To the background of a sweeping 37th floor view of South Mumbai, we’re sampling Chef Ting Yen’s revamped menu at Yuuka. The modern Japanese restaurant and sushi bar is the renowned Boston chef’s lovechild – he spent a week in Mumbai recently, nicking and pruning the menu – and it shows.
We prime our stomachs with the strong but smooth fruit sake and truffle-coated peas. The Japanese hot wings with chilli red miso cut right to the chase with the chillies crunching between the melt-y chicken inside. The salmon crudo – smoked fish in a passion fruit reduction – though pretty as a picture, didn’t feel quite as fresh or flavourful. But the dense, fleshy baked truffle lobster made us instantly forget our disappointment. We’d have happily skipped the rest of the courses to keep putting away Yen’s signature specialty maki rolls of torched toro, jalapeno slices and spicy mayonnaise. But we’re glad we saved space for the sea salt truffle ice-cream – cold, creamy, salty, nutty – not a thing we didn’t like about it.
Meal for two is approximately Rs 8,000.
Yuuka by Ting Yen, Level 37, Palladium Hotel, Mumbai. Tel: 022 6162 8422
