Tonight’s dinner was at Sushi by Scratch at the Montecito Inn in Montecito. This is the other Michelin-starred restaurant in the SB area (both being in Montecito, just a few block apart). The entire restaurant is the sushi bar which has only has 10 seats. It sounds like Scratch has a chain of sushi restaurants where they require certain dishes to be standard, but the rest are left up to the local chef. The main menu consists of 16 pieces of sushi and dessert.

This is not your traditional sushi restaurant and there wasn’t an Asian in sight unless I had a glance of my reflection on my phone screen. Most of the staff including our chef were hispanic which made for very interesting nigiri with many bites with great seasoning and often various peppers giving a great kick to the flavor. Beverage options were either sake pairing, wine pairing, or house pairing (a mix of sake, wine, beer, cocktails). Andrea opted for the sake pairing and I went with the house pairing. This was an interesting and enjoyable meal thanks to the unique flavors. Aside from the peppers, some of the dishes included unique components such as bread crumbs to provide some texture, the peppers, bone marrow, and other tasty ingredients.