In terms of authenticity, this Japanese restaurant takes the cake. Stepping inside felt like I was in Tokyo all over again. Our Japanese suppliers treated us here for a cozy Christmas get-together. There were five of us in all, and I estimate our meal cost well over 10k.

How could it not? They ordered whale sashimi -- and 8 paper-thin slices of it cost 1.1k. We also had salmon sashimi, bonito sashimi, and two other kinds of fish sashimi. We had two orders of gindara, 2 orders of tempura moriawase, two orders of kitsune udon, and two orders of zaru soba. We also had this exotic mushroom broth served in little ceramic teapots. And of course the Japanese had an endless flow of San Miguel beer coming to the table albeit I only had iced tea.

They say that ALL the ingredients used in this restaurant are imported from Japan. The waitresses, who are all Pinay, can speak and understand Japanese too. Every Japanese person we've met who has been to Manila claim that Tsukiji is the most authentic Japanese restaurant here, and I couldn't agree more.