Kaizan

Is it a Japanese restaurant? Or is it Korean? Well, actually, it is a bit of both. Whilst the concept is Japanese downstairs in the air-con comfort, Korean barbecue is home up on the open roof terrace, but orders can be made from any menu, anywhere.

Steamboats are a specialty of Kaizan. You cook your own food by dropping the raw ingredients into a broth of your choice. Here, you may choose two different broths out of Chicken, Chinese Herbal, Korean Chige, Thai Tom Yam, Savoury Sukiyaki or a simple Shabu-Shabu. You select your plates of Meat (beef, pork, chicken), Seafood (butter fish, swimmer crabs, scallops, baby abalone, prawns) and Vegetables (oyster mushrooms, spring onions, chrysanthemum leaves, tofu, etc.). Or just order from a set menu, the combination already determined.

With a Korean BBQ, marinated meats are presented, and you cook them over what looks like an inverted hub cap. The animal fats run down to the rim making your meal just that bit healthier. The set menus come with accompanying kimchi (chilli cabbage), salad, manul and rice. Choose from Gal Bi (pork ribs), Rosu (rib-eye beef), Tan Shio (beef tongue) or Buta Bara (pork belly).

For a restaurant with Asian cuisines, an unusually well balanced wine list is presented, and the service is friendly yet experienced for such a new restaurant.

Entrees are from both menu styles and you will find that vegetarians are well catered for. Special entrees include Tataki, a salad of radish with sliced kipjack tataki in a lemon mustard sauce, Nasu No Nimono (eggplants poached in a dashi stock with sesame oil) and a great mushroom malad, the mushrooms having been sautéed then served on a salad, tossed with a lemon soy dressing.

Both the Sushi and Sashimi are available in set menus as well as a choice of a la carte Maki Rolls.

The Yakitori and Kushiage menus contain the same ingredients. Just that the former is charcoal grilled on a skewer, whilst the latter is deep-fried. A number of set menus exist for a variety of both types, plus a combination of both.

A derivative of the Ryoshi chain, Kaizan is just a bit more up-market and designed to be a comfortable environment for lingering on after dinner for a few drinks. Try a Sho-Chu cocktail!