Restaurant review – Yakimono at the Marriott Grand Mall

Given that most Japanese homes are built by design with no kitchen whatsoever, every hour scores of millions of people are eating out which means that the simple act of dining has become a social event with deeply rooted cultural implications.
Its cuisine is well defined because after hundreds of years of self imposed exile, (called sakoku) which ended in 1868, Japanese food (unlike neighboring China and Korea) was not influenced by other SE Asian national cuisines. So what you have is something which is distinctive and unique.
In fact, the biggest shock to the collective Japanese digestive system was the widespread use of beef in the national diet of this otherwise all-fish nation made by the pervasive, culture-destroying Americans in 1945.
The American conquerors tried to convert the slim beautiful Japanese bodies into the American norm – namely a thunder-thighed, fat-arsed, obese lump of lard, permanently stuffing its face with fast food filth burgers. But they failed to do so, even after Japan was invaded by MacMuck.
I have spent many years in Japan, so I was intrigued by the news that the first real Japanese chophouse had opened in Bucharest. I knew what I wanted to find, so come with me and let’s see how they shape up.
The interior is superb. They have spent a fortune on it and when I was informed that the renovation took six months to complete, I had no reason to disbelieve them.
Mercifully they adhere to the modern Japanese principle of sitting on chairs at tables rather than the traditional manner of sitting on the floor with your shoes duly deposited at the entrance. As you enter there is an open sushi and sashimi work station, an attractive drinks bar together with two tempanyaki open range tables. The d