Japanese cuisine relies on freshness, minimal simplicity and plenty of tasty seafood and top quality meat and Sumire possesses all of these attributes in spades. Sumire’s teriyaki, tempura and teppanyaki are among the very best available in town and as such, you should defi nitely bring your credit card with you as prices for some of the restaurant’s more legendary creations can be steep verging on the perpendicular! This doesn’t prevent the place from being perpetually fully booked however and Japanese families, businessmen, bankers and elite Indonesian types can all be found down here every day of the week between 12 noon and 3pm and 6pm and 11pm. Nine private dining rooms, including four tatami rooms, are available with seating for up to eight persons each, however the restaurant recommends that you book at least a week in advance.

Sumire is the Japanese word for the violet fl ower and the restaurant refl ects its naturalistic name. The interior is styled like a traditional Japanese rural country house restaurant and combines the natural tones of wood, bamboo, stone and paper.  Sumire offers authentic, high quality Japanese cuisine, including teppanyaki, sushi and sashimi and there’s a 12 seater tempura and kushiage counter, as well as a sushi and sashimi bar.

The Japanese are probably the world’s biggest consumers of fi sh and Sumire’s Japanese seafood creations are really outstanding. On our visit we enjoyed a fragrantly fresh Assorted Sashimi (Rp.275,000) which included the restaurant’s delicious signature sweet shrimp, salmon, kampachi, maguro (tuna), octopus and hamachi (young yellowtail). All went straight into a well swirled together bowl of soy sauce and wasabi and were slowly savoured.

Still feeling esurient, we followed up with Sumire’s fantastic Whole Live Lobster with Mayonnaise and Tobiko. Thankfully, there was no messing around with hammers as Sumire teases all of the delectable meat out for diners fi rst, so they are free to enjoy the fresh fl avours and the zingy mix of the mayo, lobster and tobiko (fl ying fi sh roe). The new Tenmon Special Rolls also proved to be a winner and the grilled salmon topping just melted on the tongue.

We fi nished off with a tasty Green Tea Ice Cream before perusing the comprehensive Sumire menus. Teppanyaki set menus are priced between Rp.510,000 and a hefty Rp.1.4 million per person and the Grade 9 Wagyu Beef version is a Sumire favourite. If you’re after some mix and match à la carte on the other hand, then beef tenderloin, scallops, live lobster, salmon, Alaskan cod and anago eel all mingle tantalisingly on the tempura menu.

Sumire is certainly not the cheapest Japanese restaurant in town but its continuing popularity is a testament to the excellence on offer (indeed, its recent US$250 Independence Day set menu promotion was a sell out). Go on, treat yourself, you deserve it!