Long time lurker first time poster.
They’re very traditional. I think the entire shop is run by the family with no outside help. The dad is the only cook, and mom the only server. I think I saw the daughter in the back kitchen helping out a bit. They one have one seating, 5 tables and they all start at the same time. They’re also notorious hard to book. You have to call exactly at midnight and leave a message for them to call you back the next day. And their phone only has one line, so if someone else is leaving a message, you get a busy tone and have to call again. We called about 80 times.
One waiter and simultaneous seating also means everyone gets their food at the same time, between that and only one server it means we waited 5-10 min between courses and water/tea took equally long to refill.
The food was good but not memorable. Let’s see what I can remember…
- ishiyaki: great presentation, but the octopus wasn’t anything special, and the shrimp was very good by itself but needed neither the hot stone nor the dip
- appetizers: they were the favourite of the night for me, the chirashi was actually the weakest (it’s just uninspired) although it still holds its own, the yamaimo was crisp and fresh, and the sea snail + uni combination was best of both worlds that I didn’t know I needed in my life.
- chawanmushi had a thick dashi on top and mushroom inclusion that was not listed. Fairly standard but I liked the sansho on top. Waiter said the mushroom was lions mane but it just tasted like some sort of button mushroom.
- sashimi came with a sesame sauce. It was red snapper and ocean trout. Sesame sauce was an interesting choice, but a bit too rich perhaps.
- eggplant in the gindara was divine. The fish itself was good but unremarkable.
- lobster and wagyu. Ugh. The lobster was plain and felt out of place. The wagyu was probably American wagyu. It had the flavour but not the texture and mouth feel of A5.
- rice was fragrant and paired well with truffles. Scallops were mid.
- for dessert they actually also had a freshly baked biscuit which was actually hot and really good.
- Sake flight was a flight and not a pairing. It did end up pairing well however.
Also interestingly their bathroom had a choice of toilet paper.
Anyways, I’m not convinced it’s better than Ranzan or Nisei, both of which are much easier to book.
by death_by_papercut