Midori Japanese Teppan Yaki Restaurant

"Where are you blogging about now?", friend asks.
"Midori! :D"
*Short pause*
"Wow. You alcoholic", friend says.

Just to clarify, I don't have any alcohol related issues. But I do have a very clueless friend! :)
So, I'm not an alco. I shouldn't drink. And to the mate that tells me that I should be training up my liver, good freaking luck with yours. Yeaaaaa buddeh! :D

So for those out there who aren't as clueless and empty-headed as the friend, Midori is probably on many foodie's wishlists. Upon hearing that I was writing about it, another friend asked how much dinner cost.
"$106", I said sadly.
"WHAT?! For each person?!?"
See. And that is probably the impression that most people have for this place, i.e., DAMN EXPENSIVE! (But no, that was the grand total of the bill, if you thought the same thing).

As such, I have mixed feelings about Midori. On one hand I desired to eat here real bad. On the other, I was very opposed to eating there, because I am frankly, not rich enough to eat there. So as we approached the restaurant, we were so very close to switching to Tony Romas instead. It might have cost only a little bit less, but I was certain it would fill our stomachs, unlike Midori.

Throughout the journey there and as I got closer to the entrance, I found myself finding every excuse NOT to eat there.
I HAVE NO MONEY!
LOOK, THERE'S NO PARKING, LETS GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!
I was even prepared to say I HAVE NO APPETITE!, but that was too great of a lie.
But the one that came up time and time again, especially when we were at the entrance -
I HAVEEE NO MONEYYY! Because it was true.

Then the next thing I know, we were escorted upstairs to this hell of a different restaurant, greeted by waitresses in colourful kimonos and the sight of huge tables surrounding huge BBQ surfaces in the centre. This was going to be one exciting dining experience.
Yes, one, because I can't afford to go back again until I'm rich, which is probably never.

Scribbles

I was so intrigued by the patterns on the BBQ surface, which was written with salt crystals, which I later discovered that they were actually words. First thoughts were, coooooool! Seconds thoughts were, wow what a waste of salt guys. Especially when I couldn't read what the hell it said. And if you can, well, yeaaaaah whateverrrrrrr.
When presented with the menu, you initially get really excited. Then that feeling is soon taken over immediately, when you look inside the menu and spew up over the prices LOL. Ultimately we went for the Make Your Own set menu, which includes fresh salad, vegetables, miso soup, steamed rice, dessert and green tea (which we actually didn't get).

Seasonal salad

So this was the incredible starter to the incredible meal to come. A bowl of "seasonal vegetables" - yeah, I'd say year round instead - with traditional Japanese salad dressing. And this came out pretty fast, while everything else after it came out pretty slow. It made me feel like I came in here and ordered a bowl of salad only. Seriously it did.

Sashimi

Next up came the entree, which was a choice out of Tempura or Sashimi. This was a no brainer for us, with raw fish being the downright obvious choice. I can't go past this delicacy of raw salmon and tuna arranged delectably with cucumber slices. I think you begin to admire the presentation of food when you do a photo shoot with it - I know I do.
Of course, very fresh stuff, as you would expect at such a restaurant.

Cocktail

Shamefully, I have no recollection of what this cocktail is called, and what it tasted like, or what the heck it even consists of. I do remember the comment "this tastes like medicine" been made though. But from habit I'm pretty sure I always go for the creamy, thick ones over the fruity fresh liquid types of indulgences. Cause the latter just usually tastes like bitter softdrinks anyway.

Theatrical cooking

As Midori's tagline suggests, the place is all about the "Theatre of Dining". You really come for the experience of seeing these chefs, whose occupation double up as entertainers and if I may, cooking acrobats. They throw around salt and pepper shakers, juggle them, make a hell of a lot of noise and play with fire. Pyromaniacs really! That huge BBQ hotplate is pretty much their playground.

Word of warning would be the flame is pretty huge and pretty damn HOT!
I swear before the chef made the huge burst the fire, he told everyone to "watch your eyebrows".
I would say watch your whole face!

Yakiniku

 If you choose the MYO set menu, main course is consisted of 3 selections out of meats, seafoods and mushrooms. For me, it was sorta ridiculous to be thinking mushroom or meat? Mushroom or meat? I mean if you're vegetarian, the choice is obvious. But for a non vegetarian, the choice is equally as obvious.
So obviously, I am not a vegetarian =p

Went with the yakiniku, which is chicken marinated in a special barbecue sauce grilled with slivers of onion and spring onion. Hot, tasty and delivered straight onto your plate. Doesn't get any fresher than that.

