It was our fourth Valentine’s Day after marriage and the one we were celebrating together after two missing Valentine’s Days. Since we are in Riyadh where there is a ban for this American celebration, we never anticipated to celebrate it in a grand manner. The roses or any gifts in red colour would be banned on these days. So, we had planned well ahead to celebrate this day in our own style. We resolved to try out something new-a visit to the Japanese restaurant in town.
I started to Google through Japanese dishes by evening of the Valentine’s Day. All dishes seemed to be so complicated and I stopped to search further. Before starting for dinner I helped myself with a boiled banana in fear of the unknown dishes that might fail me.
An appetizing aroma of dishes was in the air as we entered into the Tokyo Restaurant at Al Arouba Road. It was 9 p.m and already we were in queue. We were not aware of the reservation procedure in the restaurant and not booked for the seats. We had to wait for an hour till our turn came and the waiting time went easily as we engaged ourselves by watching the other customers in queue.
The ambience in the restaurant was not so grandeur but with minimal touches of Japanese interiors. We got into a family room with 8 seats. The attendant who came to assist us was a Malayalee by name Basheer. (I remembered the joke of Neil Armstrong’s first visit to the moon. People make fun that a Malayalee gave him tea in the moon. The joke implies to the presence of Kerala people all over the world.)
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| Miso soup and salad |
We were clueless on what to order! As a starter, we relished the free miso soup, green salad and Potato Korokke for Shreya. I was skeptical of using chopstick but managed well after two three attempts. The instructions on the Chopstick cover on holding it was really helpful for a beginner like me. Shreya managed quite well with chopsticks in her little hands.
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| Shreya with her Chopstick |
Basheer assisted us to order the main course. We chose to have mixed tempura and chicken teppanyaki. We avoided the menu for Sushi since I was so choosy with fish and cannot have raw fish. The food arrived in time we finished the starters and soup.
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| Mixed Tempura |
The crispy pieces in the mixed tempura tasted so bland without the tempura sauce. However as per Sreejith’s suggestion, I soaked the pieces in tempura sauce. Wow! It tasted so yummy. The pieces in tempura vanished one by one. Even I who wrinkle nose for fish relished the crispy shrimps. Only once we happened to chew on fried garlic paste in the dish. But the other delicious pieces took over the bad taste soon from our taste buds.
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| Chicken teppanyaki. |
Along with Mixed tempura, we tasted the Chicken teppanyaki.. We were silent while tasting it since we never deviated our attention from its taste. Finally, we finished our dinner with the raw rice and the leftovers in both the dishes.
It was then time for paying the bills. The price for the dishes seems to be reasonable since we don’t mind spend a little more on special days. Thankfully our Valentine’s Day celebration didn’t flop out owing to the choice of this restaurant.
Additional Info: Tokyo Restaurant in Riyadh doesn’t open on Fridays. The restaurant is usually crowded and it is always better if you reserve your seats in advance.
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