I swear I don’t know anyone else besides LA FTC that likes saba bouzushi, and saba battera. None of my real life friends who eat sushi knows or cares. Other interwebz sites and reviews barely mentions. I don’t even know if I can get this in NYC/Philly. You guys are truly food geeks lol
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Like most of Osaka Japan knows lol…
Pretty safe bet that he won’t 
.
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that’s a pretty big miss, subbing out the main ingredient in a dish?
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Really enjoyed the meal here. Hilights:
- Great fish, a notch up from Hamasaku
- Tsukune patty w/egg yolk topper
- Non-Gem Gem Caesar w/Katsuobushi, bit of a salt bomb though
- Salmon Ochazuke - super austere but comforting in its simplicity
- Braised Chicken thigh - Buta no kakuni style w/an egg that probably should have been runnier
- Skipped the dessert and grabbed a double-8 soft serve from Yangbang next door. (Yangbang bang bang?)
I’ll be in the minority but I prefer the funkier, vinegarier pressed mackerel sushi at Hachi.
A little pricey - Arts district premium. Will repeat if in the area.
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No mention of the gem/not gem question.
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This is how I felt about the meal as a whole. Got the sushi omakase with a couple other dishes. Fish was mostly of average quality; the nigiri was poorly formed–a few fell apart while being picked up, without even a touch of shoyu. The saba bozushi was fantastic, as noted by everyone–although… I might still give Yoshi-san slight advantage, @PorkyBelly.
Happy to report the little gem caesar did, in fact, have little gems on my visit. I found the katsuobushi, in place of anchovy, to be fantastic. It’s odd for me to say this, but I think the salad was my favorite dish. (On a related note, the menu was, at times, otherwise inaccurate. The uni, for example, was from Santa Barbara–which I had to ask about, because it didn’t taste like Hokkaido uni. I think they just don’t reprint menus when they have to sub inventory.)
Final course of the omakase was something not on the menu–cold somen with a sesame (and maybe white miso?) sauce. Similar to Taiwanese liang mian, but much… soupier. The amount of liquid was off-putting on sight, but it kind of worked. Second favorite dish and a refreshing way to finish, although I might have preferred the hot somen.
The service issues, noted by other posters, during their opening do not seem to have improved. Pacing is off and they seemed overwhelmed even at about 60% total capacity.
My partner and I both agreed that it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. We were glad we went, but probably won’t revisit. It was her birthday, so I’m taking her to Melisse on Wednesday to make up for this, ha.
Final thoughts:
Reasonable selection of sake.
The space is extremely well designed–love the marriage of the existing space with some Japanese sensibility. Whole thing feels industrial with a touch of softness.
The omakase is an okay value at $120pp.
I have had objectively bad sushi/izakaya/robataya, and this isn’t bad at all.
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