99 SUSHI BAR AND RESTAURANT

Has this Michelin-approved spot earned its place?

Since 99 Sushi Bar and Restaurant was chosen as one of Michelin’s coveted one-star restaurants last year, the hype around it has doubled. A Japanese fine dining establishment with roots in the culinary crucible of Madrid; the Abu Dhabi outpost is located in Four Seasons Hotel on Al Maryah Island.

We’ve been invited on a tour of the 13-course Fuyu Tasting Menu (Dhs950 per couple), which takes a bisecting line straight through the restaurant’s signature creations. Thirteen courses, 13 engagements with cuisine and craft, and we hope 13 reasons why 99 Sushi delivers on its red hot reputation.

The voyage begins with a pair of chutoro (tuna belly) hosomaki pieces, but before tasting, we long-pour a lake of soy sauce. It’s invitingly chestnut-toned, and unsure about the protocol of drinking soy in Japanese restaurants, we lift the dish up and nervously check over our shoulder to see if anybody is watching. The brand’s culinary director, Chef Ruben Guerrero catches us in flagranti. He nods. Permission. We take a sip. There are fermented notes of caramel, of brandy and honey. It’s in this condimental detail, we find reason number one. Plates are swapped and we’re confronted with dishes (and reasons) number two and three. Edamame, but not as we know it. Seared in Kobe beef fat, togarashi and truffle this simple legume ascends to an entirely new dimension. An augmented reality where finger-licking is practically unavoidable. There’s an oyster too, with yuzu pearl and foam. Wildly polar flavour and texture points that harmonise on the palate.

Reasons four and five arrive. Sake tiradito, a nikkei crudo salmon ensemble served with crispy skin and inky blots of truffle mayo and coriander oil. It is subtle, stubborn, and refreshing. The restaurant’s capumiso soup is a fusion dish with a nuclear core of miso, tofu, leek and truffle, and in terms of mouth experience – it’s an astounding achievement. Complex simplicity, a millefeuille of evolving flavour shades.

Next, there’s uni (sea urchin) tempura maki, fake nigiri (with wagyu tartar on potato croquette), toro flambé nigiri, carabinero nigiri, and foie and maguro zuke. Compound

‘reasons why’ cascading onto our busy tabletop. The fatty tuna nigiri features yamato spirit-grade cuts of otoro, the fake nigiri whilst a playful jeu-de-bouffe is deadly serious in culinary intent, and the artful plate of carabinero (prawn) alone is responsible for a Babellian library of taste tomes. The final savoury course is the robata wagyu skewers. Served on a box-shaped konro-style grill, with aromatic smoke plumes painting the tender beef above. It’s pure theatre, smoke and skewers, texture and tone, a cabaret of intense olfactory stimulation that results in a meat dish worthy of a standing ovation.

Our culinary cruise comes to an emotional end with an impossibly light Japanese souffle, served with caramel ice cream. Crafty themes and the intelligent pairing of flavour and form aesthetics to enhance the end result.

Four Seasons Hotel

Abu Dhabi, Al Maryah Island, noon to 3.30pm and 7pm to 11.30pm.

Tel: (02) 672 3333.

@99sushibaruae

WHAT’S ON VERDICT

This menu is a masterwork. The restaurant is one of very few in the region that deliberately dares to do things differently, and manages to pull it all off with an immaculate record.