Restaurant review: Belly of the aquatic beast Laying on the exotica, thick and thin The promise of luxury arrives with a Trianon delivery. The group that brought you the confidently elitist bakery is now pushing slick flyers flaunting glossed images of Inakaya Ya, Aswan Square's new posh Japanese restaurant, and the implication is clear: Only the most refined of connoisseurs are invited. A promotional all-you-can-eat sushi menu runs every Monday and Wednesday, until Ramadan, for only LE69.95 (plus as many articles of clothing as you can spare for hidden services charges), but far superior is the core menu of hand-picked and surprisingly well-executed sushi and sashimi delicacies. The cozy two-floor nook houses dark wooden tables impregnated with beds of glistening chalk and granite, and enclosed with glass tops. True to the customs of the host culture, leather armchairs wrap tightly round your backside downstairs, where the ambiance favours the high powered 45- minutes-or-less business lunch. Upstairs two- seater couches provide a roomier seating arrangement, as well as all the necessary leg room for fidgety kids or other garden-variety spastics gesticulating to the deranged Asian synth-pop streaming in through low-watt speakers. The décor overall is decidedly minimalist; solitary plasticised stalks are as present as the renditions of obscure sea-creatures that hang on the walls and the suspended glass beads of the chandelier. One wall is done entirely in palm-sized silvery scales, and for a second you're in the V I P lounge of an amphibian's abdomen, the raw meat you're about to ingest the most fitting of choices. The counter behind which the food is prepared is in plain view, as is the cast of characters that surround it. The sociopath on drinks duty is not someone you'd send your beverage back to with any complaint, unless a dash of cyanide appeals, and the steely-eyed assistant chef, trekking back and forth in a one-metre radius in search of wasabi, is one of those die-hard specimens that refuses to let the national incompetence gene recede. Reassuringly, the chef himself is methodical and meticulous, but a local, raising questions as to the culinary calibre this establishment can truly hope to achieve. The raw victuals of the sashimi set menu are laid down, spread across a shiny porcelain platter with the geometrical precision of a Kandinsky. The hearty Miso with tofu bean curd soup is set aside and now only the mastery of wooden chopsticks stands between you and the picture-perfect Sake salmon, Shiromi white fish, Ebi shrimp, Tako octopus, and Ika calamari. And while -- for lack of accessible references -- hardly anyone will be in a position to call them on recipe, they're definitely above even the faintest contemplation of reproach when it comes to freshness. The sushi menu includes Unagi eel and Tobiko flying fish caviar, and its bastardised all-you-can-eat derivative also incorporates octopus, an Oshinko and vegetarian roll, and, the mother of all sellouts, a chicken fillet pizza. Though quick and attentive, the place just opened so the waiting staff is also acutely ingratiating. You will be interrupted mid-mouthful by appeals for room-for-improvement comments, and the irony may send the masticated salmon down the wrong pipe. The overzealous beefcake maitre d' however is outwardly affable and the paragon of patience, explaining the alien menu in slightly more baladi terms to anyone brave enough to profess their ignorance. Get the staff talking and you'll discover a taboo preference for the lunch menu. Here the teriyaki sandwiches feature beef burgers, chicken breasts, and sea bass and salmon fillets besmirched with the special sauce and served on a home-baked ciabatta bun, and the initiative taken with the salads, from grilled beef with soy ginger to shredded crab with mayo caviar, make them perfect complementary side dishes. It appears that where the exotica is laid on thin, as flavouring, is where you'll find this crew at its most confident. Inaka Ya 6A Aswan Square, Mohandessin. Tel: 02 305 2965. Opening hours: 11am-4pm (lunch menu), 5pm- midnight. Dinner for two: LE200. By Waleed Marzouk
