Yamatori

I was planning to visit the new Japanese restaurant in the Gran Bahia Real hotel with Roger one day as he exclaimed about his love of Japanese food but the restaurant is presently closed on Mondays (our day off) so the opportunity arose last night as Debi is out on a 12 day break and I know she likes a bit of top nosh. We were recommended to make a reservation for Teppan-Yaki (which to the uninitiated like me is when you all sit around a table and the food is cooked in front of you with a lot of banging of knives and the like!).

The restaurant is decorated in a very formal simplistic manner with a lot of dark wood flooring and walls. The floor is in fact made from wooden slats but they have had to add an area of solid matting for us girlies with high heels so we don´t fall down the slats – very thoughtful I thought – or perhaps they had already experienced a couple of embarrassing accidents! There were a couple sitting at one of the two Teppen-Yaki tables when we arrived and we were placed opposite them – although you are seated at a table with strangers the atmosphere is sufficiently calm and relaxing (with Engima music playing subtly in the background) that you merely nod your head in acknowledgement of each other and enjoy your meal with your own party. I think it would be quite fun to have a party as large as eight so you can have an entire table to yourselves. The sushi table can seat, I think, eight people and there was an array of beautiful sushi on show.

We chose the cheapest wine available which was the Marques to Caceres white at €19 (ouch!) and the price of the wines above and beyond this were way above my lowly bar-owners´ budget! The menu offered four set Teppan-Yaki meals – a vegetarian option (Sansai) at €25 and three others (at €30, €37 and €45 which included meat and/or fish). We opted for one vegetarian and the €37 (Hamabe) as this included the fish. The Sansai meal comprised Yasai soup (which was a simple type of vegetable soup – very nice though), vegetable sushi salad, vegetable tempura (vegetables in batter), chicken teriyaki, yakisoba (fried noodles) and homemade confectionery. The Hamabe meal comprised seafood sunomomo (I think that was just fried seafood in batter), mixed tempura, tuna, salmon and white fish nigiri, tuna and salmon teriyaki, fried rice or yakisoba and more confectionery.

The courses seemed never-ending and constantly arriving especially so as we were sharing each of the set meals between us – so we kept swapping plates. We ate a bit slower than usual too as we were using chopsticks (although both of us are aficionados). By the time we were eating our teriyaki the chef was cooking the fried rice and yakisoba and Debs and I were looking at each other daunted by having to fit more in – we tried our very best but it even beat me! I think, however, I must be the only person I know to get a doggy bag from a Teppan-Yaki restaurant (Roger´s supper tonight!). The chef cooks your meal with dramatic flair – by heating a thin layer of oil and cooking the fresh ingredients (courgettes, mushrooms, green pepper, chicken and salmon), then adding the beansprouts with cabbage and carrot and a generous helping of rice wine and soy sauce.

The beautiful selection of homemade confectionery for desserts including a green tea ice-cream was only half eaten – at this stage I was wondering how I would get through the door to leave! Although, however, there was a large amount of food – it was all very healthy stuff and nothing stodgy.

We were waited on by a very obliging number of staff – Ahmad, our waiter, was extremely helpful, friendly and very easy on the eye (hopefully my photo of him will makes its way into this article). He spoke exceptional English and also speaks Spanish and Arabic (he is from Jordan). I enquired as to which days the restaurant is closed and he informed me that they were closing after this Saturday for two weeks´ holiday – so you will now have to wait until after then to enjoy this gastronomic experience – well worth the visit though. Our bill came to €82 and we managed to acquire another half bottle of Marques to Caceres on the house. I don´t know whether this was just down to the restaurant or the fact that the hotel´s owner, José Maria, arrived for meal – he also owns Las Magnolias (where I live). My charm obviously rubbed off on someone!