Went to Tama Sushi last night. Outdoor table. Asked if they had an omakase option, was offered one for $90.
6 pieces of sashimi (tuna x2, halibut x2, halibut fin x 1, octopus x 1) was pretty good, tuna was especially flavorful. Couldn’t tell you from where as server’s mask and a shield really precluded a conversation.
Freshly ground wasabi was a plus.
Then, after some time, maybe 15 minutes, nigiri arrived and I realized my mistake. 10 pieces of nigiri sitting right in front of me.
After I asked, I was told that “white” fish was seasoned while “dark” fish was not.
There were some “exotic” fish sush as nodoguru, etc. Our poor server had a bit of a hard time naming them. Aji and toro were really good.
Mostly the fish selection/quality was fine and the knife work was respectable but it was very uneven in terms of quality, packing, and ratio of shari. It seemed to me that different pieces were prepared by different itamae. On some pieces the temperatures were way off suggesting to me that the piece of nigiri sat there for awhile before it was delivered.
We ended omakase with a really fantastic due of ikura and uni, both were perfect!
Additional ala carte order: nigiri aji, iwasi, and saba as well as iwashi sashimi produced vastly superior results. Iwashi was especially great and nigiri was near perfect, even nice balance of the slightly warm rice and cooler fish.
There was a nice Toto in the restroom.
We left the place with mixed feelings. Our only other COVID omakase experiences were Shin during the brief reopening in June and Shunji outdoors in August, and those were vastly superior to Tama.
On the other hand we were craving some Sunday night sushi and this was the only option available so it was ok for COVID era dining.
I suspect omakase is not the way to order while on the patio, even if they agreed to bring them gradually in pairs. There is some promise that when indoor bar re-opens this could be quite interesting, assuming you are sitting in front of Sergio.
For now I would order ala carte.
Here is my iphone 6 photo in very poor light conditions.
