A NEW California-based Asian restaurant has opened its doors near Nadi’s Wailoaloa Beach offering a new culinary experience for locals and tourists.
Mamasake Restaurant opened at the new Oasis Palms Hotel, which welcomed its first round of guests this week.
Restaurant owner Elsa Corrigan said the restaurant offered non-traditional Asian dishes with a particular emphasis on sushi and sashimi.
“Japanese dishes have very specific rules for their sushi rolls but I like to play around with it and come up with my own versions of the dish,” she said.
She said locals would also find some familiar ingredients in some of the dishes.
“What we are trying to do at this Mamasake is take the original concept that we had in Lake Tahoe and adjust it to this environment.
“We use mostly local fish but we do use salmon from New Zealand and we are substituting potatoes with cassava in our fries.
“We basically have root crops for or fries and those are cassava and taro from the local markets.”
Meanwhile, the 29-room Oasis Palms Hotel is a sister resort to Yasawa-based Octopus Resort, Blue Lagoon Beach Resort and Paradise Cove Resort.
Paradise Cove Resort managing director Nicholas Wood said the restaurant was different from other Asian eateries in the tourist town.
“There are a couple of different choices for Asian style dishes here in Nadi but there isn’t really an American twist to the dishes which is what Mamasake offers,” he said.
“We are going to do a smaller one at Paradise Cove, which is more in the five-star area and if this works here then we might do one in Suva because these dishes are very popular and they provide a different style of food.”
