Cho Gao, Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi, UAE
Last week, for Jon’s birthday, we were invited to Crowne Plaza’s Cho Gao Restaurant’s newly opened Sushi Bar. They have a new Taste of Japan menu, featuring some of the most unique sushi rolls I’ve ever tasted. From the sushi bar, you can see up close how the chefs make each dish. We learned a few things from Chef Kashi Ram. Here is a quick Step-by-Step of the infamous Unagi Roll at Cho Gao:
Ingredients Required:
- Cooked Sushi Rice (room temperature)
- Sheets of Seaweed aka Nori
- Sesame Seed
- Rolling Mat (wrapped in service film) aka Makisu
- Asparagus
- Eel aka Unagi
- Imitation Crab
- Avocado (Sliced)
- Plastic Wrap
Step-by-Step
- Place a handful of rice on a sheet of seaweed.
- Firmly press the rice with your fingers into the sheet. The rice should cover the whole seaweed sheet evenly.
- Flip the sheet over onto the flat rolling mat (rice side down).
- Place the asparagus, unagi, crab and avocado into the center line of the sheet horizontally.
- Starting with the bottom, using the rolling mat, roll the sheet over all the ingredients placed in the middle.
- Once all the ingredients have been covered, grip the rolling mat and pull it away from you, so that you make a large sushi roll. Firmly press down on all sides of the rolling mat to create a square shape.
- Take the rolling mat off. Place a long layer of unagi eel on the top of the roll.
- Place a layer of plastic wrap over the whole roll.
- Use the rolling mat again, placing it over the entire roll (over the unagi eel top layer) and firmly roll to keep everything in place.
- Take the rolling mat off. Use a sharp knife and cut the roll into 2 cm pieces (most rolls are cut into 6 or 8 pieces). The plastic wrap should still be on the roll.
- Once cut into pieces, take the plastic wrap off and arrange it onto the serving plate.
- Top with special sauce (teriyaki sauce or similar).
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Garnish with wasabi and ginger.
- Impress your friends and enjoy!
I have yet to try this at home, but if you’re having trouble, head over to Cho Gao’s sushi bar to see more tips and tricks from the chefs there!
More about the Sushi Bar
Cho Gao’s sushi bar is in a closed off private area from the main restaurant. It was such a treat to be seated up close and private the sleek sushi bar. This bar can only hold up to 6 guests so be sure to book reservations in advance! We admired the art of sushi making up-close and was able to get tons of tips and tricks from the chef. At this sushi bar you can see the chefs creating selections of Japanese salads, sashimi, sushi and maki rolls.
Reservations: Cho Gao Asian Restaurant Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi – Hamdan Bin Mohammed Street
Telephone: 02 616 6149 E-mail: dining.cpauh@ihg.com
Appetizers
We ordered from the Taste of Japan menu exclusively for dinner at the Sushi Bar. We started with the Salmon, Crab and Avocado Salad as well as the Goma Wakame. Both of these were great options for starters. The Salmon, Crab and Avocado Salad is made with spicy mayo so you could suggest to your chef what level of spiciness you prefer. For mine, I preferred mild which was just perfect! The Goma Wakame is Japanese Seaweed Salad, I love to order this at sushi places to begin my meals.
House Rolls & Nigiri
They have a great selection of sashimi and nigiris. Guests can order from a list of (7) choices – Unagi (eel), Ika (squid), Shimi (mackerel), Sake (salmon), Tako (octopus), Maguro (tuna), and Ebi (shrimp). My favorites are the Sake and Ebi, the classics!
The House Rolls at Cho Gao impressed me the most! A must-order is the Cripy Crust Maki Roll, its made with tempura, avocado, cucumber, carrot, crab crust and lolo rosso. It is quite a huge roll and you will need to eat it all in one bite! The sauces make it so flavorful, it is a crowd favorite. We must of seen close to a dozen of these orders being made.
Another favorite is the Caramel Maki that you will not be able to find anywhere else. The crispy caramel crab topping is amazing! And of course the Unagi Roll is another must-order at Cho Gao if you haven’t been able to master it yourself at home. 😉
Desserts
I made sure to leave some extra room for their desserts. They just created a new dessert menu and I must say they really stepped up their game. I really wanted to try their Melting Chocolate Ball on Banana Cake, makes really great instagram videos too! It was spectacular! They slowly poured hot chocolate over the melting ball which opened up to reveal coconut ice cream on a layer of moist banana cake. #dessertporn This was really one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time!
For my husbands birthday, he got his dessert (Ginger Ice Cream) with a lovely handwritten Birthday Wish. Along with this, the team had come by to sing a special Cho Gao version of Happy Birthday that also played over the PA system. I wanted to mention they do this for ALL their guests as we heard another table celebrating on the same day. I’ll be sure to bring my friends to Cho Gao for their birthdays!
I’ve really been impressed with Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi this year. I found that they are always improving their restaurants and thinking up of new ways to impress their guests. From new menus, special theme nights, new chefs, they have been always changing and staying innovative. Hope you will find Crowne Plaza and the Cho Gao experience the same!
