Quick Dinner at Kinjiro: A Pictorial Essay

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Thanks for the pics!

I spy in the 2nd pic, Kubota, Hakkaisan (not to be confused with Hakkasan haha) Junmai Ginjo (brown bottle), Kikusui (top shelf on the right). Above the Hakkaisan Junmai Ginjo, not sure, but similar font to the likes of Ichiro or Dewazakura. What’s amazing to me are the three+ bottles on the left…Dassai Beyond. SF NorCal retail is $750 (though one place charges $1500 for it dine in).

What is the item in the bowl with the nori shreds on top? Yamakake?

The next trio…the left looks like hotaru ika okizuke, the one in the middle… looks like a wriggly ika shiokara, but what is the item that is quite brie cheese looking? The black stuff in the bowl, squid ink sumi ika? Good sake food!

Also curious, what is that last pic? I’m not going to guess, lol.

(I admit - I’m getting a bit lazy with this format - I’ll try putting some text/explanation with my pics in my future posts. So much for “one picture is worth a thousand words” - yeesh…)

The Dassai ‘Beyond’ is a dream (come true?) at $950 a bottle. Funny (but true) trivia from boss Jun: Kinjiro sells more Dassai ‘Beyond’ than any other restaurant in the greater L.A. area… (And rumor has it that it’s all pretty much one guy drinking it night after night! I’m looking at you, Porthos.)

The bowl with nori shreds is their chilled housemade tofu with chilled dashi.

The trio is Kinjiro’s near-famous Sake Accompaniment Trio: Soy sauce-marinated firefly squid, fermented bonito guts with cream cheese, and squid ink-marinated flying squid from Hokkaido. And yes, it was ‘beyond’ good sake food!

Last photo (sorry for the crappiness) is the black sesame mousse with kuromitsu…

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drooling over that foie

Actually it’s not me but he is there every time we are there with his GF.

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Who’s fucking there ???

Cute gf ???

He was dining at KaGaYa during my Kinjiro meal that night.

“The Patron Saint of Honda Plaza”, I think I’ll dub him…

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Sheesh JL, Porthos.

I already live vicariously through your visits to these baller places. But now you have to help me out again…

How great is the $950.00 bottle of Dassai “Beyond” Sake? :open_mouth:

I’ve had the “lesser” Dassai bottles before (far cheaper).

I guess ultimate baller is bringing a couple bottles of Dassai “Beyond” w/ Corkage ($2,000) at an evening at Urasawa ($400+)! :stuck_out_tongue:

Take some pics and report back for us! :smile:

Yup Hotaru ika okizuke is the soy sauce marinated firefly squid, dope stuff. Bonito fermented guts would be katsuo shuto 酒盗, definitely a match maker with sake! The cream cheese seems like a wicked combination, and even Brie might work with that (or a firm burrata haha to counter the saltiness). Nice!

$950? Not too bad of a markup then, nowhere near as DBaggy as that NorCal place that charges $1500 a bottle…

No, the ultimate balling is not with Dassai Beyond (which Wally’s has for $774.99), but with

Zankyo 残響 SUPER 8 by Hakurakusei (their lower level affordable Junmai Daiginjo is served exclusively on Japan Airlines domestic flights, and is very good with a 40% milled ratio)

and wow Wally’s has it too:

http://www.wallywine.com/p-97469-zankyo-super-8-jdg-720ml.aspx

The polishing ratio is done to an astounding 8%. (Dassai 23 milling is 23%), although I’ve heard of another bottle where it beats it down to 7% (and that is just ridiculous!)

But that’s not the most expensive sake at Wally’s, it’s actually this Junmai Ginjo

http://www.wallywine.com/p-100532-nikata-n-jg-720ml.aspx

I must say, for a wine shop based in SoCal, this place has some very interesting semi obscure yet high end choices!

is it as great as being drunk as a japanese skunk on 100 dollar sake with 800 bucks in your pocket for later? i got a friend that operates a club in hollywood where they are routinely opening bottles of champagne that cost tens of thousands of bucks…great if your not paying but i gotta say it is a literally guilty pleasure for me.

Depends. Dassai is an excellent sake all round so this super high end one should be good. I personally have not tried it and probably wouldn’t have it with an izakaya meal where a nice Daiginjo will suffice. But who am I to say how others should spend their money even if they worked like a dawg for it.

They say the Super 8 can go for $3000 at some establishments (not retail) with the markup, where Hollywood types have no problem indulging in that.

But very true, it’s like celebs and stars pouring Louis Roederer Cristal on bikini clad women swimming in the stuff. I suppose Dassai Beyond is nothing compared to that for that crowd.

They’re making sangria in China using '82 Lafite-Rothschild. A crazy world we live in.

are they really ???

Not surprising.

Apparently they also make counterfeit bottles of Suntory Hakushu 12.

Easy to catch if you can read… instead of 白州, it says 潮州 (Chiu Chow/Teochew).

ok so how good is this place? I was having a solo lunch at Mori a few weeks ago when one other customer who was clearly a regular as all the staff and Maru-san knew him by name started talking about Kinjiro. They all seem to rave about it so now i’m curious.

Go.

Currently, they close on Monday and Tuesday. Starting February, they will close on Sunday and Monday. If you do go, make sure you get their Brussels Sprout Chips. Very delicious and addicting.

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the pork belly kakuni + ochazuke combo is probably the perfect el nino pre-drinking snack right now:


h/t first we feast

i’m still not convinced the beef tongue/a5 wagyu are must-tries, but they are certainly popular enough.

here, it’s better to treat everything as drinking food, not just the fermented fish guts. eat smelt, chug shochu, grilled dried squid, def down shochu. and on, and on.

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