Review: TakaHisa Restaurant x Maido
A review of where chefs come together like a zip
“Holy shit!”
“Language!” she snapped at me.
Me, the foul-mouthed, expressive thorn between a pair of Dubai desert roses. We sit astride bar stools at a 6-hands omakase hosted by TakaHisa Japanese Restaurant in what was the waning hours of the Caesar’s Palace Resort Dubai (now coronated The Banyan Dubai. Godspeed).
Why are we here? TakaHisa plays host to Mitsuharu Maido of Maido, a Nikkei restaurant in Lima with enough awards pinned to its chest like a four star general: no 6 at 2023’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants and No 3 in 2022’s LATAM 50 Best Restaurants (but watch this space later this month).
To my right, Peggy Li, equally the expressive extrovert and Jean Yeow Winter, a person I respect so profoundly; she makes me want to be a better man.
Tonight would be one of the last collaboration dinners in 2023 and one of the best. 13 sublime courses and here’s a run down. I was #invited to this collab for transparency
Takahisa Japanese Restaurant x Maido Menu
Shiromi Truffle; Uni; Beef Stew, said our menu. Gossamer sheets of white fish shingled with black summer truffle stored luxuriously in TakaHisa’s now infamous LV suitcase. File this Under “Peak Dubai”. The uni from Maido is chilled - rich with beef collagen that bears resemblance to a consommé - caviar, avocado and well-travelled Hokkaido uni. A comforting “beef stew” is elevated and homely like being brought up in The Hamptons.
Next came the katsu sando, awabi kimo sauce and ika ramen. Sandos are everywhere but I admire the use of veal sweetbreads here as a pork substitute making for a star dish. An abalone steamed, sliced and slipped into a sauce of uni, two soy sauces and the colour of English mustard harks back to a recent omakase at TakaHisa (read here). The ika ramen sees raw squid julienned into tagliatelle ribbons and poached in another rich broth of beef oxtail, short ribs and aromatics. Another star dish; I may have licked the bowl clean.
A series of memorable sushi courses follow showing either imagination and creativity with or simplicity through ingredient quality. The standouts are a scallop temaki enveloped in nori sheets absolute star d
Should I fly to Peru to try this or is it still available here?