Gryphon Travel

Our experience at a 3 Michelin star restaurant.

There was seating for a maximum 16 people here. There was one other family next to us with 2 kids, vastly younger than our 2 kids, and a couple seated at the bar behind David and Daya. by the end of the night the two kids at the table next to us were both sound asleep.

This was a keiseki menu, where everyone is served the same dishes, usually referred to as a tasting menu in the US. The chef was friendly and came to the table to explain the food and drink choices.

First course sea urchin with a soy milk skin was served in a small ceramic cup. He told us to mix it up a bit. It had a bit of wasabi and some kind of jelly on top. There were small bits of crunchy root vegetable in it for texture. The soy milk skin was forward giving a strong umami flavor. It was very good and interesting, I would say the flavor was pungent, like a strong cheese and would have probably been well served by a cracker to balance. The drink pairing was a sparkling wine.

Kiwi jelly with silver pomfret. This was a table favorite the fish was lightly seared over a flame and well seasoned with sea salt. The meat had a buttery flavor and the sweetness of the kiwi jelly complimented the salty skin perfectly. Everyone loved this one. It was served with a dry Saki.

Crescent sweetlips and egg tofu in a green tea broth. I’m not sure what makes an egg tofu, but this was silky and firm like good tofu can be. Topped with shredded ginger, the broth was the star here. I ate the fish and tofu in the soup, but sipping the broth was where I kept going. This was served with a warm Saki.

Snapper with Indian spinach was next. I think the Indian spinach had almost a kale taste and texture to it. It was similar to a creamed spinach but with more texture and a bitter note that offset the sweetness of the fish.

The golden snapper was rare and tender. It was served with a lightly sweet delicious Saki. The Saki was made in the traditional style, I don’t know what that means, but that’s what I was told.

Up next was steamed grouper served in a flavorful tomato soup topped lightly with fresh herb, might have been sage. This was paired with a local Japanese Chardonnay.

The chardonnay was called “What would panda drink?” which I thought was cute.

The beef with chimichurri was another crowd pleaser. Perfectly seasoned, rare, and tender. I can’t forget the corn! It was on the side and we loved it so much we took the time to carefully picked up every single kernel with our chopsticks.This was served with my favorite of the drinks an aged red wine.

The next 2 dishes were served together, cold noodles with fried tofu and eggplant and the tilefish sushi.

The sushi looked like it had grated cheddar cheese on it! Pretty sure it was shredded crab meat or similar, it had that sweet flavor.

There was a bit of pickled ginger on the side. I might need to make some of that soon.

I didn’t manage to get a mochi photo, served with mango sorbet and coconut warabi. We had to look up warabi, apparently is very difficult to harvest and therefore more expensive. It was nothing like the doughy versions of mochi I have had before.

Our final drink was a strong roasted matcha served hot. I loved this tea. It had flavor like a great Scotch. Gotta try to find that before we go home.

There were a lot of great bites here, but the one that really made a lasting impression on me was the pungent sea urchin. Just very unique and unexpected.