Being a foodie, I was appalled by the fact that I have never eaten Japanese food in my life. So, of course, as I live in Goa, the Yaki Zushi restaurant was on my bucket list. They serve Japanese, Chinese, and Thai dishes.
I was craving a nice simple veg thali after running errands with my dad. As we were on our way to a vegetarian restaurant, I caught a glimpse of the Yaki Zushi signboard. My mind made a 180 degrees turn from wanting a thali to desiring Japanese food. My dad, who is an even bigger foodie than me, didn’t need much convincing to change our original lunch plans.
When we entered the restaurant, my eyes were drawn to the aesthetic bamboo walls and polished wooden furniture. It had a nice rustic vibe. The Enrique Iglesias live concert on the television hyped me up even more.
When the menus came, we were assailed with so many options like spicy crab soup, ramen, dimsum platter, Japanese teppanyaki, and Thai curries. Finally, we gave up as we didn’t know what to choose – everything looked delicious. The smiling waiter came and recommended the ramen as it’s one of their main dishes. He also had a good opinion of the prawn tempura sushi roll and the Thai curries.
My dad ordered Nigiri Norwegian salmon sushi and I went for the prawn tempura sushi rolls which the waiter recommended. It tasted nice along with the Kikkoman soy sauce and wasabi.
Then we had the pork tonkotsu ramen which was my favourite. It was a bowl of lovely slurpy noodles soaked in a generous amount of broth. There were slices of smoked pork along with carrots, crunchy spring onions, shitake mushrooms, and other delicious tidbits. The broth had a lot of viscosity and a good pork flavour was singing through it. A boiled egg added richness to the dish.
We left the restaurant satisfied and I was happy that I finally had Japanese food. One more thing I could cross off my bucket list. The next time I go there I’ll have the ramen again and maybe try their Tom Kha soup and red Thai curry which seems delicious.
For us at Planet-Goa, our team is driven by that feeling of exhilaration that one gets when discovering that something ‘unique’ and ‘new’ about Goa for our ever-so-discerning readers.
