Has anyone been here? Looks to be in Lincoln Heights.
The chef/owner’s IG says in order to make a reservation it’s a 4 person min. otherwise you need to sign up to their wait list.
The pictures signal a very high end omakase where everything is imported from Japan.
Would love to hear about it if anyone has already been here.
Thank you!
Looks really interesting, but I wonder how accommodating he is to non-Japanese-speaking customers. There is no English on his FB or IG page. Google translate can only go so far in conveying nuances; it looks like there are lots of rules and restrictions, which I generally can understand. But it looks to me that he will only serve sake–very expensive ($300/bottle) sake–yet he’s controlling and limiting consumption to five 30ml-cups of sake per customer? So I can only drink 5 ounces of sake with my meal? Somebody correct me if I’ve misunderstood…but WTF? This place might make the old Nozawa look like party town by comparison!
pics
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The chef (or one of them) of this joint per his instagram page posts in Chinese and Japanese. Chef is actually from Guangzhou/Southern China per his FB page, and he’s also friends with a rather well known sushi chef in Hong Kong.
There are specific rules, and I’m guessing this place wants to cater only to Taiwanese and Chinese speakers (LOL) and make it exclusive, in some ways more stringent than Sawa Sushi (Sunnyvale) to give it a private kitchen kind of exclusivity and feel (more so than Yamakase):
They only accept: Cash, Venmo, Chase Quickpay. They are only doing one seating a night, and needs 5 days advanced reservations. Chef wants any sushi consumed within 5 seconds of placing in front (recommended way of eating). Any piece of sushi left on the geta for up to 1 minute will be considered wastage (and disrespectful). Anyone who cannot eat raw, don’t come. Please do not ask for items to be cooked. They do not offer sashimi or American sushi rolls, sushi (nigiri) only. Please do not leave during the meal to smoke outside. Please temper your alcohol intake, no karoke rock paper scissors hand games during dinner. If you bring your wine beer champagne whiskey you can only enjoy it after the meal with your dining companions, chef feels that none of these pair with his sushi…thus wants you to spend $300+ for his high end sake. No perfume or cologne in his shop. Every person is limited to 5 cups of 30 mL sake at most (what if you get a bottle? LOL). No children’s menu or accomodating food portions for children. Once you make a reservation, you must put down 50% deposit. If you cancel your reservation, you will get back 40%, the remainder will be used as credit for your next visit, and the rest of the 60% will be a reservation service fee (assuming I didn’t miss up this translation).
You have to accept the rules before making a reservation, I didn’t translate it all.
Looks like chef does a matsutake donabe for a rice course…
Chef also uses Hadate brand of premium Hokkaido uni…it’s cult status at the high end omakase places in Tokyo. I see a box of Awajishima (Hyogo prefecture) island uni as well (Hayato was using them recently). Also a large 700 gram Yamaguchi prefecture giant abalone.
One customer recently got torigai, what looks like aoyagi, and akagai. Akagai comes from Oita prefecture.
So $180 for all these wicked ingredients, probably is not a bad thing. I guess someone needs to report back and determine whether the nigiri is as good as our favorites in town and elsewhere, or whether this place is near the quality of some of Taipei’s best.
If the sake boxes behind the counter on the wall shelf are indicative of his sake menu, $300 would probably be average/low end (aside from Dassai 23). Tatsuriki Akitsu could run $400 or more. Kikuhime Kurogin is already $420 at True Sake, $600 would not be unreasonable or $800. Kikuhime Kukurihime 10 year aged Daiginjo… over $1000 probably. I see Dassai Beyond and they only had one Juyondai Chotokusen Junmai Daiginjo.
This will exclude most Chinese Communist Party members lol.
