Hyakumi Asian Restaurant, @ Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
Hyakumi
@ Caesars Palace
Las Vegas, NV
(877) 346-4642
Hours of operation:
11:00am – 3:00pm; 5:00pm – 11:00pm
Reservation not necessary.
Caesars Palace Las Vegas
Grand scale of Caesars Palace
Inside of Caesars Palace
After walking though the entire Caesars Palace, Finechinaguy and I were famished! Do you know how big this Hotel/Casino is? Huge! They have this huge shopping center called “The Forum Shops” and there are just tons of stores that you can go shop. Anyways, I was craving for Japanese and decided to check out this restaurant before we went in. We looked at the menu which is conveniently located outside, see below, and saw how expensive a bowl of noodles are! Regardless, I was not in the mood to go anywhere else because I was so drained from all the walking so we settled down for this restaurant.
Please click on the following link for more!
Read more
Daifuku Mochi – Sesame & Black Sesame Rice Cake
Daifuku Mochi, Japanese rice cakes, sweet little treats usually filled with red bean paste although there are variations of fruit filling. Sometimes they are covered in corn starch to keep them from sticking to each other. The two pictured are Sesame (Shiro Goma) and Black Sesame (Kuro Goma) covered and about the size of your palm. The other version is about the size of a half-dollar coin. If you love tasty treats or love Red Bean, have a try at these, they can be found at any Japanese market and sometimes Asian supermarkets.
Daifuku Mochi Sesame & Black Sesame (Shiro Goma & Kuro Goma)
Daifuku Mochi Sesame & Black Sesame (Shiro Goma & Kuro Goma)
Daifuku Mochi Sesame & Black Sesame (Shiro Goma & Kuro Goma)
Las Vegas Caesar’s Palace – Hyakumi Japanese Restaurant Sushi Bar & Noodles
After walking around all day towards Caesar’s Palace, which simply amazed us, we were hungry of course. But we had to eat light! How else would we last for more buffets? We didn’t even eat breakfast just to save our appetite.
Caesar's Palace
Caesar's Palace Main Entrance
Just had to show this picture that came out great of the fountain inside the main entrance. Restaurant and more importantly, food after the jump!
Masu Masu Asian Fusion Restaurant
Masu Masu Asian Fusion Restaurant
1116 Avenue U
btw 12th St & Coney Island Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11223
Avenue U, aka little Chinatown, is filled beyond filled with half-assed boring restaurants. If you live in this neighborhood like I do, you’ll know that the foods here aren’t the best. They taste what they’re supposed to taste like, but there’s just no creativity at all. Or they just plain suck.
With a lot of Japanese sushi bars popping up all over the neighborhood, it seems like none of them can be distinguished. Most of them have non-Japanese chefs making sushi, which absolutely grinds my gears, and the food seems to cater to americans or tourist. What happened to specialty rolls? What happened to creativity and love for food?
Well, Masa Masa is the answer to my prayers.
This is the only restaurant on avenue U, the gravesend neck road area, that tries to be hip and trendy. Thank you!! Most restaurants that you’ll see here don’t really try that hard to impress people with decor. I can understand because people here are simple and they don’t have the time to pay attention to those little details. Service and food is most important to the restaurant owners here. While that’s great, I think it’s time to get with the times.
I came here with the boyfriend after a morning run, and we were craving for dumplings. I am a huge dumpling fan and will almost eat any kind of dumpling as you will see in my prior and future posts.
Pork Dumpling
Never have I seen a dumpling that has such a thin, transparent-like skin. Dip this baby into the accompany soy sauce and your mouth will scream like it’s in heaven. I do have to admit that I was pretty excited because of the way it looked. Look how cute it looks! Unlike the ones that have thick skin and are incredibly doughy, this one doesn’t make you feel as guilty eating it. I really enjoyed this appetizer and absolutely craved some more. The pork is moist and tender and accompanied well with the lightly pan fried dumpling. I swear, you can pop a million of these in your mouth and still crave for me.
My rating: 4/5
Recommended!
Specialty Roll:
It’s been a while since I’ve eaten here and the name of this roll slips my mind. It contains medium well salmon, avocado, cucumbers, seasoned with sesame.
