Beautiful pics and nice report @PorkyBelly. Thanks for the thoughts. Everything looks so wonderful and enjoyable, and the sourcing sounds great.
That Aji looks amazing (as does the Kamameshi and pretty much every dish). Canāt wait to go.
Beautiful pics and nice report @PorkyBelly. Thanks for the thoughts. Everything looks so wonderful and enjoyable, and the sourcing sounds great.
That Aji looks amazing (as does the Kamameshi and pretty much every dish). Canāt wait to go.
thanks, i hope you enjoy it. right now theyāre only doing one seating a night at 7pm.
pro tip: rappahannock has $1.50 happy hour oysters everyday from 4-6.
forgot to mention if you do the hh at rappahannock they validate for 2 hours of free parking. after my 2 hours was up i exited the parking garage and reentered to get a new ticket for dinner at hayato. or you can try parking on alameda for free, dinner will be much longer than 2 hours. i paid $14 for 5 hours even with 2 hours free.
From the website:
That was some smart planning and execution, @PorkyBelly! Weāre planning on arriving at 6:30PM to make sure weāre there on time for Chef Go.
Enjoy your dinner, looking forward to your thoughts.
Iām not well-versed in kaiseki mealsā¦thatās more of my friendās game after spending over 4 years working in Japan. She is most excited to go tonight. The photos and write ups you guys provided were so fantastic.
No worries! Hereās a quick primer on kaiseki from Wikipedia, in case youād like some backgroundā¦
As Iāve mentioned in my review, Chef Go is a veritable cornucopia of information about Japanese cuisine, and is eager to share his knowledge with his customers.
Feel free to ask Chef Go any questions you may have, heās very gracious.
There is a lot of beauty in restraint. It is also delicious!
Thanks to all for their notes and helpful tips! We had a fantastic time last night.
The menu exactly mirrored the experience that @J_L, @PorkyBelly, and @Hungrydrunk recently enjoyed, so I wonāt go into photos and descriptions since theyāve done such a great job already. I will say that it was a pleasure to see craftsmanship in motion and to be able to chat with Chef Go during our meal. He answered every question we asked and was happy to share his experiences in Japan and at home.
There was so much precision and simplicity in the kaiseki meal experience. I came away with learning a whole lot. My friend and I really appreciated our mealā¦and the bottle of Dassai 23 we selected to pair with it. I donāt know a whole lot about sake, but I can say that the Dassai 23 is probably one of the best Iāve ever had. Our neighbors were nice enough to share a bit of their sake selection with usā¦Wing of Japanā¦that was pretty amazing, too!
We are so excited to come back and see how Chef Go will evolve over time.
P.S. We didnāt feel like driving, so we Lyfted over. FYI, Lyft drivers not familiar with the complex may get lost dropping you off or picking you up. Iām sure this applies to any rideshare app. Thankfully, we planned ahead to make sure we had a window of time for such emergencies.
We did have time to hop over to Rappahannock where we had one drink and I tried one Rappahannock and one Rochambeau (they mistakenly gave me the Kumiai instead of the Olde Salts). I wanted to try new oysters that Iād never had before. I was really impressed with the Rappahannock and the Rochambeauā¦they were meaty and brine-y. Really enjoyed the flavor. Iād want to come back to try their menuā¦and the Olde Salts, too.
Great report! And nice bangbang with those oysters!
Quite honestlyā¦all inspired by those more experienced than I.
Thanks for the report, glad you enjoyed it. how long was your meal? mine was close to four hours, iām wondering if Chef Go will try to shorten service to fit in two seatings a night or stick with one.
About 3.5 hours. We arrived promptly at 7PM and had signed the check around 10:30PM. We stayed a bit longer to chat with Chef Go about an assortment of random things.
Got your thread too.
As mentioned in the other Hayato thread, reservations are now open on Resy with some initial problems fixed.
link
Dassai 23 and Born Wings of Japan are good sake to enjoy and excellent for sipping while you enjoy the meal. The 23 is a nice high end for casual drinkers as well, and fantastic with cleaner flavor sashimi, particularly pristine sweet uni for me. The variant Dassai 23 centrifuge is more velvety smooth and is superb with raw oysters (took a bottle to Connie & Tedās 2+ years ago). The Wing of Japan is aged 2 years before release so it has a bit more mouthfeel and texture.
Though Dassai and Born are a bit too easy as they are established brand names. I look forward to seeing something interesting on his list!
Hi, @beefnoguy. In talking to Chef Go and seeing his menu, I think he is inspired a bit by the sake menu at his familyās restaurant in Seal Beach. He has the higher end offerings from some of the breweries his family supports and some labels Iāve never heard of. Iām new to sake, so admittedly, I just go along with whatever my friend wants to drink.
The Eater article boosted the two Hayato reviews to over 1k views!