Cucina Wada: Good for a special occasion, well worth the price

Area:  a couple of blocks south of Fushimi station 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Cucina Wada  クチーナワダ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23038494/

Hours:  Lunch 12-2pm, Dinner 6-10pm


This is a slightly more expensive, fine dining restaurant, but the lunch is only \2000.  It currently is receiving a score of 3.7 out of 5 on Tabeblog.  Straight to the food;  the appetizer indo-maguro carpaccio was seasoned with an olive oil basil sauce which matched with the plump shrimp and arugula.  The tuna was very soft and slightly seared with pepper.  There was also a nice sea salt crunch to the sauce.  The raw daikon was not hot, but the pepper sort of overpowered the maguro at first bite.  However the tastes buds may become accustomed to the pepper, and afterwards, the flavour of the tuna comes through.

The whole wheat bread had a yeasty flavor and was light.  The focaccia was denser, with a crispy olive oil brushed and rosemary sprinkled crust.

Next, the sardine pasta was covered with a simple olive oil sauce, but this one didn't taste like canned sardines, so that was good.
       

The sawara (king mackerel) sauté, was not only cooked in the pan, but was oven roasted, giving it a toasty skin. It used the same basil sauce as the starter, but matched well.  The tomato sauce was a cream base, so the tomato flavor was mild.  The carrot was also roasted and it was the sweetest carrot I've ever had (a bit dry, but I guess that's expected for oven roasting). 

I was seated at the counter on the first floor, right in from of the kitchen so it was interesting to watch everything they were doing, as if I were in the kitchen.  

The music plaing was instrumental jazz.

For dessert, I was brought a housemade tiramisu. It was not too sweet and I could really taste the liquor.  The meal-ending espresso was fresh and good crema