Delivery review: Okura at Home (it doesn’t get chicer than this!)
Although the hospitality industry has been open again for a while, many restaurants continue to deliver or prepare takeaway menus. Because they don’t have much space in their own restaurants and because their guests have discovered how much fun it is to eat out at home. Latest addition: the ultra-chic Okura at Home.
Just hearing the word Okura makes me wag my tail and drool immediately. Because I can still remember the few times I ate here unbelievably well. Yamazato’s sushi and sashimi are truly among the best in Amsterdam, if you ask me. Yamazato was, incidentally, the first Japanese restaurant in Europe to receive a Michelin star. And now it’s possible to enjoy it at home. With Okura at Home, you can conjure Okura’s famous dishes onto the table in no time.
Cooking Japanese yourself
Alongside dishes prepared in their own kitchen, such as the aforementioned sushi and sashimi, there are also four specialties for which you have to roll up your sleeves yourself. With Yamazato’s Japanese dishes shabu shabu (simply put, this dish is a Japanese version of Chinese fondue) and sukiyaki (a typical one-pot dish), and Teppanyaki Restaurant Sazanka’s famous salt-crusted fish and wagyu steak, you get to work with the freshest and most exclusive Japanese products. Of course I wanted to try that!
Ding dong
I could have known; when Okura delivers something to your home, they don’t do it on the back of a scooter. No, standing at the door are a Japanese chef and a Japanese woman, dressed in traditional style. This promises something! Everything has to go in the fridge, but with my nosy ass I really have to unpack the box tied in fabric… My favorite sushi, oh Lord! I want to dig in immediately, but I just manage to restrain myself.
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- Unboxing was nog nooit zo lekker…
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- Want tadaaaaa! De lekkerste sushi van Amsterdam
With an instructional video from the chef
You can put together your own menu; my order is for two people: the sushi and sashimi above and the day-fresh salt-crusted fish. Fortunately, the chefs help you with the preparation. The enclosed letter contains a list of ingredients and instructions on how to make the dish. There is also an instructional video (to scan via the enclosed QR code) from Sazanka’s executive chef Kazuki Onodera and a Spotify playlist for an authentic Japanese experience. And thankfully, the box also contains a top wine: Amarone from Tommasi. A deliciously silky, concentrated wine with plenty of body that truly sends everyone into ecstasy. In short, everything is taken care of down to the last detail.
But then the doorbell rings again. Unexpected guests. Time to improvise. I quickly buy some fresh salmon and cod and take Wagyu out of the freezer (yes, terribly decadent but true: I occasionally have Wagyu in the freezer).
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- Wagyu: Japanser wordt het niet
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- Dagverse vis ruikt dus niet!
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- Amarone, oelalala…
On the barbecue
The fish goes into the salt crust; it’s easier than you think, because the salt crust arrives almost ready-made and only needs to be mixed with water to create a firm substance. The rest goes on the barbecue. We open another bottle of rosé and start with the sushi and sashimi. As we’ve come to expect from Yamazato, it’s absolutely delicious.
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- Let’s get this party started!
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- Een beetje van Okura, en een beetje van de visboer
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- Vis in zoutkorst, Okura-style
The showstopper of the evening
After the sushi and the fish—which, it must be said, turned out very well!—we briefly grill the legendary Japanese beef Wagyu. Wagyu isn’t just top of the bill in Japan; the meat is praised worldwide for its rich, buttery flavor. The marbling. That means the fat isn’t around the meat, but truly inside it. ‘Regular’ meat has a strip of fat and is smooth and evenly pink-red in the middle, or has coarse fat marbling. Wagyu has incredibly fine fat marbling. The finer, the better. And that applies across the entire cow. Add the good nutrition, the good life, and the Japanese chefs who turn this meat into mind-blowing dishes—or serve it in all its purity. That’s what we do too. A glass of Amarone alongside: heaven on earth!
You want this too, right?
Because of the preparation time required for the dishes, you must place your order at least one day in advance. Pickup is possible on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the hotel entrance. Ideal for a romantic evening for two, or order for several people and enjoy the most delicious homemade dinner of your dreams!
Okura
Ferdinand Bolstraat 333, Amsterdam
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