Price: $11.50
This roll is absolutely fantastic. The presentation alone is worth the price, especially in this neighborhood. I like the fact that the salmon is not completely raw, so it gives it a semi-rough texture which I truly love.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 4/5
If you want to order this roll, why don’t you print the picture and show it to the waiter/waitress? haha
California Roll
Price: $4.50
I will always love the Cali roll when it’s done right. I hate it when sushi makers skimp out on my dam rice. I probably said this a million times, but it’s true! I love the presentation and the size. The rice was not too hard, which is the way I like it.
My rating: 4/5
Recommended!
Salmon Roll
Price: $4.50
With a roll done right like this, what can go wrong? It’s a classic.
When you stop by the neighborhood, be sure to pay a visit. You won’t regret it!
[page_polls]
[pollsarchive http://www.finechinagirl.com/pollsarchive/[poll=2]]
Kyotofu: Japanese Tofu Dessert
Kyotofu
705 9th Ave
(Btw 48th & 49th St)
New York, NY
(212) 974-6012
Have you ever thought that tofu can ever be a dessert? Well I did, but I didn’t know there was more than one way of doing it! The only tofu dessert that I’ve seen is Chinese tofu, or Tofu Flower, look that up in google, which I see being sold on the streets of Chinatown. Tofu flower is essentially steamed tofu served with black melted sugar. It’s quite a tame sugary treat. But anyways, I believe the same concept of making tofu is used here at Kyotofu, but I had to investigate to find out for myself.
A little bit of history, Kyotofu opened last November and there has been a lot of rave reviews, especially by New York mag, which is my bible of restaurant reviews. Located in the trendy neighborhood in the Hell’s Kitchen district, Kyotofu fits perfectly well here, which you will see. A pair of two recently graduated students are the entrepreneurs of this lovely dessert boutique, and their youthful style are reflected within the restaurant.
After months of stalling to take my trip to the neighborhood, I finally made reservations during Japanese restaurant week and decided to take my group of closest friends with me. And btw, I believe you can only make reservations if you have a party of 4 or more and you cannot be more than 10 mins late because then your reservation will be given away due to the small capacity of the restaurant.
As I arrived with my team of 6 at 9:30pm on Friday, I told guy standing in a casual suit that I had a reservation and he told me to give him 10 mins because the people at the table was getting ready to leave. So as I was waiting, I noticed that that was a bunch of barstools sitting in front of the restaurant, as you can see with the above picture. People were already having delicious treats, like this gorgeous parfait! I’ve always had great experience with a Japanese parfait and two pocky sticks in it. Ahh nice. The people here looked very trendy and it looked like the place to go socialize with a friend or go out ona date. But anyways, during the wait, the room between the door and the kitchen grew incredibly small because more people came to wait. Me and my gang were packed in so tight that we grew uncomfortable and impatient. Believe me, regardless of reservations, you’ll have to wait because this place is really really small. At least we were entertained as we were waiting because the female Japanese chef was making desserts right in front of our eyes! She was pouring this black substance, we thought it was chocolate, but it was too thin to be chocolate and later saw her put it over a muffin. Mm…interesting. But yeah, after that we were all set to go. Woo!!
If you haven’t seen the picture of the inside of Kyotofu on the NY mag website, then you can see it now, but not as wide and detailed like theirs are. 
The theme of the restaurant is pure and clean — white on the outside and white on the inside. Since bright white isn’t all that sexy, there are fluorescent light bulbs and candles all around which produces this night golden look. I like it.
For drinks, Amy ordered:
Harajuku Martini whole lychee/green apple puree/shochu
Amy, correct me if I’m wrong since I’m no expert on alcohol, but yeah I had a little sip and it was very strong with a hint of sweetness. I believe this drink costs $12. And then my boyfriend ordered Soju, which I’m even going to put a picture up because it looks like ice water with a slice of lemon hanging on the edge of the cup. That soju was incredible strong and bitter. Yuck, I’m just not a fan of soju.
Alright on with the desserts!
