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Published on October 31, 2007

Launched three years ago, JW Marriott's Tsu Restaurant has just been given a further boost by head chef Akihiro Izumi's overhaul of his contemporary Japanese a la carte menu.

The new list includes 38 dishes - some specially created for the occasion, while some are bestsellers brought back. They're all invented by Izumi, or Aki, as he prefers to be known. His cooking is a hybrid of different traditions, using innovative ingredients with his own signature sauces, and finishing off with eye-catching presentations.

Opening the menu, the first of the new creations you'll come across are the starters. Cold silky tofu (Bt250) and dynamite seafood give way to a choice of salads that runs from grilled Japanese king crab with cabbage to healthy Thai salads to spicy blue-fin tuna. For sashimi, there's tataki blue-fin red, tataki blue-fin medium fatty and yellow-tail dreams.

Moving on to the mains, temptations include deep-fried chicken with spicy sauce, Japanese beef cutlet, sauteed eel and foie gras.

Diners who turn their noses up at the unusual combination of grilled king crab and crispy cabbage with kanimiso mayo dressing (Bt600) will be missing a treat. Aki finds that the pungent crispy cabbage is a perfect accompaniment, so you're advised not to try and find a substitute.

Sushi addicts are well-catered for: the king crab crunchy roll appetisers (Bt980 for eight) are a balanced combination of Hokkaido Taraba crab and cucumber with home-made spicy sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. Less expensive are the plain crunchy rolls (Bt580), where shrimp tempura takes the place of the king crab. Yaki tuna rolls (Bt600 for eight) wrap sauteed blue-fin tuna with spicy sesame oil, soy sauce and creamy dressing.

Though he says he's a man of modest ambitions, Aki's inventions just keep coming - his Hawaiian sushi rolls (Bt780 for eight) being the latest. It was in California, where avocados are abundant, that the classic contemporary sushi roll was invented. But Hawaii, where the chef grew up, is home to the tuna, something his new rolls celebrate with a combination of blue-fin, avocado and cucumber with wasabi soy jelly.

Don't be surprised if the sushi doesn't come with shoyu sauce or wasabi - Aki wants to wean locals and expats from the habit of drowning the original taste with sauce. Accordingly, he's calculated the perfect balance by incorporating just the right amount of sauce in each separate roll.

One thing customers come back again and again for is Aki's signature sauces, among them the delicious dousing for his deep-fried chicken (Bt400). He also makes his own tofu.

Aki's invention hasn't stopped with the updated list. Next month he'll be turning out new creations for the winter season.

 Sirinya Wattanasukchai

 The Nation