Yurakuen Japanese Restaurant has long been on my wish list after hearing that it has garnered numerous awards so I've decided to scratch it off before the year ends.  Their dishes are prepared by Japanese master chef Junichi Sekiyama himself to guarantee the best food quality made from the freshest ingredients.  



Upon entering, I passed by their Teppanyaki rooms, a beautiful bridge way with the sound of flowing water before I found the huge brass door paving way to a room encased in glass surrounded by the outdoor greens and with a huge cherry blossom tree on the center.  The room is the perfect interpretation of what Yurakuen or paradise is.


Food


Salad

Chuka Wakame Salad

For appetizer we had the Chuka Wakame Salad which is a simple seaweed vegetable salad. 

Sashimi

♥ Tokujo Sashimi Moriawase (1,500 php)

The Tokujo Sashimi Moriawase is a beautiful platter of assorted special sashimi: salmon (sake) , sea urchin (uni), mackarel (saba), lapu-lapu, young yellowtail (hamachi), tuna (maguro) and octopus (tako).  They are one of the freshest I've had.  The sashimi cut is superb that each piece almost melts in your mouth as its natural sea flavors woo your taste buds. 

Sushi

Tokujo Nigiri Sushi Moriawase (1,250 php)

The Tokujo Nigiri Sushi Moriawase is a special assorted nigiri sushi platter.  A nigiri sushi is an oblong shaped sushi with a wasabi in between the rice and the topping.  The ingredients are as fresh as their sashimi but this has more variety.  My personal favorite among the selection is the Unagi Nigiri Sushi. 

Temaki Sushi and Hoso Maki Sushi 

Koebi Tempura Maki (350 php/piece)

The Koebi Tempura Maki is a small shrimp tempura roll glazed with their special sauce.  It's interesting but overall impact is to allure me. 

California Maki (280 php/piece)

The California Maki is the most popular maki in the metro.  It a roe covered maki filled with crabmeat and vegetable.

Sumibiyaki (Charcoal Grilled Dish)

♥ Gindara Teriyaki (470 php)

The Gindara Teriyaki is cooked perfectly moist and flaky just the way I loved it.  The teriyaki sauce is just mild so you can appreciate the delightful natural Gindara taste.  Everyone at the table adored this!
 

Sanma Shiyaki (400 php)

The Sanma Shiyaki is salt grilled sanma which I always order in Japanese restaurants when available.  This is grilled just right making it it juicy and flavorful.

Sake Teriyaki (370 php)

The Sake Teriyaki is good.  But, if you order this with the Gindara Teriyaki, it does have a tendency of being overshadowed.

Tempura (Deep Fried Battered Dishes)

Ebi Tempura (520 php)

An order of an Ebi Tempura is composed of four king-size prawns.  The prawns are soft and tasty but the batter is not the best I've tried.

Agemono (Fried Dishes)

♥ Tori Karaage (350 php)

The Tori Karaage is a crunchy fried chicken with tender juicy chicken meat.  You can see from the golden brown coating that it was cooked perfectly.

Wagyu Japanese Premium Beef

♥ Wagyu Steak (120 g) (2,500 php)

The highlight of the meal is the Wagyu Steak served raw atop a large hot pebble.  It was pretty entertaining to see the raw wagyu steak get cooked.  This way, you can cook your wagyu according to your preferred cooking level.  Once was cooked medium, I got my piece while my companions preferred their portions cooked well done.


Light Meals

Teppan Tofu Steak (410 php)

The Teppan Tofu Steak is are thin crusted-tofu with sauce topped with mushroom and carrots bits.  The texture of the tofu is excellent and the sauce is a great complement too.

♥ Gyoza (350 php)

The Gyoza has a crisp shell which conceals its oozing flavorful pork meat juice.  This is definitely authentic and one of the best too.


Ramen

♥Mixed Seafood Teppanyaki (520 php)

The Mixed Seafood Teppanyaki has shrimp, salmon, squid, egg, leeks, wakame, bean sprouts, pork miso broth and toasted sesame oil.  The bountiful ingredients and rich flavor of seafood and pork miso broth is surely to make you slurp this to the last drop.  However, I found the ramen noodles lacking in chewiness.