True dat, especially the homies who drink sake straight out of the 720 mL bottle like a bo$$, similar to chugging a Tsing Tao at a dai pai dong
夢——到訪的客人都可寫下自己的夢想 提醒著自己還有夢可以追
屋——或許在海外漂泊的上班的上學的 累了，這裡是你的避風港
鮨——小店裡沒有跟隨主流的西洋卷物 只有堅持傳統的手握壽司
Yumeya Zushi:
Yume - visitors/customers can write down their dreams, and remind themselves what dreams you have remaining to pursue
Ya - Not sure how to translate the first sentence but second one is, if you are tired from the day, may this be your typhoon shelter
Zushi - we insist on serving traditional nigiri, and there are no western rolls here
因為堅持
小店使用日本靜岡新鮮山葵現場磨製
小店選用無任何添加的古法大豆醬油
小店精選兩種日本產的大米混合蒸煮
小店以傳統赤酢拌出傳統風味赤舍利
小店挑選日本各地的旬魚材握製壽司
Because of our insistence:
we use freshly grated wasabi imported from Shizuoka prefecture
we use no preservatives natural soy sauce (traditionally made)
we use a blend of imported Japanese rice for sushi rice
we use a traditional sake lees vinegar (aka su) to make our traditional shari
we use seasonal seafood from all over Japan to craft our sushi
(uhm don’t most competent shops already do this?)
Sounds like a fun place…
I guess if you really want to go, use google translate Chinese to English and fill out the form. Or find a Mandarin (and just in case, Cantonese) speaker to book and or go together.
It may be a first, where the LA Burg hounds may be told to open their Grand Cru’s until the dinner is over, as digestif… (unless one is friend of the owner/chef)
As far as stocking very high priced sake only, that’s a huge disservice to fuller bodied sake that may pair even better. I guess chef/owner doesn’t want to appear having cheap stuff to de-value the meal, at the sacrifice of food pairing. Oh well…their playground.
By the way it could be a private residence turned into a sushi bar with table seating/private room?
Lawdy… They are practically asking to be punk’d.
How’s your Beijing accent these days? ;-D
Not strong enough to order super tannic Bordeaux with sushi.
Chef does have Mainland followers though.
Inconclusive if that was served to a customer (or ever), or if I am reading this with another lens, that he was trying / testing it himself 做了人生第一貫 (made my first ever nigiri with it).
Better be careful with this exposure, anymore and next thing you know you can’t get seats any longer… and you’ll have some hangry AZN’s banging on your door.
The chinese sushi restaurant trick. Use super expensive ingredients to hide the lack of actual skill in prep. Maybe he will be different. But IG pics do not look great from customers.
But… $180 all in isn’t terrible… will have to ask in chinese to drink burgundy with the sushi. But no wine is a deal breaker for sure
I think chef just needs to experience white burgundy and shellfish pairings for himself (along with ikura, white fish, and certain other profiles), as well as Junmai/Junmai Ginjo that will pair better than many of his Junmai Daiginjo offers. His mind has yet to be blown on that.
As seemingly knowledgeable and competent as he may be with ingredient sourcing (he’s using the same company as Hayato) and prep…pairing is definitely not an area he does well in.
I follow Hangrydiary on IG. Looks like she went to dinner here recently. I don’t know how the food was but the pictures look pretty good.
From their social media, and one of which you’re after.
First box: Hadate, second box, aka uni from Awajishima, Hyogo prefecture
Might as well go take one for the team as I doubt you’ll get reports from others here, and if so please report back for us 
Nice! Will do.
That Aka uni looks very plump and delicioso 
A pictorial essay from late November 2022
The Menu
One line review: I’m coming back!
*Chef Raini will be on his vacation this month. So glad to see him smiling, making his dream sushi after a year learning and working very hard at Hayato! He definitely misses and loves Brandon more than any of us!
Aside from all the rare and wonderful ingredients, Raini himself is very precious. It’s hard to come by a talented chef with a good and pure heart like him. He’s shy, down to earth, absolutely real, and accepting feedback very well. I’m rooting for him to have his own sushi restaurant soon!
super premium ingredients
