This is my adventure tonight, dinner at Michelin starred Ad Hoc, located right in the heart of Hotarumachi.
It was almost 9pm when I pulled up at the entrance of Ad Hoc. At most fine dining restaurants in Japan, I would be sent home immediately but instead, I was greeted with open arms. Of course, this was one of the main reasons why I came here in the first place. Ad Hoc has a relatively late last-order time at 9 for any Michelin starred restaurant in the country.
On a Friday night, I was expecting a much bigger crowd but it turned out, I was only their third customer.
Ad Hoc offers a 9-course surprise menu (12,000 yen) on a nightly basis. I knew with the typical pace, it will likely take at least 2 to 3 hours to go through all 9 courses. So, I decided to give the kitchen a little test. I called my server over and asked if the kitchen could speed up the pace and after checking with the chef, my server confirmed they would do the best to speed things up.
A first amuse bouche helped to set the tone for an interesting night of fine food. I was caught slightly off guard with this first snack, sea turtle two ways.
First, there was a warm sea turtle soup and it was accompanied by a small nibble which had jelly on the outside, presumably made with the same sea turtle soup and some turtle meat in the middle. This was a fairly interesting amuse bouche but I didn't come totally unprepared. After my first encounter with sea turtle at Florilege last year, another French fine dining restaurant in Tokyo, I wasn't overly shocked anymore.
I thought I enjoyed this one a lot. The soup was flavorful with good depth of flavors while the "tart" was bursting with pretty much the same intense flavors.
A second and final amuse bouche showed up in the form of a beautifully decorated platter with four different nibbles. Firstly, there was this deep fried Japanese white fish with some herb powder on top, then Japanese mackerel with white wine jelly, black olive prepared almost like a sushi. The third was a canapé with poached quail egg, horse meat tartare and potato purée on a crispy wafer and last but not least, a deep fried croquette on a crispy corn cracker.
Following the impressive array of small nibbles, the first to arrive from the set menu was sweet corn served with toasted brioche and duck liver pâté. Pieces of charcoal grilled sweet corn were placed inside a small brioche with the pâté serving as the "butter" here. I thought the corn and duck liver were a pretty interesting combination together and one that I haven't experienced in the past. The result didn't blow me away but it did give me something to think about throughout the meal.
Next up was poached abalone with melon and cucumber. This was a very clean and refreshing starter. Both the melon (freshly diced and as a purée) and cucumber (freshly diced and as a jelly) were served in two different ways and thus two distinctly different textures were in play. That's a really well designed dish with excellent results.
The third dish was lobster and langoustine ravioli served with different textures of orange (my server said it was orange but I thought was mandarin) - sliced pieces of orange, orange juice, orange flavored foam and a pair of orange flavored wafer. From my interpretation of the menu, I thought lobster was the key here but it turned out, the ravioli was.
The langoustine ravioli was pretty nicely prepared and great work from the pumpkin purée for a bit of subtle sweetness and the fromage blanc for something a little cheesy. Not bad at all.
The last starter was deep fried Japanese oyster with something like seaweed powder on top. The oyster itself was creamy and pretty juicy with a very tasty thin batter but I thought the rice shaped pasta with zucchini sauce underneath was a bit of a weird addition.
The first of the two main courses was something from the sea and I thought it was easily the best dish of the night. Perfectly roasted Japanese eel was matched with eggplant, purple onion and spinach. That was so perfectly executed like a roasted branzino and sea bass with a crispy skin while the meat remained moist and juicy. I love the sauce too, which was a simple one made with red wine and pepper.
A break before my meat course and here's my palate cleanser, tomato gazpacho with bell pepper ice-cream. By the time I finished taking photos, my bell pepper ice-cream has already melted!
After the best dish of the evening, here we have the least successful one. Japanese beef wrapped with seaweed was poached (or slow-cooked) before finishing with green onion, chives and a Shijimi clam sauce. I have always believed that the best-tasting beef came with a nicely browned, flavorful crust so it's not difficult to imagine my reaction when I saw a poached piece of meat in front of me.
Dessert certainly got back on the right track. My first dessert was one with pretty nice acidity featuring lemon served two ways.
First, there was a lemon pudding with lemon compote and lemon zest on top. I was asked to pour in the honey myself.
Despite having it with lots of honey, I found the lemon pudding to be a little too acidic but the lemon tart with sea salt and meringue, on the other hand was nice and tasty (with no sign of lemon). Love the sea salt for the extra kick.
The final dessert had two parts to it, although they looked largely identical. What I had on the left was chocolate and mango mousse sprinkled with passion fruit powder. A nice mix of sweetness and acidity.
Then, sitting on the right was fresh mango with chunks of white chocolate.
Finally some mignardises including a peach macaron with mint leaf (right) and caramel and Japanese tea tart (left). Interestingly, they used a rice cracker as the bottom part of the tart. A bit of Japanese twist there.
A bonus dessert? No, this banana sorbet was actually a "lucky draw". If there's a special mark engraved on the stick, then I would get a special gift.
And today was probably my lucky day! I have never had much luck with lucky draws in my life so this came as a little pleasant surprise.
I was leaving the restaurant a pretty happy camper (The prize was a bottle of jam by the way).
Just when I started asking for the bill, I took a quick peek at my watch. It was 10:10PM. In a little more than an hour, the kitchen here managed to deliver 2 amuse bouche, 4 starters, 2 main courses and 2 desserts one after another with almost no stoppage in between. I consider that excellent pacing for a man in a great hurry (to get home). Of course, I had to ask my server to thank the kitchen for their effort. Looks like they've passed the test in flying colors.
Ad Hoc's avante garde cuisine reminded me of another Osaka restaurant, Différence in the way they utilize Japanese ingredients with modern European cooking and mixing interesting flavors and textures together. I personally thought Ad Hoc's cooking is slightly more refined which led to me enjoying this whole journey just a tad more.
Food Rating: 7/10
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: Hotarumachi 1-1-48 Fukushima, Fukushima-ku, 553-0003 Osaka, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Higobashi
Tel: +81 (0)6-6225-8814
Website: www.adhoc2014.jp
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