Sumie

Last week was our one-year anniversary, and we celebrated by treating ourselves to a fabulous dinner at a Japanese restaurant named Sumie. It is a bit on the pricey side (we ordered the second to least expensive set menu, which was NT2000 per person), but worth every penny. This was truly Japanese cuisine in its finest form.

We started off with this, uh…jello ball? (Unfortunately, I don't know what anything is called beyond its generic name, because the menu didn't list any names or descriptions with its set menu, probably because it changes frequently.) Basically, it was a ball of gelatin filled with shrimp, abalone, and okra, served with vinegar and soy sauce. It sounds weird, but it was very light and refreshing and just what we needed to whet our appetites.


Then out came the sashimi. I almost didn’t want to eat it because it was so pretty. In fact, the presentation of all the dishes at Sumie was absolutely stunning. Our sashimi came served inside a long, thinly sliced piece of cucumber, and topped with a huge leaf of some sort. I think about the guy whose job it is to slice all these perfect, thin slices of cucumber, and I feel sort of bad for him. But he sure was good at it:


For our sashimi we got a piece of toro and some other fish whose name I don’t know but was incredibly good. It was very lightly grilled, and there was just a hint of smoky flavor to it.

Next we got baked eggplant topped with a miso paste. Inside the eggplant were pieces of shrimp and scallop. This was my husband’s favorite.


I liked that our salad wasn’t just your typical garden salad. Ours came with pieces of bamboo and crispy noodles sprinkled on top, and the vinaigrette was made with passionfruit and pineapple.


Ok, now comes the best part of the meal. Actually, this wasn’t even included in our set menu, but we ordered these lamb chops because we had heard they were good. Oh, they were so, so good. Just so juicy and tender and bursting with flavor…I’m sorry, I have to take a minute to wipe the drool off my keyboard.


Our sushi rolls were good, but nothing to write home about. But we were also in a rush to make it to a concert we were going to on time, so at that point we were just stuffing everything into our mouths as fast as we could, so that could be the reason why we didn't think they were that special.


Our last course before the dessert was a miso soup with lobster. I liked this soup a lot and really wish now that I had taken the time to savor it, especially the lobster.


Finally, our dessert was a mochi filled with custard and sprinkled with chocolate powder on top. It tasted like a tiramisu mochi. I ate this in one bite. God, now that I think about it, I hope no one was watching us eating. We must have looked like jackals or something.


All in all, though, this was a delicious meal. Maybe not the sort of thing you’d eat every day, but definitely great for special occasions.

Sumie
Zhongxiao East Road, Section 4, No. 172
San Want Hotel, 4th Floor
(02) 2781-6909