Nanohana

nanohana
Originally uploaded by satomiichimura.

I had heard very good reviews by word of mouth about this relatively new Japanese restaurant on Valero Street in Salcedo Village and had been very curious to try it.

Upon entering, you are immediately impressed by the fact that the place is teeming with Japanese customers. The first thing I look at when I go to a restaurant is who eats there; and if nationals of its cuisine flock to a place then the food must be as close to home as it can get.

I think the place, though, was intended to be more of an izakaya than a restaurant, the bar being prominently placed to stretch throughout the western wall of the room, with alcohol generously displayed. And in fact, the couple of nights that I visited, I saw Japs just hanging around the bar, talking to the chef, who seemed to be taking it light after a hard day's labor.

The food did not fail to impress. The kani salad is a generous heaping and the kani, although seemingly absent on the top layer of the salad, shows itself as you dig deeper into the bowl. We were tipped though that this salad was supposed to have a kind of peanut ingredient, which I did not detect as well as my eating partner did.

The dishes are served generously, the unagi, for example, being a good five by four block; and the rice dishes served in heaping bowlfuls. Neither do the dishes disappoint in taste or texture, and the chef seems to do a good job the Jap way: simple, direct, excellent.

A waitress may be a bit of a nuisance, noisy and chirpy while her elbow practically hits your face while turning the pages of the menu before you, but this may not be management's fault but the waitress' own.

The calming green and brown hues are defeated by Mariah Carey or other pop sensations blaring in the background but if you are hungry and solely in search of a good quick Jap bite amidst the frenetic Salcedo pace, Nanohana's not a bad escape.

Incidentally, I just learned that nanohana is a beautiful yellow flower from Japan. The picture above, which I found via Flickr, shows a nanohana field. The biggest nanohana field is from Yokohama Town, where they have these yellow blossoms as far as the eye can see.

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Nanohana is on Valero St. in Salcedo Village across the big parking lot at the back of the Philam Tower.