Peter T. invited me to lunch. I gave a bunch of recommendations and he picked Akikos, which is great by me! This was my 4th time dining here with the most recent being dinner earlier this month with Andrea. Every meal here as been great and I expected much the same this time as well. Peter hadn’t been here and I know he likes sushi as well so I was hoping he would enjoy it too. The restaurant was packed which surprised me, although it is a Friday.
The lunch omakase is just a scaled down version of the full dinner omakase. The menu is separated into the two sections, 5 dishes in the Otsumami section followed 7 pieces of nigiri and dessert (compare this to 7 Otsumami and 10 nigiri in the dinner omakase).
First dish was the Sake Tataki, the salmon with a bit of maitake(?) mushrooms. There was a bit of smoke which was dramatically released once the crystal dish cover was lifted and just a bit of smoke flavor to the fish. I generally like having something earthy like the mushrooms with the seafood (a sort of surf and turf combo) and this worked well. Good start to our meal.
The next 3 dishes were largely the same as last time. The Shirako (cod milt) and the Chawanmushi both came out together. The shirako was fried with a light tempura-type batter was delicious. The chawanmushi with little shrimps was topped with some winter truffle. The truffle was fragrant and was a good match with the egg custard in the chawanmushi.
Then came the signature dish, Shokupan. The milk bread was buttered which paired incredibly well with the kaluga caviar (my favorite).
I was expecting a sunomono dish like the one I had at dinner (which was a very different and not entirely successful), but this dish was better. The bits of scallop and octopus and vegetables in the rice wine was much more what I expected (and enjoyed) for sunomono and still more interesting the standard uncreative sunomono (and I like sunomono) at typical sushi restaurant.
Then we started into the nigiri portion of the meal. These were all mostly the same as what I had for dinner, the main differences being the Hirame (halibut) and the Unimasu (ocean trout). The Hirame was first. This was also topped with a bit of halibut skin which gave an additional richness to it. Next was the Buri (mature yellowtail) which was tasty.
The third nigiri was the Unimasu (ocean trout). Normally, I prefer salmon to ocean trout, but I have to say this preparation was fantastic. I think I’ve now become a fan of ocean trout if it tastes like this.
Then came the Zuke (soy cured bluefin tuna) which is aged for 3 weeks. The aging helps concentrate the flavor and certainly had no complaints about this piece of tuna.
I did mention though to our sushi chef that we had skipped the uni. He was serving up the nigiri at a brisk pace (just a touch too quickly for my preference, but I can understand too that many dining for lunch would want to be in and out more quickly) and I suspect he just blew through it.
He did then rectify that in short order and we were served the uni. Interestingly, the sushi chef said this uni was from Russia or at least from Russian waters and the sea of Japan extends up along the coast of Russia. It as good, but the portions seemed a bit small compared to what I usually see so the flavor is not as full, but still had a nice ocean creaminess to it.
The Sawara had a little holiday twist…they added just a touch of cinnamon with sugar. there was still the 151 rum which instead of him lighting it and letting it burn as a bit of a show, he just used the kitchen torch.
The seventh and last piece of nigiri was the Toro, which was of course fantastic (hey, fat is flavor!) and this might have been Peter’s favorite since he ordered another!
For dessert, we were served matcha ice cream on a small bed of red bean crumble and just a bit of gold leaf topping for show. I think the crunch from the red bean crumble added a perfect textural component to the ice cream.
All in all, a fantastic lunch, albeit slightly rushed. Thanks Peter!
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