We went to the art show at Hunters Point shipyard and were looking for something for dinner. We picked this place because it was pretty close to where we were and a place I had been curious about for awhile esp. after having eaten at Omakase, the sister restaurant, a couple weeks ago. This is the more casual concept which was perfect for a last minute reservation.
I booked a reservation at the sushi counter so we could order the omakase. As it would turn out, we would be the only ones who did this while we were there as everyone else just booked a table and ordered a la carte. We did also add the upgrade of the chu toro to otoro with Hokkaido uni and Tsar Nicolau caviar.
Vibe is definitely more casual. The prep area for the sushi chefs was quite small with the our sushi chef for the omakase and a newer caucasian guy who seemed to be more of a junior chef, although he seemed to be doing a very good job with everything he had prepared (wish I had his prep skills!). Since we were doing the Chef’s Counter Omakase, we of course had the bulk of the attention from the main sushi chef, which given that there were only two of them, this would seem to cause some delay for most of the other diners (and I can’t imaging what it would be like if there were more customers doing omakase. Technically, there appeared to be seating for up to 8).
First bite, the appetizer, was the Fresh Toro Handroll. Always a decent way to start.
Second course was the sashimi course leaning up against a bed of daikon and a shisho leaf with some shiso flowers (this was all like at Omakase).
Third course was chawanmushi made with snow crab, ikura, and some gingko nut. The egg custard was a bit one dimensional in flaor compared to other chawanmushis we’ve had recently. The gingko nut gives a bit of bitter component to it, but since they were whole nuts, wasn’t well integrated in to the dish.
After that came the series of nigiri – hotate (topped with a bit of caviar), kinmedai, kuromatsu (aka gnomefish. with a bit of sear), akami zuke (always enjoy this), the otoro with the uni and caviar, unimasu (with a slight sear. been having a lot of this lately at restaurants and enjoying it so that I don’t miss salmon much), and shima aji. In general, quality of fish and taste was decent, but a bit hastily prepared. Cuts on the fish were uneven. I also didn’t like the molding of the rice much since I always felt like it was going to fall apart.
Then came the Jisaku course, the uni and ikura rice cup. Always enjoyable combination of ingredients. I did like having a bit of nori (that’s why they call this a DIY cup) to literally “roll your own.” Rice was plain. Decent, but of course pales in comparison to say Friends Only).
Next came the Warm Dish which was a miso marinated black code which is one of my favorites so I enjoyed this.
To round out the savory dishes, came the Soup which was a pretty basic miso tofu soup with a bit of mushroom.
Then there was a very long wait (20-30 minutes) before dessert came. I’m guessing this was because they were slammed with all the non-dessert dishes. They did apologize for the delay. When it finally did come, it was a bit more intricate than I expected (I was actually expecting something that was entirely pre-made). The parfait was 3 layers, ice cream on the bottom, ube ice cream in the middle, and matcha ice cream for the top layer adorned with some toppings. Given the consistency of the ice cream, I think they prepared this rather than having it already frozen that way which may have explained some of the delay. There was also a mini mochi bowl holding a strawberry on the side. So actually a more involved and tasty dessert than I was expecting.
Overall, a decent random low-ish key drop-in meal for us on a random Sunday evening, but it did feel a bit more rushed and bit more basic rather than bespoke (not surprisingly and wasn’t our expectation).
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