On Caroline’s birthday we went to Daruma Japanese Restaurant on Durban’s Esplanade. It’s one of the few Japanese restaurants around, but it definitely is the best around, although a little on the expensive side. It’s is a restaurant that is reserved for special occasions.
Even the outside gardens are immaculately kept in a pseudo-Japanese style.
The interior has a largely wooden look, with Japanese paintings adorning the walls. In this photo is one of the three teppanyaki tables.
A closer view of the chefs at work. It would be nice if they actually had some Japanese chefs, but these guys did a pretty good job of producing Japanese fare.
For starters we had sushi. These are the prawn and avocado rolls.
Next up was the Daruma Sole. Deep fried crispy sole with a sweet and sour sauce.
Chicken Yakitori.
During a toilet visit, I took this photo of the sushi bar.
The Nabeyaki-Udon. Soup with Udon noodles topped with prawn – Tempura, fish cake and vegetables served in warm Donabe pot. This is it as it was served with the lid on.
And with the lid off.
Beef fillet teppanyaki, served with stir fried vegetables.
And fried rice.
Dessert was deep fried ice cream with fruit.
On exiting the restaurant we noticed the private room with the Japanese sunken table.
And still more exterior shots. This time of the entrance.
And of their gardens.
I’d highly recommend Daruma to anyone coming to Durban who wants an excellent Japanese meal. If it was cheaper, or if we had more money, I’m sure we’d dine there far more often!
LOCATION
Daruma Japanese Restaurant
Southern Sun Elangeni Hotel
63 Snell Parade
Durban
Tel: 031-337-0423 & 031-362-1322
Web: www.daruma.co.za
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the look of that Yakitori! It looks perfect. (It’s making me hungry as I type, and I already ate dinner…)
The egg in the udon looks great too. Was it fully set or slightly soft?
The yakitori was very nice. I should have had more! As it was we had quite a feast though so I didn’t want to go overboard.
Caro had the udon and I remember her saying that it was “bloody hot”, but I don’t remember whether the egg was fully set or soft. From the photo it looks like the yolk at least was slightly soft.
I’ll ask Caro to comment.
Yeah, it was slightly soft, but the white was set which is just the way I like it.
The soup was extremely hot, I remember burning my mouth a bit on it and it held the heat for quite some time, but it really was an amazing meal.
Hi there Craig and Caroline! Glad to have stumbled into your delish food blog! I’m happy to meet fellow food bloggers. I like your genius idea of putting a Google map at the end of each post as to where the restaurant is located, pretty clever!
I’ll be following your blog from now on.
Madellaine, Hi and welcome! Thanks for the nice words, it means a lot. I’d like to take credit for the Google map idea but it’s just something that I found on another food blog, although I don’t remember which one exactly! I does work quite well though!