Wow, LaLaPort Toyosu – the closest thing to being in America without, well, going to America. I hadn’t been there before, despite (and I didn’t know this) it’s less than 30 minutes walk from home. Yesterday I walked, and was pleasantly comforted by the overwhelming mall-ness and hugosity of the place. It being the Saturday of the long vacation period, people were undoubtedly tired of eating osechi, and were out with a vengance to explore the culinary delights of the LaLaPort.
In keeping with the American mall theme, there are two Hawaiian-themed places, another called ‘Candy’ that claims to specialize in retro American food (I was more excited about this until I saw the place, looking like Saizeriya and advertising pasta and risotto as specialties), a few ethnic places, and lots and lots of Japanese in the usual food groups. Of note among these is the sushi place, which claims to be set up in the style of old-fashioned Tsukiji and does indeed feature a lot of fresh beasties in tanks including some sizable abalone and one enormous king crab.
In the end, we opted for the Indonesian place. It’s trying reasonably hard to be authentic – dark wood, gamelan music, imported servers (everyone seemed to be Indonesian, actually), and the food isn’t half bad. We got through a nasi goreng (spicy version), a beef rendang (evidently the non-spicy version, and inordinately fatty, as befitted its menu description: 豚角煮インドネジア風), and salad (yay, iceberg lettuce with generic dressing, made Indo through the inclusion of lemongrass in the dressing) plus a Bintang.
Not bad, not bad. I could probably manage to go back, and might choose some other things in an attempt to avoid a bit more of the Japanization. I think I’ve been scarred for life though, as my benchmark for nonya food has been set impossibly high by the late, lamented (since I no longer live there) Malay-Chinese Takeaway in the Sydney CBD.
Here’s the whole LaLaPort dining guide.
03-6910-1431