Yes, I would have been perfectly fine with a campy evening 
. Hopefully someone flakes out⌠on the waiting list
Is the pic of the guy on the right a joke? Doesnât look real warm and fuzzy 
That intense âstareâ happens to be the hallmark/brand of Chef Takayoshi Watanabe.
Much like how Randy âMacho Manâ Savage always looks like heâs in the throes of lockjaw during a bout of tetanus. #getyourboostershotsfolks
Laugh. Out. Loud. What a great description 
Entertaining pop-up dinner tonight with visiting chef Takayoshi Watanabe (aka Sushibae) from TeruZushi in Kitakyushu. Sporting his trademark red bowtie and wielding the huge mirror polished 70cm sakimaru style knife, he certainly lived up to his jovial theatrical ways.
Clockwise:
- Aka-Uni, Toro tartare & Italian caviar
- Abalone with liver sauce. The abalones were HUGE ~ 800g each, the shells were the size of a small dinner plate!
- Aged Kue (Long-tooth grouper pictured below) tail portion sashimi accompanied by Japanese truffle infused soy sauce
- Hamo tempura topped with aka-uni
The prominently featured uni were sourced from the southern Japan areas of Kitakyushu/Shimonoseki.
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Tokishirazu salmon
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Shima-aji
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Tamago with minced shrimp and scallops
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Nodoguro (incredibly fatty) over uni rice hand roll
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âYakinikuâ taste o-toro topped with minced onion
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Wild unagi âburgerâ
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âButterflyâ Saba
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Smoked bonito with shaved karasumi
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Kuruma ebi
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Ika with uni
Interesting that the folks on the LA board have been lamenting the hit or miss quality of uni the past year. However these new high-end sushi bars in NYC seem to be sourcing top notch quality uni consistently. I havenât encountered any âbad/offâ uni since frequenting them in late 2017.
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No thatâs not bombastic. Not one bit.
Hope you enjoyedâŚ
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Yes, it was a fun evening.
Save for the caviar, he schlepped the rest of the ingredients on the flight over.
Nice and thanks for the report!! Saves you a trip to Kitakyushu and hours on the Shinkansen.
No hikarimono?
Did you do any pairings with sake?
@beefnoguy Haha yeah, no trips planned anytime soon to Kitakyushu so this worked out perfectly. Hikarimono offerings were limited - only the saba and shima-aji.
They had a couple of sake pairing but frankly the last time I did it, it was just too much sake for my low tolerance for alcohol. I was kinda wasted after dinner 
. Instead I opted for a carafe of Tedorigawa Kinka Nama Daiginjo; it was on the richer side which I think generally paired well with stronger dinner flavors. I think I might have preferred something a touch drier.
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He couldnât find room in his luggage for some basketball sized akagai?
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Great choice, Kinka works with everything, even typhoon shelter spicy crab stir fry, Dai Pai Dong, and the heavier flavors of Beijing cuisine, structured enough that wine fans will enjoy it too.
I guess saba is better than nothing, although some of the best aji right now is right off the coast of Kyushu, and excellent kohada caught not far from there.
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I need to find a suitcase that can hold a full-size kue.
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I ate here last week and everything was top notch: decor, service and, obviously, the food. Among the best sushi meals Iâve eaten. Given the chefâs relative youth and the fact that this is his rookie year in the states, itâs exciting to imagine how high Chef Nozâs peak might be.
The booze pairing was also superb, both playful and well-considered, and included white and red wines, bubbles, sake, beer and what I guess Iâd describe as dessert sake.
My only nitpicky gripes would be regarding the diversity of neta, there wasnât much shellfish or white fish, and also that at the end of the meal he did not ask customers whether we would like seconds of anything prior to dessert - as most sushi restaurants do.
My picture taking abilities are horrible, but shout out to the beautiful toothpick (not chopstick!) holder:
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Yeah Noz is definitely one of the best in NYC right now. I wouldnât exactly call him a rookie though, he was at Sushi Den for quite a while before he got to open this place.
@jperelmuter I would have been over the moon if he served one of those gigantic akagai!!
@beefnoguy yeah itâs a shame they didnât have more hikarimono. fyi Noz recently hired a sommelier.
@onelabneh glad you enjoyed your dinner. I agree, the neta of these new places are a bit limited and can feel repetitive. I wonder if this has anything to do with a more conservative sushi clientele in NYC? Iâve encountered at almost every dinner at these high-end joints - diners specifically requesting no-hikarimono. One incident, the diner just refused to eat the hikari-mono courses being served (apparently never made this known prior to the start of the meal) and the chef begrudgingly had to toss it out. Whereas they go ga-ga for the usual suspects uni & toro. For now Iâve been focusing and enjoying the technical aspects of the sushi and also neta quality but I do miss the diversity of Shunji and Mori. I hope they will be more adventurous as time goes by - i.e more shellfish!!!
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Sgee, how would you compare the uni from the Kitakyushu area with Hokkaido uni? So far, the Hokkaido uni I had at a kaiseki meal at Kyo Ya are the best uni Iâve had.
The Hokkaido bafun uni (likely what you had at Kyo ya) IMO has a very clean crisp ocean flavor. The Aka uni had a richer profile, almost like a touch of lobster tomalley.
but worth $500? Iâd rather wait until he opens and irons out the kinks of making the transition to NYC.