This week’s dinner was at Kusakabe. This place was recommended by the woman we were seated next to at the last Ritual dinner so we decided to give it a try. It’s right across the street from the Transamerica building. It’s a Japanese kaiseki style restaurant so we were very interested to see how they would present the different cooking styles, tastes, and colors.

The restaurant primarily an omakase menu with the option of wine or sake pairing. Since we wanted to try both Andrea had the sake pairing and I had the wine. First course was chawanmushi…I really enjoyed this since I’m sucker for most things egg. The second course was 9 different bites…this was a very nice presentation and many different tastes, styles, etc. The blue fin tuna bite in the middle was the favorite for both of us.

Next course was eight pieces of nigiri. There was an interesting variety here…several items from Hokkaido (the uni/hotate were both from Hokkaido…there was also a herring from hokkaido, which isn’t something we’ve ever had with all of the omakases we’ve consumed). It was also very interesting to see the different styles of preparation including the one that was squeezed into a ball (kyoto style…presumably so that geishas would not mess up their lipstick according to our sushi chef…who by the was was young but very enthusiastic and engaging and love to ham it up for photos) and another that was a sort of handroll.

Next course was a piece of grilled yellowtail in broth, followed by a seared toro dish. Then came 4 more pieces of nigir…at this point, we were getting full and Andrea asked for smaller portions of rice for her nigiri. First was the seared A5 wagyu from the Miyazaki prefecture. Then came uni topped with a different uni, both from hokkaido of course.

To finish off, there was miso and then a choice of dessert. Since there were two choices, we each picked one so we could of course try them both.

Wines and sake were quite small pours, esp. for the money (although they would top you off if you had finished it before the course was finished). Strange to have the same size pour for a one dish course vs. an 8 piece nigiri. Quality for both wine and sake was decent, but nothing outstanding. Not sure if ultimately a pairing was really worth it. Service was attentive and we were in and out in just over 2 hours. The experience overall was quite enjoyable primarily due to the interesting variety of styles, techniques, and flavors. This is what you would expect from a kaiseki style meal of course, but not having been to very many of them, it was enjoyable. Quality of the food, flavors, preparation were all very good and reasonable for the money IMO, but not quite top most tier, but again all in all, an enjoyable dining experience for this week.