Aburiya revisited

C says:

Our fish month (March) was finally over, so we decided to indulge our Aburiya cravings with M & S on Friday night. It was supremely satisfying as usual, although S and I felt rather ill at yoga the next morning, after all the fatty meats that we consumed.

I won’t bore anyone by repeating my comments on the stuff that we’ve already tasted and about which we’ve posted; I’ll just write about new stuff that we tried.

Learning from our previous ‘mistakes’, we decided to order the pork belly with a simple Tare (soy sauce) marinade instead of the overpowering miso. This was much better – the flavour of the pork really came through, and the charred fatty bits were simply divine. We ordered the beef tongue as well, which we grilled for slightly longer than the regular meats. This wasn’t at all chewy and was better than expected, but I might pass on this in future because (a) A doesn’t do tongue (heh), and (b) I still prefer the normal meats.

On S’s suggestion, we also tried 2 soups – a Kimchi Chage and a Beef Karubi soup. According to S, the former is typically Korean and she said that it was pretty authentic. I’ve never tried the dish at all before, and I was pleasantly surprised (since I’m not usually a kimchi fan). It had a nice balance of spicy and sour and it provided a welcome change from all the grilled meats. The Beef Karubi soup fared a little less well, because it was slightly bland in comparison. A liked it, though.

Another surprisingly good dish was the spinach salad with bacon. This was wonderfully light and fresh, and again provided a welcome respite from the meat overdose. We couldn’t figure out what the dressing was, but it was slightly tart and lemony. There were fried garlic chips in it as well, which provided some awesome flavour.

The great thing about Aburiya is that, even though we sat indoors, we didn’t reek of smoke/bbq at the end of the meal. In fact, even with all the grilling, the restaurant wasn’t smoky or smelly at all. There were no visible airvents above the tables, so the only explanation for this must be that they have a kick-ass ventilation system that somehow sucks the smoke and odours from beneath the grill itself.

I guess our Aburiya cravings have been satisfied for another couple of months.

A says:

I prefer the HV branch over the Quayside one. It’s usually less packed and I somehow feel less stressed. S said the place had a Korean vibe as well but I wouldn’t know so I’ll leave her to comment on that if she feels like it.

Whatever the case is, the place RAWKS!

On a side note, we went to the Häagen-Dazs at HV after and although the service was much improved from last time, I think the place is still seriously overpriced.