Doan Thai Hoa Tran
Google
Louis Vuitton has opened a restaurant inside its new Osaka store with an interior designed by the brand’s own design team. Sugalabo V is the first restaurant that Louis Vuitton has created in one of its stores. Sugalabo V is located on the top floor of Louis Vuitton on Midosuji, a busy avenue in central Osaka.
The restaurant is run by Japanese chef Yosuke Suga, who has worked for Joël Robuchon for 16 years. At the age of 26, he became Executive Chef of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Tokyo. He then opened Ateliers stores in Los Angeles, New York, Taipei and Paris as a project manager. In 2015, he returned to Japan to found Sugalabo Inc., and has been active in many creative fields.
The Tasting Menu has two price points: ¥50,000 and ¥70,000 (excluding ¥15,000 tax and service) per person. My mom and I chose the ¥70,000 menu with seafood as the focus.
Speaking of food, it was truly a different level of experience. The light clam and parsley soup was the perfect appetizer for dinner. The Monaka sea urchin was delicately prepared, delicious, and presented in a stylish manner. The white scad tartare, also known as white scad, was prepared with great skill because the fish itself is very soft and juicy, requiring the chef to be really skillful to be able to prepare the fish perfectly. The tartare also had Narazuke pickles, which were especially delicious and most of all, very fresh. The 24–month–aged Tada ham was the highlight. I didn’t expect much from this dish at first, but the creamy texture melts as soon as you put it in your mouth – chef Yosuke Suga has really elevated this dish. The saltiness and fat content are just right, and the 2–year aging process brings out the flavors very well. The cherry salmon or caviar are all made from premium ingredients, bringing freshness and the purest flavors.
Luckily, my mom had connections so she made a reservation and on the day I went, Yosuke Suga was the chef, because he usually wouldn’t be there and other chefs would take his place. The LV representative took my mom and I up to the place and introduced me to Yosuke Suga. My mom and I sat across from each other in the open kitchen, and were personally served by chef Yosuke Suga from the beginning to the end of the meal.
The Ezo abalone and white asparagus were the highlight of the dinner – chef Yosuke Suga made a very sophisticated French sauce, which is probably the best French sauce I’ve ever had. The red shrimp with watercress and red sea bream with fuki were also excellent. The Satsuma beef tenderloin with morel mushrooms was a dish that made me feel the flavor of Joël Robuchon – unmistakable. The morel mushrooms were delicious, the sauce was always the highlight along with the bread that chef Yosuke Suga made and baked on the spot.
I was really full even though this was the only meal of the day. The chef brought out dessert – strawberries (you could have eaten as many as you wanted but I could only eat 1), millefeuille, ice cream and curry rice (rice was delicious but I don’t understand how rice can be used for dessert... my mother and I were too full and couldn’t finish it). There was a wine pairing option but my mom and I didn’t choose it today, but chef Yosuke Suga kept offering us different types of sake and herbal teas depending on the dishes, and kept chatting and sharing about the food with us. It was truly a memorable meal!
¥85,000 / 1 person ~ 13.5 million VND (US$529)
