Why We’re Excited About The New Asian Restaurant Dashanzi

JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu’s new restaurant and lounge serving progressive Asian cuisine has us excited for a variety of reasons. Two of them are the live sushi and sashimi bars and the interactive dessert table. Considering the lounge will have the largest gin bar in the city, we can’t wait to try their Asian twist on the classic gin and tonic. Just a few days before the opening, we asked the Executive Chinese Specialty Chef and the Executive Japanese Specialty Chef for their favourites from the menu…

1. How is the modern cuisine available at Dashanzi unique?
“While the heart of the cuisine served at Dashanzi remains Chinese and Japanese, it is further enhanced with extreme Cantonese flavours with a few European influences in ingredients, cooking and presentation. For instance, the salad of seared ‘bai-ling’ mushrooms, truffle and asparagus dish uses a combination of the king of mushrooms, asparagus, truffles and pine nuts which lends itself a distinctive mix of European and Asian flavours. Seared hokkaido scallops, tossed enokitake, curry-laced sauce is traditionally a Chinese dish but at Dashanzi we are serving it with flavours from the Indian subcontinent. Our signature dish, barbecued lamb chops, braised radish, tender green asparagus is built on the popular American concept of grilled lamb chops smoked with sudachi lime (Japanese), glazed with kaffir lime (Thai) essence and is served on a table barbeque.”

2. Which dish did you enjoy creating the most?
Chef Don Don: “I enjoyed creating the miso baked silver cod, hajikami, organic baby spinach, and coddled egg since I am extremely passionate about Japanese flavours. I have sourced the ingredients from the famous Tsukiji fish market in Japan. It is also a great dish for the health conscious consumer.”
Chef Stanley: “The steamed local sea bass in lotus leaf, Assam sauce is my personal favourite since it uses fresh local produce amalgamated with Indian flavours.”

3. A cocktail you would recommend…
Chef Don Don: “Five spice mojito which has white rum, homemade five spice syrup, kaffir lime, yuzu juice and soda.”
Chef Stanley: “The monk of the East which has cardamom infused dark rum, simple syrup, freshly squeezed lime juice and ginger beer.”

4. Must-try dishes…
Chef Don Don: “Rock shrimps, spicy miso glaze; salmon tartare, Bombay duck, togarashi mayonnaise; sushi moriawase (assorted sushi platter); gurando platter (grand sushi and sashimi platter)”
Chef Stanley: “Salad of seared ‘Bai-Ling’ mushrooms, truffle and asparagus; prawn, shiitake, chive and caviar oscetra dumpling; stir-fried lobster, grilled white asparagus, chefs special sauce”