Japanese and French cuisine melds together in the new menu at Ginza Miyako Japanese Restaurant, situated in the Stamford Plaza Hotel on North Terrace.

Ginza has been open since April and has recently appointed a new Head Chef, Kazuki Ushiro. Originally from Toyko, he has worked in a number of fine restaurants around the world and is a master in Japanese and French cuisine.

The restaurant is beautiful, with Japanese décor and windows along one side overlooking North Terrace. Diners have the choice to sit at a normal table and chairs, or experience traditional Japanese eating in the separate Tatami room, where you will need to remove your shoes.

A cocktail was served, Miyako Metropolitan, to ‘make us hungry’ for the upcoming tasting menu; Japanese rice shochu (a spirit), shaken with plum wine, lime juice and cranberry juice. I thought it may be a sweet cocktail but it was quite tart which was a pleasant surprise.

Reading through the six-course menu, it was a pleasant mix of traditional Japanese and French cuisine and I was looking forward to seeing how they would work together.

We began with a crumbed oyster served with black rice risotto, sautéed red cabbage and tartar sauce. The oyster was meaty inside the fried shell, and the tartar sauce creamy on top. The risotto and sautéed cabbaged added a nice texture and colour to the spoon.

For entrée we had two courses. The first was ocean trout confit: orange-cured ocean trout confit at 55°C, with fennel seaweed salad, carrot puree, wasabi sour cream. This is one of Ushiro’s signature dishes and something he should be extremely proud of. This by far was my favourite dish of the evening. Beautiful, soft, delicate ocean trout that melted in the mouth, with sweet carrot puree and wasabi sour cream, which had a bit of kick in it!

Next was fusion sushi: blue fin tuna, king fish, salmon mix roll sushi. A wonderfully fresh combination of seafood. And smoked eel and cream cheese sushi, although I couldn’t taste the smokiness of the eel.

We were treated to two mains. Slow cooked South Australian duck breast with mashed potato, lentil, beetroot puree and citrus teriyaki sauce. The duck was perfectly cooked and so soft and juicy. The potato was creamy and the beetroot offered a sweet earthy element. And I loved the citrus teriyaki sauce; a tangy ‘Japanese’ element to the dish.

The final savoury course was charcoal grilled Wagyu scotch fillet with mushroom mashed potato, seasonal vegetables, carrot puree and red wine Yuzu (Japanese citrus) chilli sauce. The Wagyu meat was sourced from Queensland and had a marble grading of 7. The meat was cooked well, but I would have preferred it a little pinker. The seasonable vegetables were crisp and the potato and carrot creamy and sweet. This was probably my least favourite dish of the night.

And the finale was the classic French dessert Mille Feuille. The pastry was thin, light and crispy and was served with mascarpone and strawberries and accompanied by rhubarb ice cream and Japanese plum wine sauce. I loved the rhubarb ice cream, and the plum sauce was just delicious poured over the top!

We were offered Mother’s Milk Shiraz and Twin Island Sauvignon Blanc with our dinner. Before dessert we were served Genmai green tea, which I loved, and I could really taste the roasted rice flavour.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tasting menu – traditional Japanese with definite French influences.

** I was an invited guest.