anniversary dinner at hanabi

Hubby and I decided to celebrate the actual date of our anniversary with a simple dinner at Hanabi Restaurant in Asiana Hotel. Although La Mesa was a bit of a disappointment, we decided to give the hotel’s Japanese restaurant a try. My bosses often eat there when we have guests from Japan so I figured the food and service should be good. A few days before, I had a meeting with the hotel’s Sales Manager, so I informed him casually of our plans.

Our reservation was for 7pm, but we arrived a few minutes later. The Sales Manager was already there at the entrance of the restaurant to welcome us personally, and he and a waiter directed us to our table. Cute origami flowers adorned each of our plates, much to the delight of Caila who wanted to get even the ones from the other tables (we didn’t let her, though).

The restaurant was decorated with cool Japanese stuff (naturally); I especially liked the bonsai outside, the samurai swords on the ceiling, and the kimonos hanging on the walls. Before taking our orders, a waiter gave us cold towels for our hands, and Japanese tea which amazingly our daughter liked. We ordered California maki (of course), miso soup, rice, a custard-egg thing from the Kid’s Menu (for Caila), katsudon (for me), and salmon (for Hubby). Aside from our orders, we were each served some complimentary appetizers with squid. I was a bit hesitant to taste it at first because it looked weird, but in the end, my curiosity got the best of me, and I ended up enjoying it.

The food was delicious (yes, even our daughter liked hers) and the servings were big, so there were some leftovers that we asked to be packed so that we could take home. While we were contemplating on whether to order dessert (it was a special occasion, after all), a waitress approached our table, surprising us with this

We were thrilled! It was a great treat to top off our special day!