Lobster

This expensive baby was not part of the MYO choices. Called this as an extra from the A-La-Carte menu, and from memory this was definitely pricey. By pricey I mean like it probably cost like half of the whole MYO set menu's price. And it wasn't even WHOLE, it was only HALF lobster! It was pretty extravagant though. And by extravagant I mean THE PRICE WAS FRIGGIN EXTRAVAGANT!

They even make it easy to eat by removing the flesh from the outer shell and popping it back into place so the whole thing looks untouched. Ease of eating is always a winner with me. Topped with crispy and fragrant pieces of garlic, it was delicious, but I wouldn't go as far to say it was worth what it was =p

Sauces

At a restaurant like this, even all the meats get their own little sauce partners. Friend had a smear of soy sauce in one of the compartments which led to the chef changing the whole sauce dish altogether. Contamination is definitely a big issue here and isn't treated lightly lolol.

Far left is a runny "beef stock" sauce, complementing the prime beef we ordered, while the middle liquid partners seafood dishes, having a light, tangy tinged flavour.
To be honest, I think it doens't enhance much, and you could go easily without anyways.

Beef, Chicken, Salmon, Vegetables

And finally we have the finished product here. I held out eating for so long, just so that I could photograph the final thing, talk about being considerate! =p It's hard work resisting gobbling everything down whilst the food is hot and steamy on your plate with aromas wafting around, and you have to just sit there and stare cause you have to stay dedicated to your food blog. =)

Clockwise, there's our prime beef, yakiniku, vegetables (more like, beansprouts), and salmon. Favourite? Probably the beef. That was some good stuff.

Grilled beef

And because I fell in love with it, I felt compelled to take another photo of the beef. I find that most Japanese restaurants cook their beef really well, whether that be their epic cooking skills or the cut of beef they choose to use. But one thing never changes, as the beef is always juicy and succulent and hell tasty.

Soft but not too soft, chewy but not too chewy, and yes I'm indecisive so put up with it. It's got just the right amount of chew for just the right amount of mastication :)

Salt scribbles

Upon finishing our meal, another surprise came. And upon seeing this, a flashback came upon me and I suddenly realised what that initial message said :$

The chefs do have some talent, all their appreciative messages are scrawled on with precision, written upside down and backwards. I bet that doesn't even make sense to you right now. Just understand this is probably what we are paying for. All this schmancy shit you don't see at your ordinary restaurants.

I initially thought the chefs mastered this out of habit and repetition, saying thank you to countless customers, so it musn't be too hard, right? I underestimated. Because they can draw/write/entertain to your request.
*I didn't request that butterfly though, if that is a butterfly at all!

Green Tea Ice Cream

The concept of Midori is pretty different. After all this, you are ushered into their lounge area, full of chairs and tables away from the stuffy atmosphere of where the BBQ grills are. You sit around waiting a while for the final part of your dining experience where you get served dessert, being a mound of green tea ice cream topped with a blob of cream and the recognisable glazed artificial looking and tasting cherry.

I hate those things. They make cherries look so bad.
Ice cream is never bad though =)

...

All in all, it was a good dining experience. But experience looks awfully close to expensive LOL and damn, I knew it was expensive but I didn't know it was THIS expensive! I'd be pretty disappointed if it wasn't a good experience to remember. It's something different, and it's something worth trying.

Probably shouldn't be frequently visited unless you're disgustingly rich and got money to throw around, but at least once is good. Even after once, your wallet is left with a dent and probably feels physically lighter.
Booooooooooo :(

Service is both slow and fast at the same time. Chefs are extremely fast and entertaining at preparing and cooking your food, all with an air of style and talent. Waitresses on the other hand, seem a bit slow at times. Waiting around occured a lot. Gives you more time to take in your surroundings I guess, which would probably lead to you making more drink purchases. They're also dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos and thongs (shoes, not the other kind, lol) and you wonder how hard it is to be waitressing in such a uniform. Must get hot and sweaty at times...

