A flower so tasty: Nanohana

Nanohana is like one of those quietly blooming flowers that creeps up on you unexpectedly and then surprises you with its subtle beauty. Named after the small yellow chrysanthemum, Nanohana is the latest in small boutique Japanese restaurants (seats 60 comfortably) that have emerged in the Makati business district, finding immediate favor with the expatriate Japanese community – a sure sign that you’re dishing out the genuine article. It’s only been two months since this unheralded restaurant opened for business at the ground level of Le Grand Condominium, 130 Valero St., Salcedo Village in Makati City, and already, the business executive lunch crowd is beating a frenzied path to its doors.

With over 50 years of cooking experience between them, executive chefs Yoshitaka Hasegawa and Masahiro Matsuo are the two samurais responsible for this imperial culinary renaissance in the heart of the business district. The extra wonderful thing about Nanohana is that I brought my boys one Sunday night – a call to Al Tengco confirmed that they are now open for both lunch and dinner, seven days of the week – and the boys enthusiastically proclaimed it a new favorite, one that they’re hoping will turn into a regular dining haunt. The subdued interiors, with modernized Japanese elements, are by Mike Olivares, and there’s a special private dining room for intimate functions. With all that out of the way, let’s now turn to the food.

The beef dishes are Wagyu, and whether one goes for the stupendous Wagyu rice (a chahan like no other!) or the full Wagyu dishes, one is assured of the tender quality of this Grade A meat. The sashimi dishes are sliced differently, thinner and bigger, so they roll in your mouth. The top-of-the-line otoro was an immediate favorite, as was the kampachi (our chef described it as the "cousin of hamachi"). The agedashi tofu was a comfort zone, but with enough of a subtle difference to make Matteo, my 12-year-old, proclaim it as super-delicious. He also raved about the koebi karaage, as the shrimps were of a smaller size than what you get in other restaurants, and there was less of the hard bits making tusok your upper palate or gums.

My 15-year-old Quintin is the more adventurous type, and when the harumaki arrived at our table, he declared it the special reason why Nanohana would be among his favorite Japanese restos. Instead of the traditional nori wrapper, harumaki involves thin sheets of translucent rice wrapper. At Nanohana, the harumaki comes in spicy tuna, with a crunchy quality that can’t be beaten; ebi, with a peanuty sauce that’s quite exquisite; salmon; and kani. Quintin also loved the special hotate appetizer. These are Japanese scallops sautéed in uni sauce with mushrooms, giving it a quality that’s like a combination of oysters Rockefeller and Coquillles St. Jacques. The other option is to go traditional and regular, with the hotate sautéed in butter.

Luca is our seven-year-old baby, and in contrary manner, he completed his course of otoro sashimi and shrimp tempura, then topped it off with an order of maguro sashimi. We tried explaining how the accepted progression was to shift from cold to hot, and not to revert to cold. But given as how he finished his maguro, how could I really complain?

We were so stuffed by the time the orders of Wagyu came that dessert was an unheard of territory. The special lunch combinations at Nanohana average around P300. As expected, the Wagyu items can drive up your bill, but there’s more than enough on the menu to make for a high quality meal at reasonable prices. Nanohana registers as a destination eatery with enough familiarity, yet tempered by little twists in the presentation and preparation to keep it a unique proposition. In this day and age, with more than a zillion Japanese restaurants dotting our culinary landscape, Nanohana has enough of an edge to make it a true new eating experience. The harumaki alone will have me driving back to Valero very soon. And as the weather gets cooler towards the end of the year, there are a few tables for al fresco dining that will open up. For reservations at Nanohana, call 892-2011. It’s a call you won’t regret.