Feast Blog

It has taken living in the city for three years to beat it into me that I have to get out of my comfortable neighborhoods. I had yet to eat at ANY restaurants in Inner Sunset and I have my eating buddy, Lisa, to thank for bringing me here. Apparently it helps to know the chef or at least insist at sitting at the bar to ask what is special and fresh. And apologies that the pictures didn’t happen – we were too caught up in the moment…

We started with the ubiquitous “Spoonfuls of Happiness” – two soup spoons, one filled with a tai-wrapped smoked ankimo dressed with a bit of truffle oil and tobiko, the other a preparation of uni with quail egg and house-made ponzu sauce. The spoonfuls are served with a specialty sake and being an ankimo fan, I thought I would prefer that bite, but the freshness of the uni and the subtlety of the ponzu made the uni the preferred bite.

Not wanting to get full on rice, we specifically requested sashimi — with two slices each of maguro, tai aka, sake, hamachi, and and kanpachi. Note that the fresh, real wasabi is certainly a treat.

Indicating we were definitely interested in “unusual” offerings, the chef made us a salad of light mizuna greens, thinly sliced cucumber, and baby raw whole shrimp and squid. I don’t recall ever having been served whole squid the size of my thumb. Incredibly tender and lightly dressed, this was an amazing offering.

As my client requested salmon, a special offering of crudo was presented — thinly sliced white salmon, so tender and bright.

There was also an unagi course, but I’m not remembering exactly how it was offered.

We finished up with my one request of the evening; ama-ebi, as my good friend, Lance (visiting from London), had never had a fried shrimp head before. Perfectly fresh sweet shrimp and the fried heads were light and crunchy. Just perfect.

I brought a potential client and I’m sure we must have been given some deals as we drank a lot of sake, ate a lot of sushi, and the tab was only $300 for four.

Just came from the soft opening of Nombe…

I started with a pretty amazing offering of Brussels Sprouts served with mint and yuzu. I don’t miss the fact that SPQR isn’t serving Brussels Sprouts any more. These were incredibly fresh and the combination of mint and citrus awakens the palate and is comforting at the same time. I also ordered the sashimi sampler and couldn’t be happier; toro, sake, hamachi, and another.

Being adventurous, I of course ordered the “challenging” dishes; chicken hearts yakitori, beef heart served with onion and bonito flakes. The chicken hearts were perfectly grilled and so tender — which can frequently be ruined with over-grilling. The beef heart was served in chunks; rare and rich.

As I was finishing, because this was the soft opening, the kitchen sent out a few tastes for those of us sitting at the counter to taste; grilled black cod and the pork belly. The grilled black cod was intensely rich and complex with the pork belly providing that unctuous, fatty decadence.

Yes, it was a soft opening. The opening night is not for a few evenings but based on an early test, this will be a consistent favorite for me. Sozai was hard for me to get to and I will desperately miss Chef Nick at O Izakaya, but getting the best of both worlds is a stroke of brilliance. Bravo!