First came the Toasted Walnut Tahitian Vanilla Parfait, that contains maple soy mascarpone mousse and caramel apricot sauce, and some pomegranate for decoration, which Judy and Queenie ordered:
Price: $8
Sorry I didn’t get a better shot at the toasted almond part, but nonetheless, it looks good. When I swiped a taste of this delicious treat, I thought it was ice cream. It truly tastes like vanilla ice cream, but it was missing something that makes it vanilla — it was the soy and mascarpone mousse. My goodness, you do not realize how delicious this treat is! Very very delicious! I absolutely loved it.
Next came Chi’s treat:
Warm Chestnut Mochi Chocolate Cake green tea-anko cream, fig yokan
Price: $10
I took a bite into this and it tastes like the best muffin I have ever had! Oh gosh, it was nice and soft, sweet, and there’s a surprise in the middle. Take a guess on what’s inside? I really like this, but it’s a little overpriced, but it tastes pretty good. I enjoyed this.
Next, my boyfriend’s treat:
Black Sesame Sweet Tofu (Tofu Flower), with hoji-cha tea syrup, white sesame tuille, goji berry
Price: $8
Wow, when I saw this I thought to myself, how artistic the presentation is. Growing up with the Tofu dessert in chinatown, it was just poured into a plastic container with the syrup and that was it. This, this is nice! You see it right? And how does it compare with the chinese version? Well, this is much more richer — you can literally taste the pureness of the tofu. Very clean and pure. That’s what I tasted, and don’t forget to pour some of that syrup on it. This syrup is much stronger than I one I had in chinatown, and my god, it tastes very very smooth and delicious. It’s not too different, but it’s not too similar too. I loved this.
Kyotofu Kaisaki Prix Nfixe zensai, dessert sampler, petitis fours
Price: $15
And here comes my first course:
I believe this is the zensai, which basically is a sample of the black sesame black tofu. I prefer having this sample because it looks cuter without me having to have so much tofu. If you like a variety, I suggest the sampler. It’s simply the best. And the rest of the pictures that I’m going to show you are samples of what my friends had.
Second course:
Top left clockwise, toasted walnut vanilla parfait, warm chestnut chocolate cake, peanut butter dipping, and lastly ginger infused Japanese rice okayu (rice pudding).
Green tea chocolate, sample of cookie gift box
I’m not a green tea lover, but after a bite of this, it actually did not taste bad. In fact, it was quite sweet, which was why I liked this. I actually wanted the cookie box to go, but then again I was so full and I wasn’t going to save it for the next day because I wanted it fresh. And because it’s $23 for this cookie box. Check their website, you’ll get a good picture of it.
And lastly, Amy ordered another cocktail since she’s such a cocktail-thirsty kinda gal:
Doki Doki Saketini melon puree/junmai sake/champagne
Again I could be wrong because I couldn’t remember what she ordered, but I believe this is the one. One sip, and it was already so strong and bitter in my mouth. Even though it looks incredibly fruity, it packs a powerful punch.
Overall it was a fabulous dining experience. The desserts came out really quickly and it tasted as good as it looks! And the waitress was very friendly to us. She took my boyfriend not to confuse the soju with water because it could get him very drunk which was funny. Then later on she came by and asked if one of us was a blogger, and of course I said yes, and then she said that she lost a bet. This bet was between her and the man who I thought was a waiter, Mike, but turns out to be the co-owner of this restaurant. Haha was my face red. After we paid, I asked for a picture with her and Mike.
Yeah, it turns out that this girl is also one of the co-owners as well instead of the waitress. Ah, it was one fun night. But yes, this is the first time that I’ve ever encountered seeing an owner at any restaurant. Plus they were friendly, professional, and speedy. Like I said to them, I will recommend all my friends to come here because this is such a unique place to come to. The dessert might be a little more than what you would expect, but it’s well worth it. See and taste this place at least once! I promise you that you will not regret it.
Alright, time for the NYC Health Inspection results of this place:
KYOTOFU
705 9 AVENUE, MANHATTAN 10019
212-974-6012
Current violation points: 7 – PASSED
Inspection Date: 10/24/2006
No violations that present a threat to the public health or relate directly to factors which lead to food borne illness were recorded at the time of this inspection.
1.) Mechanical dishwasher not operated as per manufacturer’s specifications (time/temperature/chemical concentration); machine defective.
2.) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
