Omakase at Rise Restaurant

Based on casey's glowing review, and similar raves on eatability, I toddled off to Rise one wednesday night to sample their Omakase menu. I tried to take notes. I took pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is what I remember having:

• amuse bouche: semi poached egg with sea urchin sauce and shiso


• soup: sesame scented clear broth with panfried snapper and yuzu


• sashimi: assorted 3 varieties of today's fresh market sashimi
  oyster
  kingfish
  salmon
  
• seasonal plate (sushi): deep fried soft-shell crab tacos RISE style
  grilled eel & bamboo shoot mixed sushi "inari" style
  sea urchin & finger lime sashimi


• signature dish: deep-fried "agedashi" hydroponic tomato stuffed with foie-gras
  
• main course: "gai-yang" style grilled corn-fed chicken
  with ruby red grapefruit and spanish onion salad (plus pomegranate)
  
• rice dish: tuna sushi


• dessert: kiwi fruit granita and fruit flavoured jelly

The semi poached egg was an egg yolk with the sea urchin sauce, some caviar, and little green tails (shiso?) served in a 3/4 eggshell and a little pepper filo/breadstick on top. That was P's fave.

The broth was good, although I couldn't actually smell the sesame scent. How would you make a clear broth without tasting the ingredients used to make it? Couldn't be dashi, cause you could taste it, couldn't be miso, because that is also very distinctive. It came with a gorgeous itty bitty baby carrot floating in it.

Sashimi. Perhaps I'm a heathen, but out of the first 3 courses, this was my fave. Well duh, of _course_ it tastes way different to a sushi train! The last batch of sushi train I had bought takeaway was at 8pm on a thursday night, and the kingfish was stringy and chewy, and the rice had gone crunchy. The salmon and the kingfish here were served in little shotglasses. The kingfish with a bit of ginger on top, the salmon with sesame oil. The oyster had a mild ginger...chutney?.. and a tiny leaf of coriander on top. Loved the salmon. Loved the Kingfish. Good meaty chunks cut evenly. The oyster was great in texture, but the ginger sauce hid a lot of the tastiness. I'm a purist, just love oysters by themseves with a tiny bit of lemon. And who would have thought, sesame seed oil & salmon? Tasty!

Not a bright yellow corn taco shell, but a white rice paper or pastry wrapper that had been deep fried & cut in half, the soft shelled crab had been dipped in a spicy batter and fried as well, and the whole lot had been assembled with a strips of cucumber and bean sprouts. This was great, and on par tastewise to the sashimi plate before. The other two items on the seasonal plate were also a surprise, the finger lime 'beads' looked almost like caviar, but with a citrus burst instead; the eel was wrapped in a white wrapper similar to the stuff used for the crab taco. Unusual and a favourite.

I had misread the menu, and thought I was going to get agadashi tofu, not tomato. The cubes of foie gras stuffing tasted like liver, and the whole thing was coated in a gelatinous substance that was sort of crunchy on the tomato bits, but gelatinous when not on it. The resident "I dislike tomatoes with a passion" person quited liked this one, but conceeded he could hardly get tomatoes with foie gras stuffing at his next bbq attendance.

A fruit granita and jelly must be the in thing of the moment, I'm seeing them everywhere i turn. This was fantastic, bits of strawberry and whole blueberries, nextling amongst a tart kiwi fruit granita, and I had to beat off desperate hordes to finish mine.

Sooooooo worth it. Sooooooo going again. Even the vego & the tomaoto-hater were happy. Plus they have a deal with the entertainment guide, so I'm going to try some other dishes next time at 25% off the total bill.