Hana in Seminyak

We tried Hana (花) in Seminyak last night. Our friends recommended this Japanese restaurant with the note that their sushi is quite good. Apparently the tonkatsu is good too, but we didn't order it this time. The place is two-storey. The place is tiny and tastfully decorated with flowers and flower motifs to reflect the name of the place. The waitresses were wearing traditional Indonesian dress.

For appetizer, we had gyoza filled with pork and leek, slices of seared tuna with scallots, lemon, and celantro, goma-ai (spinach with sesame dressing) and pan fried egg plant in sauce. Gyoza itself was not bad but the dipping sauce was too salty for my taste. The seared tuna was quite good but it's really not Japanese; more like fusion food with the addition of scallots and celantro. The taste is light and not fishy. The sesame dressing is too sweet for our taste (like eating dessert instead of salad), but we liked the idea of it being chilled. The egg plant has a hint a sweetness with complemented with the sauce (looked and tasted like dipping sauce for tempura or agadashi tofu except with addition of chopped scallions and ginger) nicely.

Dinner consisted of sushi plate with extra orders of tamago, tuna, and siro (white marlin), some sort of stirred fried pork, and tempura udon. The pork didn't have as much flavor as I hoped. The tempura udon tasted like the usual dish that we get at the other places. I noticed the tempura batter is too brittle. I think the restaurant uses all corn starch instead of soft flour or tempura flour. The best part of the dinner is the sushi. The plate has a nice selection of sushi like shrimp, tuna, siro, tamago, squid (?), and another white fish, but for the four of us, it was definitely a good idea that we ordered the extra sushi. The best one was the tuna and in the end I ordered another 2 portions (4 pieces total). The fish itself didn't taste or smell fishy at all, and I can easily bite into the fish. The rice has a hint of sweetness that complemented the fish. The sushi is smaller than most restaurants' but it looked well crafted and quite tasty.

In the end the price came to around 100,000 rupiah per person, more pricey than our favorite Japanese restaurant. I would go there again for the sushi which is definitely a step better than most places. As for other dishes, I think other places has about the same quality food at a cheaper price. The menu is smaller than most places. I was surprised that they didn't even have croquettes. At least there are a few more unusual dishes along with the rather standard affair.