IF YOUR family loves to eat Japanese food, there’s a new place that everyone, including your children, will enjoy—Genki Sushi.
I flew on a weekend to Manila and was hosted by young couple, Lyn and Larben, IT scholars of UP Diliman and Cebu with their three beautiful children.
On a Sunday before my flight back to Cebu when traffic was bearable, I was treated to my favorite lunch of Japanese food reminiscent of my Hamazushi food trips.
Japanese food has become quite popular among Filipinos and the world over and it is becoming more and more affordable.
They brought me to the UP Town Center in Katipunan Road. This newly opened mall where the UP Integrated School was once located is the first and only university town center in the country housing several popular food chains and restaurants.
At Genki Suchi, children (must be at least seven years old or older) can place their orders once seated. All they have to do is swipe the icons of the food choices on a tablet, sending a signal to the kitchen.
Each table is fitted with a tablet conveniently placed over a menu spread with close-to-real images of available dishes of the day, like sushi made with the tastiest and freshest fish at a reasonable price. You get to see how your food looks like before even placing your order.
The fun part is—by just pressing a button on the tablet screen—your food will be delivered on special colorful cute
racing cars within seconds.
For kids, this is the closest thing to an interactive form of placing their order all by themselves, thereby empowering them to order only what they will eat. If one is not eating, one can watch different kinds of food passing by for the other customers.
For those who love Japanese green tea, you can make your own tea to your heart’s content. A built-in spout of available hot water is to be found at the far end of the table at one’s disposal.
I think the idea is to enjoy the food by having it the soonest possible time, akin to traveling from Osaka to Kyoto (which is about 50 kms) in less than 15 minutes by taking the Shinkansen, taking advantage of no friction maglev line which allows higher top speed than conventional rail.
Thus, waiters at Genki Sushi, are needed only when assisting with the order of the drinks, which are limited to a few beverages and soft drinks.
My hunger quickly dissipated watching the kids having so much fun and enjoying their food. Of course, I came for the food—tempura shrimp, California rolls, spicy salmon sushi, chirashi, temaki, negiri, river eel, yellow fin and salmon sashimi.
They all tasted good.
But what I loved most about my first Genki Sushi experience were the desserts which to my disappointment were already sold out after only a few orders.
Intrigued by the word, “rare,” we ordered the Rare Japanese Cheesecake.
Believe me, it is unlike the usual cheesecake.
Not very sweet and and with a little saltiness, it was also a bit sour, floppy, and lighter than the regular cheesecake. So good!
Before we left, I had a second helping of an outstanding dessert–a strawberry gunkan. Perhaps, I was dreaming of a strawberry gunkan flambéed with gin.
To my surprise, I got a cream chocolate, topped with tiny little bits of strawberry pearls, its distinctive fruity tang lingering in my mouth, which made my day.