This past weekend I turned 23. To celebrate this once in a lifetime event, I had dinner at a couple 'neat' restaurants. First off was さかなてい (Sakana-Tei) with a couple of other London based poker players. I've been to this restaurant quite often since Deldar discovered it. They serve the best nigiri sushi I've ever had and it's a cozy little family run restaurant.

It's not uncommon for us to put in big orders when we go here, but we've never ordered as much as we did this time. I put together my own plate, but Deldar put in an order only to have 5 people say "+1", effectively multiplying his order by 6. On top of that Deldar had mentioned he was 'very hungry' so we knew it'd be a quality meal.

The only downside was that we had to do with starters for about 90 minutes, because Sakana-Tei only has 1 sushi chef. I guess we had ourselves to blame. The order of 150+ pieces of Nigiri and ~100 pieces of various rolls took the chef quite a while to prepare. It was definitely worth the wait though. This is what 1000£ of sushi looks like.

 This was my order. Top left to bottom right:

O-toro(fatty tuna) + Unagi(grilled eel)

Sake(salmon) + Horse Mackerel + Chu-Toro(middle fatty tuna) + Tuna

Yellowtail + Salmon Roe(eggs) + Salmon Avocado Roll

Tamago(omelette) + O-toro Roll

Omelettes. Part of Deldar's massive order.

 Part of Deldar's massive order. Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, O-toro.

 Bunch of rolls with salmon nigiri in the middle.

 Unagi. Grilled Eel.

Red Beans, Chestnut and Green Tea Ice Cream. VERY good.

AWESOME dinner. We all had a blast.

Then during the weekend I made a trip to The Netherlands and on my birthday my mom treated me to another great dinner. My sister came along too. It was a French-Chinese Fusion restaurant in The Hague called HanTing. The restaurant looked fantastic and the service was top 5 I've ever had. One waiter in particular is probably SEVERELY underpaid there, because the restaurant wasn't as expensive as you'd think. Actually I find that in general that there's a lot of great value restaurants in Holland.

Me and mom went for the tasting menu, while my sister, Daphne, wasn't feeling as adventerous. The food varied. The first 2 courses were allright, but nothing more and the 3rd and 4th were quite good, but they definitely saved the best for last. The dessert was AMAZINGLY good. Best dessert I've had since eating at Joel Robuchon at the MGM in Las Vegas, which has 3 Michelin stars. Last but not least every single course was an artistic masterpiece. The food looked great.

 My sister's food. I believe it was Wagyu Beef.

 First course. Don't remember what it was I'm afraid, but it looks great!

Second course, was seabass with some coconut cream and a whole bunch of other stuff.

 Third was another type of fish.

Another one of my sister's courses. This might actually have been the wagyu beef.

 Best lamb I've ever had. Tasted great!

Except for the fried pineapple I don't remember what was in it. Just that it tasted FANTASTIC!

Thanks again for a great meal, mom!!

Just as the last restaurant saved the best course for last, it so happened that I also saved the best dinner for last. Me and my dad went to the city I used to study all the way on the other side of the country, near the german border. Reason being that Restaurant TAO in Enschede has the best sushi rolls I've ever had and I believe there's a good chance they're the best sushi rolls in the world. Let me back that bold statement up with some pictures.

Restaurant TAO is a well decorated, not particularly expensive restaurant(for japanese food anyway). If you take a look at the menu you won't be particularly impressed, but after your meal you'll realize it's actually a very good overal restaurant, albeit no top notch japanese restaurant. You might ask, then what's so special about this place? Well... you need to ask for the stuff that's not on the menu.

The Special Rolls

Up top is an Ebi Tempura Roll(fried prawn), but no ordinary one. This one has Unagi(grilled eel) on top. My dad's favorite sushi ever.

On the bottom is an awesomely decorated Dragon Roll with crab and lots of other awesomeness. An especially nice touch is the spicy sauce that comes with it.

 Top left is a very well done Salmon Avocado Roll.

Top right is a slightly warm Asperagus Roll. Very original as I've never seen one before, but I have to admit I wasn't as blown away by this, nonetheless above average sushi roll.

Bottom Left, I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it was a Crab Tempura roll. The inside was 100% tempura, on top there's a green something I can't recall and it's been sprinkled with my crunchy bits.

Here on the bottom right is the best sushi I've ever tasted. It is a Rainbow Roll with Mango inside. I'm not sure how the chef ever came up with the idea to put mango in there, but the result is SOOOO GOOD!!!

 A 'relatively' simple Ebi Tempura Roll, but it's the best one I've ever had.

 Up top is another roll that my dad couldn't get enough of. It's basically a teppan yaki dish(beef) turned into a sushi roll with spring onions on top.

On the bottom is my second favorite sushi ever. It's a Tuna Tartar Roll, tastes absolutely FANTASTIC and possible looks even better.

 These were just extra orders of rolls I couldn't get enough of. My dad was already full by this time, but I didn't mind. I meant to get another Tuna Tartar Roll, but misordered and foolishly said another one of the green one and got another Crab Tempura Roll. Oh well... could've been worse.

Thanks dad for this meal of EPIC proportions. I'll definitely be going back here probably sometime later this year or early next year. Their sushi is just THAT good. Easily worth the 4 hour roundtrip when I happen to be visiting my parents in The Netherlands.

I highly recommend any fan of sushi that ever visits Holland to go to Restaurant TAO in Enschede, it's basically a MUST GO when you're there.

Overall I had a great weekend and birthday and some amazing food, but I'm also glad to be back home again doing my usual things. Here's to an awesome year of being 23!