I certainly did!
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Great report. I had both the Alt 3 and Kuzuryu (I think) too at some recent sushi dinners. I recollect Alt 3 stood out as an unusual and pleasant surprise. Can’t wait til I can travel or even dine out again 
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Hyakumoku is the higher end lineup offering of Kikumasamune (a mass producer like Hakutsuru, Yaeki/Yaegi etc) designed for the modern market. I recently tasted all three offerings from sample bottles dated 2/2019 and would have to say the Alt 3 is definitely the most remarkable, whereas the other two (Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo) were easy to drink but overall they are all not my style.
Alt 3 is actually a blend of new batch sake and aged batches, which explains the bitterness/some astringency mid palate with a trailing spicy finish in the end. I believe they are trying to make this more of a wine drinking experience, perhaps mimicking oak barrel flavors in wine… which is not a surprise when the distributor actually recommends pairing Alt 3 with fish with butter meuniere…which is more of a White Burgundy e.g. Mersault food companion.
Kokuryu Kuzuryu Daiginjo is a very solid sake, but it is designed to be consumed warmed (which is very very rare for a Daiginjo). Kuzuryu (Nine Headed Dragon) is the lower affordable level label of Kokuryu, and is more full bodied and structure, aged/matured, and gets even better heated up to about 40 to 50 degrees C. I would rather have this with kaiseki fare or tempura, or Japanese hotpot.
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Uhhh… Yumm! The label actually reminds me of a wine bottle label.
It’s a notable effort to do this, but now we’re talking if it’s done to create something new vs making and forcing it to be more of a wine drinking experience solely to capture the wine market share. That is a total shift in attitude, mindset, brewing, and forgoing tradition (vs letting tradition facilitate the pairing which is not easy in itself already) from a producer’s and seller’s standpoint.
For example of the latter, 3 Michelin star Noma, they found an old school artisanal organic sake producer (Terada Honke in Chiba prefecture, been around several hundred years, handed down the family through many generations) to use some of their offerings for their beverage pairing program in Copenhagen to their worldwide popups (e.g. Mandarin hotel Hong Kong) 5 years ago, maybe they changed their recipes through time but I don’t think they purposely did biodynamic for the sake of catching up with the wine world or to compete. Prior to that Terada Honke was known to sake people but not outside, and I suppose Noma really helped with this. A few other restaurants nowadays are catching up and discovering them to use in their beverage pairing programs, but they end up selecting the same one(s) that Noma uses…
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I’ve seen posts about this trend. Interesting question. 
Hi @JeetKuneBao,
Thanks. Take-san is definitely a treasure. 
Bang x bang? No way. We were so stuffed. 
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Hi @TheCookie,
Thank you. 
Yeah the Menegi was delicious. I hope you get to try it when things clear up.
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Hi @beefnoguy,
Thanks for the great info on Alt 3. Very interesting about the blending with aged Sake.
We ended up going with Kuzuryu for the 2nd bottle since Take-san strongly recommended it, and I didn’t get your recommendations in time. It was still quite enjoyable chilled.
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This looks so good. I wasn’t hungry when I started reading your post, but I most certainly am now. Am I willing to make a drive longer than my traditional commute to the office…this surely tempts me to do so. Is Chef Azumi offering full menu or a smaller set menu…never mind. I caught the FB post. Chirashi only…how did you score a nigiri set, @Chowseeker1999?
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Hi @attran99,
Yah it was very good! 
Take-san is only doing 2 Chirashi Bento Boxes / Sets right now (a Regular and Deluxe). If you want Nigiri, call and ask if he can accommodate (depends on how busy it gets).
Enjoy!
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Was Take san selling sake, beer etc to go? The kohada looks really good!
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Hi @beefnoguy,
Yes the Kohada was amazing!
He was only selling 2 Sake (I’m guessing he managed to finish selling the rest of his stock of other Sake?)
- Nanbu Bijin Junmai Ginjo Sake - $48
- Hyaku Moku Junmai Daiginjo Sake - $80
How are those prices? We enjoyed both of them on previous visits with Take-san’s Sushi.
Hi @beefnoguy,
Sorry I think he was also offering Echigo. I’ll ask if there are any other options on our next visit.
Can’t comment on those prices as I don’t have insider knowledge of their retail/wholesale and what the going rate might be for SoCal. However I would say that if some izakaya or higher end restaurants up here were to carry them, the pricing would be easily higher for sure and even higher in NY.
If you (or anyone) would like to show further support, disregard the pricing and just buy a bottle that you like to take home along with takeout. If sake fails, so does the supply chain and its connected ecosystem.
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How much was that nigiri set? I’m craving kohada
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Great looking chirashi! I be in heaven if he offers a kohada don!!
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Thanks for the info @beefnoguy. I remember Nanbu Bijin Junmai Ginjo going for a bit more at a few restaurants in SF and LA but I didn’t remember if I was misremembering.
I definitely want to try and support the Sake industry and supply chain for it here as well, thanks for the reminder. Some friends of ours had told us about a couple places they saw marking down their Sake for 40% off the regular menu price (at a few local eateries).
Hi @skramzlife,
It was $30, and definitely worth it. Especially Take-san’s Kohada. After eating it in the car, we wanted to turn around and drive back to order another few pieces. 
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Hi @attran99,
Just saw your edit, sorry I missed your additional question! We asked how else we could support the restaurant, and we started talking about how much we loved our most recent Omakase meal. Then Take-san mentioned if he’s not too busy, he can try making some Nigiri Sushi, and we immediately said, “Yes please.” 
That and we wanted to order more things to support Take-san and his family.
Hope you get to catch him when he’s less busy but the Bara Chirashi alone is worth the drive.
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