Review Sora Jima - Chennai

An amazing place to stay...amazing food....amazing service...a big thumbs up...

Fantastic hotel.

Island in the sky !

美味しい日本食が食べられる。 ホテルの最上階で景色が良い。 メニューはもう少し増やして欲しい。 ビールはもう少し冷やして欲しい、かな。

Although I have tasted sashimi I never had it as a dinner ,sashimi was disappointing it was indeed good for 750 rupees presentation is very good and I had a Hawaiian mocktail which was also superb ,sashimi platter worth trying decent to good interiors I would prefer teppan if I wanted to eat Japanese

‘But I am a Vegetarian’! This was my confused answer when I was invited to the Indo-Japanese food festival at Sora Jima,Accord Metropolitan,T Nagar. After reassuring that they can satisfy a vegetarian’s soul, I decided to experience the festival on a saturday night along with my foodie buddies.

There are only a few Japanese Restaurants in the city and all seem to be in demand. Not that I frequent them too often, but when an invitation landed from a place, that had something interesting to offer and I hadn't yet visited the place, I had nod an Yes. RESTAURANT & OCCASION: Accord Metropolitan, T Nagar has a Japanese restaurant called Sora Jima. Currently the restaurant, is hosting a festival which is a blend of Japanese and Indian cuisine.

A fellow foodie pinged me to inform about a bloggers meet at a Japanese restaurant and I agreed to give it a try despite being apprehensive about it. The hesitation was largely because of my lack of exposure to quality Japanese food and an inherent discomfort with sushi's. That said, after having tried and loved several new cuisines over the last couple of years - I really wanted to get my palate accustomed to the globally loved and enjoyed - Japanese cuisine.

A fellow foodie pinged me to inform about a bloggers meet at a Japanese restaurant and I agreed to give it a try despite being apprehensive about it. The hesitation was largely because of my lack of exposure to quality Japanese food and an inherent discomfort with sushi's. That said, after having tried and loved several new cuisines over the last couple of years - I really wanted to get my palate accustomed to the globally loved and enjoyed - Japanese cuisine.<br/><br/>About the Festival <br/><br/>This festival is in celebration of the Japanese summer and showcases some of their delicacies with a desi (Indian) twist. This made it perfect for a person like me to make a gradual progress and to enjoy and appreciate this cuisine. <br/><br/>For authentic Japanese food lovers, sticking to their regular menu might be ideal. <br/><br/>Ambience<br/><br/>Despite the fact that they are the only dedicated Japanese restaurant (or so I believe) in a five star property in Chennai, they are styled in a mini restaurant model with a small and limited dining area. What was impressive though was how the restaurant was structured to accommodate large groups. <br/><br/>With minor additions to set the theme, the private dining enclosure was one of the attractive aspects from an ambience perspective. <br/><br/>Service<br/><br/>The staff did a good job in ensuring we were comfortable and in guiding us through the orders. Mr. Sourav who attended our table was an enthusiastic chap and seemed reasonably informed about the dishes. <br/><br/>The food however is served with a minor lag, which is relatively common among luxury diners. <br/><br/>Pricing<br/><br/>The promo menu was fairly priced for a five star hotel. However, if one was to benchmark to regular dining joints (I believe that may not be a fair practice though) it could be considered expensive. <br/><br/>Food<br/><br/>Soup - Chicken clear soup<br/><br/>A clear soup with made of chicken chunks and generous portion of seaweed. The seaweed usage resulted in giving a seafood aroma and taste to the soup and that did not work for me. Considering they had a dedicated seafood soup, I could have might as well tried that if that was the taste I desired. <br/><br/>Sushi<br/><br/>With Indianised stuffing like paneer tikka and tandoori chicken, these sushi were quite good. At least finding a familiar taste with a bite made it easier for me to accustom to the cuisine.<br/><br/>Starter <br/>We tried the following:<br/><br/>1. Prawn tempura - batter fried prawns served with a good dip. <br/><br/>2. Teriyaki Chicken - grilled chicken cooked with teriyaki sauce<br/><br/>3. Masala okonomiyaki - a pancake made of vegetables, chicken and fish and topped with mayonnaise. <br/><br/>4. Rock shrimp tempura - a sauce mixed batter fried dish<br/><br/>The okonomiyaki and rock shrimp tempura were; the former tasted fresh and the mayonnaise adulteration was a welcome one. <br/><br/>Main Course<br/><br/>Japanese Chicken Biriyani - A hardcore biriyani lover like can not accept anything which is merely titled biryani but fails to have the necessary flavors. This dish ended up being a fried rice made out of sticky rice.<br/><br/>Seer fish with Aleppey dashi - the grilled seer fish with a bitter coconut curry was such a saviour and made the biriyani above an edible one. We went for refills of the curry and this was among the better dishes served to us. <br/><br/>Desserts<br/><br/>I had considered skipping desserts when I noticed all of them had a green tea base and to make it worse the options were: creme brulee and panacotta; two desserts I have appreciated on a handful of occasions. <br/><br/>1. Panacotta - Served with a dose of strawberry syrup and infused with fine coconut chunks, it felt like this dessert was custom made to suit my preference. Loved the slightly unusual creamy taste and all of the aforementioned elements blended in perfectly. WOW! <br/><br/>2. Creme Brulee - The ladies ordered for a refill and kept gorging on this one. I found it decent and torched top was especially well made.<br/><br/>3. Green tea Ice Cream - By this point I had gotten tired of green tea. A typical green tea lover might appreciate this ice cream, however the inconsistency in mixing and adding of green tea powder put me off a bit.<br/><br/>On a summary note, this place is to be tried if you are a Japanese food lover or one aspiring to try this cuisine.

