Andrea was out for her annual work dinner with her coworkers so instead of just staying home myself, I decided to go out for dinner. I decided on sushi and there were a couple restaurants I had been wanting to revisit, but I checked with Andrea which one she wanted to go to more between Friends Only and Omakase and she emphatically said Friends only, so I booked Omakase for my solo dinner. We had eaten here previously pre-pandemic. I mostly remembered that we had the newbie sushi chef and that there was a very drunk couple seated beside us.
This time around it was the first seating at 5pm (second was at 7:45pm, definitely too late for this old man) on a Thursday. I was first to arrive and had to wait for them to open up the door. There would only end up being 5 us dining in total for this seating and I was fortunately seated centrally with a Japanese couple to my left and a couple of women to my right. I had also ordered the beverage (primarily sake, but a little bit of wine) pairing and as it turned out the only one drinking (according to the chef, most of the big drinkers come in for the second seating).
Overall, the meal tended towards more traditional with a few flourishes such as the caviar and gold leaf. The meal started with a couple appetizers. The first was made with firefly squid, negi (Japanese green onion), sumiso, sweet corn tofu, and edamame sauce…quite good. The second appetizer was the Tosaki Handroll, but I can’t remember what kind of fish was in it. This was followed by the Owan which was a soupe made of tai (Japanese sea bream), daikon, and carrot. It was a subtle flavor and a segue to the rest of the meal.
Next came the Otsukuri which was a couple pieces of ishidai and a lemon slice curled into a rose shape and a piece of kanpachi. These were served with shiso flowers and the more common shiso leaf and daikon. We also had a side of fresh Japanese wasabi (chef said local wasabi from Monterey was too inconsistent). I liked the more mild flavor of the shiso flowers compared to the leaf. Overall the dish was fine although not particularly special.
One of the nigiri was kinki, which I’ve never had but did very much enjoy. the kuruma ebi was beautiful. The hotate was made into a little sandwich with rice and topped with caviar (Tsar Nicolai). I wasn’t that impressed by the ankimo handroll (I am spoiled for ankimo after having the one at Sushi Yoshizumi). The akami zuke was such a beautiful color and the striping on the otoro (topped with more caviar) was beautiful as well and unctuous with bellyfat.
The Hokkaido uni and ikura dish was served with rice on the side. I had some question because I remembered the presentation being different and so the chef said that he didn’t have enough of the little edible rice “cups”, but he did go ahead and re-arrange mine. It was a bit awkward since he only did that for me. It certainly presented beautifully, but it I would much preferred just having rice rather than the little rice cups that had more a consistently like styrofoam.
The wagyu was seared and topped with caviar and gold leaf. I liked the tamago, but it had a bit of bruléed sugar on top…not sure how I feel about that. I think I’m more interested to try their casual spot, Okane, next door which I’ve never been to.
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