Tsunami

Ruth Brecher (1 September 2005)

Tsunami used to be one of our favourite restaurants. I’m sad to say that our last visit there was a complete disaster. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the place has gone downhill recently – in my opinion that is somewhat of an understatement. Here is what we found:

Our meal began with on of their great cocktails but we were assisted by a waitress who despite being perfectly nice, didn’t know anything about the menu and didn't know which sake we were ordering or how it was served. In fact we had to spell out some items on the menu, as she wasn't sure what some of them were.

Having eaten a small part of our 'Luxury' Sashimi starter plate, I picked up a prawn only to find profuse bright green gunk oozing from the (blackened) head area. This is not something either of us has come across before despite having eaten seafood very frequently and so the plate was sent back with a query about the edibility of the green prawn. We were then told by (it later transpired) the manager that the prawn was perfectly edible and that the green fluid was just part of the 'brain'. As we all know, prawns do not have brains but a tiny collection of nerve cells situated between the eyes.

Having got some advice from a shellfish information service, it transpires that although the prawn was not actually harmful to human health, it was indeed sub-standard. There are prawns that expire before they are processed and the liver/roe in the head begins to break down which together with the algal contents in their stomach creates the green colour. Boxes of prawns sold with a minimum black head count are more expensive as they are of a higher quantity. So, not only did the manager fob us off with nonsense about prawn 'brains' but we were presented with sub-standard seafood on our so-called 'luxury' plate. So not only were we treated like idiots but we were being ripped off too.

However, onwards, we thought - we both had some goodwill towards Tsunami as we have eaten there