Located at: Wafi City, Umm Hurair, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Visited on: 23 Oct, 2017

Tomo is what one would refer to as an authentic Japanese restaurant, with its Japanese kitchen brigade, and yet another place that is worthy of mention for its consistency. Up-end but with a relaxed atmosphere, the restaurant is perched on the seventeenth floor and inside the glass pyramid structure atop Raflles Dubai. Which means that the view, if you sit at the edge, is quite a sight – more so at night perhaps. They keep it simple on the palate – homage to their authenticity – but leave you with a visually and gastronomically satisfying meal.

We ordered a round of Miso Shiro – miso soup (AED 15) to begin with. The first thing you notice when you open your soup bowl is that the tofu is fried and float up as spongy chunks. Which was interesting as the texture is completely different from the creamy tofu you would ordinarily find in a bowl of miso. I cannot really say which one is better, but it definitely caught my attention first-up and was an intriguing change.

Next up was some sushi rolls and sashimi. We thought we’d mix it up and so got a platter each of Ume – chef’s selection of three kinds of sashimi (AED 105) and Makimono set – California, tempura and spider sushi rolls (AED 120). I’m not really all that into sashimi to be honest, so I just tried a piece of the salmon with some soy sauce. Regardless of your sentiment towards sashimi, one thing that’s bound to catch your eye is the presentation – (as you can see in my poorly focused photo below) such a visual pleasure! Expectedly, I enjoyed the sushi rolls. Not too much rice, neither too sticky, nor crumbly. I’m usually a tempura roll fan, but I must say the spider roll was pretty good too with the crunch of the battered soft shell crab.

For the mains I went with a half portion of Shibaebi Kakiage Don – mixed shrimps and spring onions tempura on steamed rice (AED 51). It was good to see that the tempura wasn’t very oily, and therefore had a crunch to it. But what really pulled that dish together was the tempura dipping sauce that came with it. Delicious! Once I had a taste of it, I went on to pour copious amounts into my rice bowl – and ended up eating more rice than I needed since it tasted so good together. In fact, I wouldn’t be exaggerating in saying that I had to make a conscious effort to stop myself from going overboard.

I had a taste of the Katsu Don – deep fried breaded pork and egg on steamed rice (AED 48 for a half portion) that was at the table too. And thought it was fantastic. If not for the phenomenal tempura dipping sauce in my dish, I would say that the latter is the more flavourful, and therefore the better, choice of the two. All items in the donburi (abbreviated don, translating to rice bowl dish) section of the menu are accompanied by miso soup by the way, which we declined since we had already indulged in some at the inception.

Finally, for dessert we ordered a couple of portions of Maccha Roll Cake – rolled green tea cake with vanilla ice cream and fruits (AED 52) and a portion of Cake Sanshu – assortment of small home-made chestnut cake, baked cheese cake and rolled milk cake (AED 48). Since we were celebrating a birthday that night, they had arranged all three orders on a single platter, adorned it with a decoration and a candle, and brought it out with a bang – a loud rendition of Happy Birthday, shakers and all. It was quite the sight – and sound! And a happy end to a good day. Now I must admit I don’t fancy maccha flavour in general (chocolate-y is more my thing). But I tried out all the elements on the dessert platter, including the maccha roll cake. And I loved it. There was no overwhelming flavour of maccha (much to my delight – possibly not the same sentiment for maccha fans) and the roll was so soft and cool and fluffy, held together by a smooth but non-buttery layer of cream. The same went for the rolled milk cake. SO good. Just thinking about them as I write makes me wish I had some right now! I only touched on the cheese cake, but had more of the chestnut cake as that was a scrumptious pleasure too – creamy under the more solid stringy layer, with a slightly crumbly base. Yum! Japanese sweets/desserts in general aren’t too sweet, so it doesn’t feel overdone even if you try a bit (or a little more) of a few varieties. So I’d definitely recommend trying these out on a visit to Tomo.

I shall sign off with a couple more photographs for your perusal – just to admire Tomo’s beautiful presentation of their Passion Martini (which I hear also tastes fantastic), and the pretty pots in which they served their green tea. Adds colour to the experience, and definitely leaves the diner with something to remember.

 

Yummy Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

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