Oh, and one thing I find amusing is they don't have EFTPOS facilities, being such a high class restaurant and all. You have to like walk across the street to the nearest convenience store and cash out there, which jacks up your dinner an extra $2 because of the ATM surcharge =p It's devastating to see a sky high bill soar even higher.

And it makes you wish you were filthily rich enough to always have a stash of cash on hand, readily available to use at ridiculously expensive dinners.

Hinz Chinese Seafood Restaurant

I think it's really unfortunate that people have to part ways. Yeah I know, it's a way of life and blah di blah di blah but still. Why? WHY! I hate it so much. It's a really weak trait of mine.

As such, the brother organised a get together for the little group of staff that have committed their time and effort for the ex business. I reckon it's awesome to be able to catch up with each other so we don't completely forget about the friendships that have developed through time.

Because of the awesome company present, I didn't focus on the food as much as I am usually out to do. The lines between colleagues and friends are always blurred but it's always for a good reason. I love this group of people.

Dim Sim proved to be a good choice for these type of occasions. Well, dim sim is never not a good choice for any occasions, really. After a little bit of explanation of why I was taking photos, we dug into these goodies:

Chicken Feet in Black Bean sauce

Memory tells me we had 2 or 3 of these. So either they were pretty nice, or the diners on our table just have a fetish and just really like feet. I haven't developed a particular dislike to eating these but I think it's more of I just can't be bothered with the effort to eat feet. Too much hassle to eat a theoretically yucky thing = yeah, screw that.

The Chinese name for this translates something to like phoenix claw. As such, a Malaysian with us did not know what this was because of its schmancy name. "Oh, it's just chicken feet." Disappointment. I guess they gotta make feet seem enticing somehow right?

Pork dumplings garnished with Caviar

Above is the usual suspect at dim sim, the famously mispronounced siu mai. Hinz version is relatively smaller than other restaurants, hence the ability to fit 4 into the steamer rather than the usual quantity of 3. Small doesn't always mean it's not good. Being small has its ups and advantages a lot of the time :)...and it definitely doesn't mean I've got a smaller stomach either :(

These dumplings seem to use pretty lean meat for the interior, which is actually pretty good for me since me and fatty foods don't make a perfect match anymore *tear*. But for everybody else who like their fatty meat blocks of fat, that's probably something less appealing and desirable.

Deep fried Prawn dumplings with Mayonnaise

I was too scared to experiment whether my body was agreeable to these deep fried, delicious, tempting prawn parcels. Judging from their looks they look pretty good. Bias is probably present because all deep fried stuff are extremely good looking.

Pork and Prawn Bean Curd Skin rolls in Oyster sauce

Bean curd has always been a favourite, because in my head it's healthy. And here I think I'm using the words bean curd and tofu to be interchangeable...cause I've never bothered to find out the difference. Here that healthiness doesn't seem to really come through though, does it...

The soft textured skin is wrapped tightly to hug the filling inside nice and snugly. The prawn doesn't seem to be very prominent and is overtaken by the flavoured soft mince to give these deflated, wrinkly, saggy skin a little bit of a face lift and a little bit of oomph.

Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean sauce

I like to judge the quality and generosity of a restaurant based on this dish, how judgemental and ridiculous that may sound. I find that we order this less and less because it gets to the point where you are sort of ordering a bucket of bones to eat suck and gnaw like a bunch of canines.

Sometimes, spare ribs can mean meat, other times it can mean fat, and occasionally it can mean pretty much bones. At Hinz I would say a pretty good balance is given. And doesn't this look so much more like black bean sauce than what the chicken feet sauce looks like?

Steamed Fish Balls

These used to be my favourite a while back. Fish balls. Mmm. =p These seem to be like processed fish paste mounded into a ball attached to some flaps of bean curd skin at the base. I would call that visual appeal only, with that addition.

The fish balls are pretty firm to the bite but are really not reminiscent of fish, like all fish balls. Pretty bouncy to chew too. Maybe a bit more flavour would make them better. Even more MSG? =p

Deep fried Squid Tentacles with Chilli and Pepper

No doubt, these are always a favourite amongst most people. What's not to love? Maybe the oil, the fat, and the fact that tasty stuff are almost always so bad for you, but besides all that, these are like the healthiest things ever LOL. It's good to develop a love for healthy things.

Cause I have to make an effort to avoid these absolutely healthy foods, I tend to peel off that magical golden layer coating which defeats the whole purpose of this dish. Very sad. At least the single naked squid tentacle I'm left with still satisfies. It's still tender and not rubbery and seafood is always satisfying when it's cooked the right way.

