/ Reviews / Japanese
Dishes Dressed to Impress
by Jaki Faulkner
on Friday, January 08, 2010 12:00 AM
Incorporating a clean, minimal design, Xenlon relishes a bit of showmanship. The smattering of entrées - including lightly fried strips of burdock, sweet pumpkin carved into a leaf, and a ball of traditional Japanese egg omelette - are all crafted into succinct mouthfuls with distinctive flavors, setting the tone for the courses to come.
Arriving in dainty glass dishes with tiny wooden spoons, the miso soup appears similarly cute at first but quickly becomes irksome, as one begins the slippery chase for pieces of shrimp and cucumber using a cumbersome spoon. A sashimi selection of raw tuna, salmon and yellow tail is much easier to devour. Cradled in a brilliantly conceived bird's nest ice bowl, the cool confines keep the small basket of fish goodies perfectly chilled. Vegetable tempura provides the sashimi with a pleasant foil, the pieces of crispy-coated eggplant, carrot and shitake mushroom sailing in on their very own edible noodle boat.
There are many types of tuna to choose from but the lightly cooked chu toro tuna sushi is wonderfully soft, while the unusual scallop sushi is fresh and palatable. Charmingly quaint, the seafood soup is served in a delicate teapot. While pouring soup from the spout is an adorable idea, it requires a fair few minutes fishing around with chopsticks - jamming them in and jiggling them about - in order to partake of the pot's solid contents.
Prices are reasonable when you consider the amount of courses - it's only RMB200 for a simple sushi-tasting menu, which comprises eight courses in total. More extensive set meals, with higher quality produce, can reach around RMB900.
Xenlon's service is attentive but a little too slow, though whether this is due to a misguided theory on the benefits of food contemplation, or merely a paucity of chefs, is unclear. The cooks that are in the kitchen, however, have moulded quintessential Japanese foodstuffs into beautiful works of visual art.
The Bottom Line: Displaying ingenuity and playfulness in its presentation, this restaurant has cosmetically enhanced the Japanese classics, appareling the dishes in modern, stylish garb.
