I was [this] close to cancelling.
Here’s my itemized list. I bolded my particularly notable bites.
Additional notes: I had no idea the japanese could make a hefeweizen so good. Wife had a glass of sparking rieseling, and they had another beer with notes of yuzu but the yuzu was pretty subtle. The hef was so good I got another. A la carte is about $7-$9/piece, with some of the more luxury pieces (ie wagyu) coming in @ $20.
I had the first seating at 5p; they seat people in the other they arrived. The person who came first got the seats in front of Nakazawa, I got the seats to the left. Since we were at the earliest seating, we saw A LOT of prep work being done for the 7/9 seatings - I definitely saw what appeared to be the 7p fish pre-cut already. Nakazawa handles all the final prep for the bar patrons - his left/right guys handle all the prep for the dinner tables. Also interestingly, at the end of the omakase Nakazawa’s old rice went into the steamers that the left/right guys were using. It APPEARS the extra $30 to sit at the bar buys you all the little details.
All in, I left $250pp poorer, which was actually less than I expected. The meal feels almost perfectly timed for 2 hours.
Cherry salmon
Coho salmon (smoked)
King salmon (soy marinated, lightly torched)
Live scallop (still moving, hints of yuzu)
Squid (shiso leaf, ume plum)
Fluke (cherry blossom)
Golden eye snapper (lightly torched, sea salt, lemon)
Horse mackerel
Spanish mackerel (yuzu)
Amaebi (topped w/ caviar)
- Note, he put all the heads in a container and took them to the back. We did not get anything w/ the heads.
Dungeness crab (dungeness crab miso)
Yellowtail
Skipjack (lightly torched)
Lean tuna, medium tuna, fatty tuna (flight, Boston)
Hokkaido vs SB uni
Tuna hand roll
Anago / Tamago
Bonus rounds:
Sayori (soy marinated kelp, Yuzu powder)
Engawa (lightly torched)
Yuzu Sorbet
Anyone in LA got a source for this?
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So how was it?
The meal was excellent and the experience was exactly what I was looking for.
Is it worth $250pp? Well, for someone traveling across the country to visit a sushi chef with an interesting history, I felt having a meal here would be a better allocation of funds vs going to a broadway show. Others may not feel the same.
Summary: glad I went, would happily recommend.
I’ve see the Ginga Kogen a lot recently.
I just can’t remember where.
Sorry. Not much help but it is good stuff!
so did he use pre-cut slices of fish? or did his assistance cut a la minute and hand it to him?
I feel like he basically took the Jiro model - 85% of the work is done before he touches it. Most neta definitely not cut a la minute (even the scallop) - how far in advance its cut probably depends on what seating you have
