TURNING JAPANESE

Over in Greenbelt 5, a Japanese resto has been steadily drawing in lunch and dinner crowds since it opened late last year. John & Yoko, the more "sophisticated" version of its brother, Sumo Sam, is a modern take on Japanese cuisine, a welcome contrast to the hippy-ish roots of the restaurant name.

We've been loyal patrons of anything and everything Japanese and John & Yoko is no exception. Dinner tonight was a welcome break from my rather lonesome weekend (Haligi and Haligilet are out of town), and doubly delightful since we were having it at one of our family's favorite restaurants.

The menu, peppered with photos of interesting dishes, is almost identical to Sumo Sam, though with a wee bit steeper pricing. We ordered the usual--two rounds of tempura, the dynamite rolls (salmon sushi with spicy dressing and sprinklings of crunchy salmon skin), crunchy tuna rolls (tuna sushi--also with spicy dressing and with crunchy sprinklings, this time of tempura coating bits), uni sushi, miso soup, asparagus wrapped in beef strips, steamed and fried gyoza, and two humongous bowls of all-meat japanese rice. Dining was guilt-free this time--no consequent acne treatments needed! Hehehe!

Since I was too busy yakking (and plurking), the only photos I managed to take were these... Despite some so-so reviews of the place, I still think John & Yoko is an interesting attempt to put a modern twist to Japanese cuisine. If you're into the whole Teriyaki boy, Tempura, Sumo Sam taste, you won't be disappointed here. It's probably even a notch higher. Special thanks go out to Steph, who kindly offered to hook us up with Chef BenGon during our stay. Turns out Stephie, we DID get our freebie. They never charged us for this... Shhh, don't tell! Hihihi.

John and Yoko
2nd Floor Greenbelt 5 Makati City
Telephone: (02) 7298698