Epic Japanese Food (in Full Mouthwatering Glory)

By Mark Wiens 18 Comments
It doesn't get much better than a plate of fresh sashimi!
It doesn’t get much better than a plate of fresh sashimi!

This is not your normal street food post that you normally see here.

The photos you’re about to see were in the comfort of a real sit down restaurant in a private Japanese room at a restaurant in Bangkok.

TAKUMI is a lovely Japanese restaurant located in Bangkok’s Swissotel and they serve seriously delicious Japanese food. It’s a buffet, but rather than having to use energy to serve yourself, you order off the menu – as many times as you want.

I’m sure you can imagine I went a little crazy.

I began this epic Japanese meal with a few initial plates of sashimi, mainly slices of tuna, salmon and a few other white meat platters of fish (un-pictured). It was so tender, that I could literally eat the fish, biting it with only my lips.

Isn't that a beautiful bite of octopus?
Isn’t that a beautiful bite of octopus?

I eat a lot of squid living in Thailand, but it’s not often that I get octopus… and I love octopus.

Octopus is almost like seafood chicken – it’s firm, slightly chewy but overall quite meaty. The tentacles are my favorite.

Spicy tuna hand rolls
Spicy tuna hand rolls

I couldn’t miss the opportunity to indulge in my fair share of hand sushi rolls as well. I like all forms, shapes and sizes of sushi rolls, but spicy tuna roll has a soft spot in my heart.

Amazing tasting pregnant fish
Amazing tasting pregnant fish

These little guys are only about 10 cm in length, but wow do they pack quite an abundance of flavor into every single bite.

The reason: they are pregnant.

That’s right, as soon as you bite into the belly of this toasted fish you sink your teeth into a pile of cooked fish eggs that taste almost like a chicken egg yolk – superb!

Deep fried squid rings
Deep fried squid rings

The breaded and deep fried rings of squid was another awesome addition to this epic Japanese feast. It was amazingly crispy and the sauce was salty and sour.

Pan fried salted fish
Pan fried salted fish

I’m not even sure exactly what kind of fish this was, but it was slightly dried out, nicely salty and fried in sweet soy sauce. Along with the accompanying pickled ginger it was simply delightful.

Slurping down a bowl of udon noodles
Slurping down a bowl of udon noodles

After inhaling many plates of quality Japanese sushi and sashimi I decided to sacrifice a bit of my precious stomach space for a bowl of Japanese udon noodles – not as pleasing as the previous items, but quite soothing.

Cool soba noodles
Cool soba noodles

I also had to try the cool soba buckwheat noodles served with a light sweet soy sauce broth. The flavor was subtle yet phenomenal – firm noodles bathed in a light broth.

You can't go to a Japanese restaurant without some shrimp tempura
You can’t go to a Japanese restaurant without some shrimp tempura

There’s not a deep fried dish worldwide that makes me drool like perfectly fried tempura shrimp. The shrimp weren’t over cooked so they were still firm and shrimpy and the batter was ever so fluffy yet crunchy.

Pan fried salmon
Pan fried salmon

Along with a few mountains of raw salmon, I thought it might be a good idea to sample the pan fried salmon – and it was.

The salmon was seared, not overcooked and the Omega 3 fatty juices from the salmon kept the flesh moist and juicy. A light sprinkle of seaweed and spring onions added the perfect touch.

Delicious Okonomiyaki
I know you want some of this! Delicious Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is what could be called a little Japanese pizza, packed with mysterious and wonderful ingredients. It’s basically some doughy batter filled with shrimp and squid, fried in oil and topped with Japanese mayo, slivers of seaweed and I have no idea what else.

The result is a pure mouth pleasing ecstasy of textures and flavors.

So there you have a quick roundup of a not-so-street, but nevertheless outstanding epic Japanese feast! I have no idea how much I ate, but I do know that the waiter deserved a huge tip for the amount of times he had to come in and out of our private room (out with empty places, in with full plates).

What’s your favorite Japanese food?

18 comments. I'd love to hear from you!

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  • Josias Lopes

    10 years ago

    Uau… that was an amazing post… those pictures were sublime.. Keep up the good work Mark…

  • Doris

    11 years ago

    yawn! am now hungry and need some sushi! living to eat lol!

  • bisdakbabbles

    12 years ago

    mouth-watering indeed!
    Literally drooling here as I look at your photos, specially the sashimi plate!

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Thanks a lot for checking this article out!

  • Nate @yomadic

    12 years ago

    Looks fantastic. Are they open all the time, or is the 600b deal only at certain times? Also, how would you rate the quality of the sashimi, and was there a large choice of sashimi/sushi?

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Hey Nate,
      Yah, I think they are open all the time and the charge is standard everyday price – same for lunch and dinner. Quality of the sushi is probably 8/10, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever had 10/10 in my life… so it’s kind of hard to compare – but I thought it was very high quality. As for sashimi, there’s only 3 – 4 kinds of fish – salmon and tuna being the ones I could really recognize.

  • Caanan @ No Vacation Required

    12 years ago

    Those pictures are fantastic. You definitely have a knack for the food photos.

  • 2Summers

    12 years ago

    That looks amazing and your food photography is fantastic. I’m curious — how much does it cost?

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Thanks! It’s about 600 THB per person (around $17 US all you can eat per person). Pretty good for the high quality seafood!

  • Gemma

    12 years ago

    Oh yum, I love Japanese food because of all the fish! This looks so yummy..

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Thanks Gemma! I’m also a huge fan of fish, especially Japanese style.

  • Lane

    12 years ago

    Now, I’m hungry. Sushi place for dinner?