Sora Jima, translated from Japanese means “island in the sky” is a Japanese restaurant on the 15th floor of Accord metropolitan that shares its space with another popular restaurant called Pergola. Through this week up to August 7th sees an introduction of Japanese dishes with a desi twist. One can find their favourite tikkas wrapped up in Sushis with the archetypal Japanese fare like tempuras, tofus, Soy, Miso and Teriyaki sauces.

Tried this place on a summer evening with a few friends. A friend recommended it as one of the few authentic Japanese restaurants in the city. We sat in the balcony area which had only one table. The restaurant is rather small but is does have some character. <br/><br/>For starters we ordered a calamari starter and crisply lamb starter both of which were below standard. In fact the calories was soo chewy that we couldn't even manage to finish it. The only highlight of our evening there was an enthusiastic musician who came to our table and asked for our recommendations and played the tracks. <br/><br/>After the starter experience we lost all confidence in the quality of doom on offer here that we decided to scoot over to the coffee shop which is also on the same floor for a better experience. <br/><br/>This place is best avoided. But if you do want to experience it. Get a table out in the balcony and have a drink there but for food move into the coffee shop.

Live very close to the accord hotel and have been to almost all the restaurants here. This is one of the most dignified and high class restaurant of all in the hotel so I recommend this to all of you. The service is good but the only complaint I have is that the food takes too long to come.

Excellent Japanese food in town..<br/>Chasyu is highly recommended.<br/>Helpfull and proactive staffs.<br/>I have tried Japanese food so many places in Chennai.. but Sora Jima was the best...

Went to sora jima day before for dinner.<br/><br/>Nice ambience, they have these booths where you get your privacy. The place being on the top floor you get a view of the city all lit up at night!<br/><br/>Food wise it was decent. We went with someone who's lived in Japan for 10 years, so we ordered all the right things, <br/><br/>The Edamame unlike what we usually get in other japanese places was cold and felt like it was from the deep freezer.<br/><br/>The sashimi moriawase matu which was a platter of assorted fish and squid was just exceptional, all the slices of fish were fresh and quite a delight to have.<br/><br/>The Gyo Za which was pork and beef dumpling had a beautiful texture and vanished within seconds of being served.<br/><br/>buta syuogayaki, pork slices in ginger sauce was quite alright. Nothing really great about it.<br/><br/>kushiage moriawase, breaded and fried vegetables and meat was sadly not at all anything like what we expected and was the least favourite dish on the table.<br/><br/>But the biggest shock of them all was that sora jima charges an exorbitant rate of 850 rupees for 30ml of sake. Which was quite a shocker. And to think we complained when dahlia was charging 600 rupees for 100ml. <br/><br/>In the end we ending up spending more on the same and beer than on food. <br/><br/>None the less it was a pleasant experience.

