled on the Angus beef karubi and the Yuzu Saiko miso black cod.

Aesthetically served

Donburi is the general term for a bowl of cooked rice with some other food on top, but Okku served their sets up in elaborate bento boxes which worked quite well aesthetically.

Needless to say, my carnivore partner relished the beef — marinated and cooked in pepper-soy teriyaki sauce and sprinkled generously with chives and sesame seeds.

Perfectly cooked

I, on the other hand, took my time over the perfectly grilled slab of black cod, perfectly fresh, ingeniously flaky, cooked just right and accompanied with a sweet citrus miso sauce that played on the tongue like tiny raindrops on tender skin.

We finished off the meal with a passion fruit sorbet filled with the juicy tartness of fresh fruit.

My lunch partner was happy. Asked if he would go Japanese again, the answer was a definitive yes. "It's not all raw fish", he said. I could not agree with him more.