Wagyu Beef Kalbi (480 php)

The Wagyu Beef Kalbi is an interesting offering.  I've never had a ramen with tender braised beef rolled us wagyu beef, baby bok choy,seaweed, onion leeks, fish cake, soft egg in special beef broth before.  This is a trully savory and meaty meal.  But, I honestly feel that wagyu is best enjoyed steak style to fully appreciate it.

Happy Birthday Spanky Enriquez!

The meal was even more special because it was Spanky Enriquez' birthday celebration.

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Yurakuen Japanese Restaurant offers authentic Japanese cuisine with the best service and ambiance.  As expected from a typical hotel Japanese restaurant, it comes with a high price.  I want to go back and try their teppanyaki next time. 

Tip: Avail of their lunch sets for more savings

It's the first time to visit Corniche for dinner.  Love the elegance and colorful play of lights. 

Ceviche with Pomelo

Adobo, Quesong Puti and Salted Egg

Pancit Luglug with Condiments

Whole Maya Maya Mayonesa

Corniche is one of the newest restaurants located at the lobby of five-star Diamond Hotel. Corniche has a sophisticated and elegant interiors.  I also loved that it has large windows so you can appreciate the beauty of nature outside.

This is our seat view

We've been curious about Corniche since it had opened so Kurt and I decided to book our lunch date there.  Upon entering, we were greeted and led to our reserved seats which was near the dessert station.  It had a beautiful view of the outdoors.


Corniche is a spacious restaurant with numerous stations.  What we loved about Corniche is that most of their stations are interactive.  You can actually see the Chefs cooking the food they serve.  Some of the stations even let guests decide what ingredients they want to be prepared for them.

Grilling Station

We even witnessed someone being sang a birthday song

Appetizer
The Appetizer station had the most offerings.  There was Fresh Seafood, Assorted Sashimi, Assorted Sushi and Assorted Maki, Assorted Cheese, Pastries, Salad Bar, Pate and Terrine

Fresh Seafood

Fresh Seafood

Assorted Sashimi

♥Assorted Sushi and Assorted Maki

We noticed that they have a lot of selection for their Japanese appetizers such as the Assorted Sashimi, Assorted Sushi and Assorted Maki.  We tried some of the Sashimi and Maki selection and they were pretty good.  We would also like to note that they were very quick in refilling these making sure that none of the selections were empty.

Assorted Cheese

I'm always eager to try out new varieties when it comes to cheese.  Although they had a few options, I'm glad I was able to taste the ♥Sage Derby and the ♥Taleggio Cheese. 

Pastries

They had a wide variety of pastries.  I noticed that they made it very convenient for the guests by offering them the option to choose among rolls, toasted bits, fresh whole bread, sliced bread and un-sliced bread.

Fresh Salad Bar

Fresh Salad Bar

Salad Bar

If you want to opt to make your own fresh salad, the Fresh Salad Bar offers a lot of ingredient selections and dressings. 

Salad Bar

They also have prepared international varieties of salad in case you choose that over Fresh Salad.

Pate and Terrines

They tried all their all the selections here such as the Seafood Terrine, Pork Pate w/ Shitake Mushroom Pistachio Nuts, Vegetable Terrine and Chicken Terrine.   I loved the Pork Pate w/ Shitake Mushroom Pistachio Nuts and the Vegetable Terrine.


Fresh Pasta

Fresh Pasta

Check out the beautiful and fresh ingredients for the Fresh Pasta station.  You can choose your own ingredients kept fresh and chilled by the ice and choose your preferred pasta sauce and have their chefs prepare them for you.


Dimsum

Dimsum

Soups

Soups

♥Roast Beef and Pecking Duck

Indian

Roti and Chutney

♥Tempura

Pizza

Fresh Fruits

Halo-Halo

Fondue

Juice Bar