Best dish was:
– grilled heritage pork in koji rice, pickled daikon, leek
Might be the best pork dish I have had all year, actually, in many years. It kind of blew my mind.
I know this may sound kind of sick and twisted - sorry, but I cant think of any better way to describe it - you could taste the pig in an almost intimate way that I don’t think I have experienced before. An amazingly flavorful piece of porcine perfection.
Next best dishes:
– california holstein beef strip, grilled, fresh wasabi, nara-zuke pickle
– salmon trout smoked with cherry bark
– chilled corn soup, yuba, puffed rice
– crispy monkfish “kara-age”, citrus, kelp salt
– golden beets, broiled with barley miso
So-so dishes
– cucumbers stuffed with shiso leaf, seeds, umeboshi & bonito
– silky egg tofu, uni, fresh nori & wasabi
– japanese sea-bream sashimi, ginger bud, pickled plum-irizake
Loved the space and the counter drinking, eating cooking action.
Unlike most places, the small format dishes seemed to lag behind the large protein plates.
Will be back.