I was somewhat surprised to hear that these aren't available at dimsim in Malaysia. Really? I mean it's either they have really little variety or the person who said that is just a teeny weeny bit clueless :) Despite this though, she is an amazing, talented cook and I hope to scab some skillz from her and feature some of her creations on here soon :D

Fat chance mine would look presentable, thanks to my zero cooking capabilities. Ooh so envious.

Beef Tendon in Chu Hou sauce

This was purely my decision to order :D I love all the bits and pieces of cows LOL tendon, tripe, stomach, tail...I am so horrendous sounding right now. But they all taste just so good! But don't ask me what Chu Hou sauce is, cause I am as knowledgeable as those of you who don't know what it is. Slightly spicy is all I can give you.

From personal preference, I would say these tendons are cooked to a little too soft. I described these as cow veins then realised how gigantic the cow must have been if they had veins as mighty big as these. So yes, tendon for sure. I like my tendons chewy and springy to bite. Signs of the cow working out, no?

Beef Tripe with Ginger and Shallot

So what did I say, I love my milk producing friends. The 4 legged type, not the 2 legged type, ho ho ho =p

Here is yet another dish that comes off a section of the cow, and this time I hate to say after eating this thing for my whole life, I have no idea what I have been eating. Gawd I'm an adventurous one. I know nothing more than its some bit of the cow, just don't know what bit.

And now that I mention it, maybe it's better if I don't find out.

It looks a bit weird if you haven't seen it before, but it's actually nothing too scary, lookswise and tastewise. The texture is exactly how it looks, but that's easy to say. It's chewy, sometimes really chewy that you have to swallow it in a gulp and hope your stomach won't have too hard of a time disintegrating it.

Hinz Prawn Dumplings

I have nothing to say about these. They've become so standard. And these don't deviate from the ordinary, no better, no worser.

Good enough.

Egg Custard tarts

These were wanted so much that they came in between all the savouries on the table. Just couldn't hold the patience. I guess these golden gleaming pools of sunshine do win over the hearts of many. Simultaneously they also play the role of heartbreakers, breaking the hearts of those who try to resist their delicious call.

That combination of flakiness, crumbliness, melty shell and velvetty smooth custard within are easily lusted after and extremely hard to say no to. It's a very dangerous love.

People say love will probably make a person fat. Amen to that.

Hinz entrance

Talk about a grand entrance! Indeed it is hidden away from the actual street but all the more grand this way right? The exterior makes it like you're stepping into a different palace away from the traffic and commercialisation of Northbridge. Northbridge IS getting handsomer by the day though I must admit.

The exterior design is simple but elegant and effortlessly polished. The interior decor is pretty modern and sophisticated too, with paper screens and elevated seating spaces and all. This place underwent a huge makeover from pre Hinz and its appearance is largely transformed from that refurbishment. Evidently thought was put into everything and your surroundings should probably be admired when you step inside. Yes. That was an order =p

...

The plus side of Hinz is probably that there is no need to queue up or get any number tickets to be on a waiting system just to get a table to satisfy your hunger pangs. I mean like, keep me waiting and I can end up being a nasty bitch.

I guess this means staff can efficiently keep up with demands and orders from customers. Service is pretty attentive and non-intrusive and pretty good overall. It's pretty good to get that, coming from a dimsim restaurant where everything has to be FAST FAST FAST or else you feel like you're obtruding the whole world.

There was a period when Hinz offered dimsim with every dish having the capped price of $4 no matter what you ordered. Sounds prettaayyy tempting doesn't it? Surprisingly I didn't visit when this happened. And there is a reason for it.

One thing I do have to mention though. I have to stress it probably doesn't apply anymore, I'm unaware if they've changed management or not, but I wasn't impressed with something when I visited a while back. I mean, I simply asked how much tea was charged per person. And I was given the attitude and tone of voice, which was so condescending it somewhat angered me, put me off.

It was sorta like, are you questioning how much we charge tea type of thing. He shoved a calculator to me and asked if I wanted to recalculate the bill myself. Wow. I should have said yes. Uncalled for mate. I think that's the reason why I haven't been back for over a year.

Hey, I don't hold grudges or anything. That's what stubborn people do only =p