Andrea had her hair appointment in Corte Madera so it was a good opportunity to run in Marin. I’m not really much in shape these days (took a nearly 4-month hiatus from running due to various illness with associated lung congestion), but getting back into it. It was a beautiful day to run and thanks to the nice flat stretch in Mill Valley, I was able to do a bit over 6.5 miles and then met Andrea at the restaurant. We took a table outside out front. There was also seating inside as well as an interior covered courtyard.
I wanted to try this place because in the frequent threads on Reddit about places to eat in the bay area, I remember one thread about sushi and someone proclaiming this place to be the best in the bay area and some others supporting how great it was. I was quite skeptical about being the best, but had to give it a try. Plus, it is listed in the Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand rating, so I figured it would be at least worth trying and would be a great post-run meal. I guess you could call this a post-Sushi-Ran, haha (yes, lame I know…so what do you call someone who tells dad jokes, but doesn’t have any kids…a faux pas).
For starters, we I went with a chawanmushi and for Andrea, a mixed green salad. Our waitperson suggested the shrimp & basil dumplings which they make fresh every morning so we added that as well. We both went with Premium Sushi for our mains which featured fish all from Japan. They said they fish was flown in twice a week, Fridays and Tuesdays.
A seaweed, cucumber, sprouts salad came out first which was great by me since I wanted a sunomono salad anyway and this was even better. We weren’t sure if this was included with the sushi or not. We were almost done with it when they told us they gave us the wrong salad. So we received the correct salad – mixed greens with yuzu and miso and candied pecans. This salad was good also.
The chawanmushi also came out. it was a nice small starter sized with snow crab, maitake mushroom topped with salmon roe. Not the best chawanmushi I’ve had, but this was more than adequate. The restaurant continued to fill up.
Our sushi arrived. It included 6 nigiri and a tuna roll. We ordered fresh (real) wasabi and ginger. Sushi included toro, kamasu, buri toro, aji, zuke sake, chu toro. Our server recommended eating them left to right since the last bite was marinated and might overpower the rest of the fish. So we started with toro which we’ve normally consumed last due to it’s fattiness and it was delicious. To be honest, all the other nigiri seemed relatively bland…not bad or fishy, but not particularly flavorful at all. The roll was similar, although I did like the extra crunch and the flavor of the shiso (Andrea hates shisho though).
Andrea wanted something sweet (in addition to me of course) for dessert so we went with the warm toffee cafe with ginger gelato. Service was in full swing now and service came to a lull. So we waited and eventually had to ask where our dessert was which then did appear shortly afterward. Toffee cake was decent…very moist, not overly sweet sauce and the ginger gelato had a decent kick to it.
Overall, it was more than acceptable for a post-run lunch, but I would hardly call this best sushi in the bay (and fortunately we have so much great sushi here). It’s hard to really judge it since I would guess dinner was a bit better, but who knows. In the end, it primarily comes down to the sushi. Quality of fish seemed good, but preparation was very plain an unimaginative. Andrea also later brought up the point that this restaurant is quite large for a sushi place having not only the main restaurant space, but a building next door as well as the interior courtyard. That is a large space and a far cry from places with seating for only 10 or so for an omakase.
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