I had read good reviews about Yayoi (or Yayoi ken as it's written in Japanese) and had wanted to try it out for a while and we finally got to go after we did some shopping on Boxing day. (Yes yes, I'm aware I'm very slow with coming up with posts)
There was a queue when we went for lunch but that was on Boxing day so I'm not sure about how busy it gets usually. We waited for about 20 minutes or so before we were called in and seated at our table. You're given an Ipad with the menu on it and you choose the items that you want and send the order to the kitchen. No need to wait about and rely on waiters when you can DIY! Quick and efficient.
Since Yayoi is known as a Teishoku i.e. set meals restaurant we decided to get the teishoku rather than A la carte. We decided on the Hitsumabushi and the Yayoi Gozen.
Hitsumabushi is a specialty of Nagoya where grilled eel is placed over rice, similar to unagi don but it's eaten in a few different ways. The photo on the right below shows how to eat it in the different ways which is basically using different condiments and also adding soup to the rice. The set part of this meal consists of the small side dish and pickles.
Overall, I thought it was decent as far as unagi goes but obviously does not hold a candle against the real thing in Nagoya, Japan.
The Yayoi Gozen is a mixed box with some of the signature dishes of Yayoi - (clockwise from the top left) pork loin katsu, salmon salad, salmon teriyaki and wagyu sukiyaki. The rest of the meal comes with rice, a side dish, miso soup and pickles.
The pork katsu was a little dry which was unfortunate but it could have been because it's such a small piece of meat. The salad was good and the teriyaki was tasty. The sukiyaki was also nice but I thought the meat pieces were a little big but the sauce went nicely with the rice.
Overall, I think it's a good idea if you want to try different items all in one go but I think the individual items would probably be cooked better as bigger portions as opposed to these mini versions.
However, the side dish was very nice! It was cold tofu topped with some beans and mushrooms. Very smooth and soft tofu.
“8/10 - Tasty food at affordable prices. Definitely go if you have a craving for good Japanese cooking.”
Till the next meal or snack...