Thought I should share my experience at Rakuichi now since the Rakuichi Course Special ($68) which my friend and I both had is only till March 2010. You need to have a minimum of two orders before they will serve you this. Although they call it the “Course Special”, in reality it is known as Kaiseki – a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The food is served in a certain order beginning with appetizer and ends with dessert.

Appetizer (individual portion) was served on a rectangular plate consisting of four items – river shrimp, salmon roe, semi-grilled salmon and tamago.

Next came the Sashimi (sharing portion) – thick slices of assorted raw fish. Extreme freshness and quality guaranteed!

The Grilled scallop and mushroom served in foil (individual portion) was also very fresh and juicy. The dish by itself looked interesting enough.

Wagyu Beef served on hot plate (sharing portion) was a wee bit disappointing after having tried wagyu in Hokkaido! I half expected it to also melt in my mouth but sadly, it failed to produce the same results with the wagyu I had previously 🙁 Well, I guess it’s foolishness on my part.

After having oily fare, Steamed Tenaga prawn with egg custard (individual portion) was served. Steamed egg custard never looked so good with that huge a prawn lying on top of it! But we were tricked. We were actually given a cross section of a prawn each. Haha! Nevertheless, I still love this very much. I’m an egg custard fan!

And now comes the rice part, Grilled spicy tuna cut roll & Raw tuna sushi (sharing portion). I learned that rice is served towards the end of a kaiseki but in the past, it was served at the beginning. The reason for such a change is so that people can have room for the other dishes. And how right it is to implement this change!

We were already filled to the brim when the last dish (before dessert) arrived! The Snapper soup served in claypot (sharing portion) didnt leave much of a lasting impression probably because we were really too full. Didnt manage to finish up the entire thing.

Dessert was just fresh fruits but it was beautifully decorated on top a bowl of crushed ice. There was some vanilla ice cream in the strawberries as well.

For more information on kaiseki: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2348.html

Total bill was $160 after GST.