For those of you Familiar with Jap Cuisine , this is the place to head to .Well i wasn,t thrilled about going to this place , but i must say i was surprised . I enter the place and there is a large buddha dominating the decor and there is a show kitchen where one gets to see how the food is made. I started to ease up as this wasn't so bad :P<br/>then I meet yasuhiro katayama (The chef) who suggested what to eat , i was happy that i didn't have to go through the complicated menu . For starters i had dash maki tomato - Jap rolled omelets , for the mains i had ebi try hiyyaki torino karage , the best was the omelet it was crispy and just melts in your mouth  the tempura with was battered perfectly !<br/>The ambience was beautiful and as you leave you don't feel too light on your pocket :D

I will be completely honest, i'm not a connoisseur when it comes to Japanese food, mainly because of my general aversion to seafood, but i heard about this place from a good friend, and accompanied some friends to it. The ambience is good, it doesn't have the sushi belt you might expect but you have a live view of what the cooks are doing and the seating though a bit cramped, is good. The food itself was incredible, even the seafood was prepared in such a way that I was able to enjoy it (i stayed away from the raw items though) as my main issue with seafood is the smell and texture. Also, the fact that its completely authentic Japanese food was definitely a great bonus

This is the first time that I've eaten authentic Japanese food cooked by a Japanese chef in India and I must say, I was impressed.<br/><br/>What we ordered: chashu - stewed pork belly, momos, karaage - deep fried chicken, nigiri sushi - raw fish sushi, california roll & miso kushikatsu.<br/><br/>My favourite was chashu - the stewed pork belly served on a bed of lettuce. It was tender, juicy and had a slightly smoky flavour to it. I wish I could have this for dinner everyday! The california rolls (sushi) were also a delight and a must-try if you're not into raw fish.<br/><br/>All in all, it was a scrumptious meal & I will definitely come here again.

Good menu . Balance of flavours weren't great . Most of the food was salty . Ambience was average . Service had a lot of scope for improvement .

Sora Jima restaurant has Japanese chef, they use ingredients imported from Japan and cook authentic Japanese dishes. I could see lot of Japanese personals dining there and I was the only Indian in that place! This restaurant of two portions including a live counter. Interiors look amazing and I could see those foreigners delighted to dine here.<br/><br/>Tried Japanese food for the first time and I regret it much. Accord is a great place to dine and they have variety of good restaurants, no doubt in it. I am not blaming the food they serve, they might have prepared authentic Japanese food but I am not used to this taste and it was horrible to me. I couldn't even drink the soup for more than two sips (not exaggerating, I kept it aside) <br/><br/>I was told that Japanese 'wasabi' is special spicy paste which has to be consumed along with soy sauce to eat Sushi. I don't like wasabi either, its a total spoiler so I just ate sushi Spicy Salad Makhi without wasabi. Thank god they kept processed ginger and lemon so I was able to stuff in my mouth. Uff! I am not blaming their food, probably I don't even know how Japanese food tastes, but after eating these, I dont like em at all 😭😭<br/><br/>Surprised to see a staff entering there with a guitar and was requesting the Japanese to order him to perform a Japanese song.<br/><br/>They are not serving regular water here, we are forced to consume bottled water and they charge ₹100 per bottle excluding tax which is totally unacceptable. I have been to their Royal Indiana restaurant in the 1st floor and they served RO water as regular water, dont know why they do like this here despite both restaurants are under one roof.

During my first visit, I was rather disappointed that some items on the menu were not available. Well, maybe that's just me, I always feel that "if something is not available, please remove it, or don't even put it up in the first place". The food is average, I'm not too impressed by it.<br/><br/>My second visit was a much improved experience! The sashimi, tempura and katsu-don were pretty good! Both the taste and texture were worth complimenting on. Hence, I revised my rating upwards from 3.5 to 4.0!