Maruya

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Maruya is a very needed sushi restaurant in San Francisco.  I can probably only name a handful of restaurants that does what Maruya does (Kappa is one of them) - omakase with both cooked dishes and fresh sushi.  Each dish is simple and seasonal.  While you can order just sushi, its a restaurant where the omakase should be ordered.  They offer two omakases - Masa's Course ($85) and Hide's Course ( A.Q).  Not knowing what to expect, I went with Masa's Course. 

I've had shishito peppers many times before, but this is one of the few times where it wasn't heavily grilled.  Without the smokiness, the taste of the shishito peppers are very subtle.  Along with bonito flakes and dashi, its a very lightly balanced dish.

Left to right: ankimo (monkfish liver); chestnut, ginko nuts, and mountain berry; tofu topped with uni.  The presentation is beautiful here and they really do try to use ingredients that celebrate the season.  Its rare to have good ankimo in the Bay Area, but this one was rich and creamy.  Its not my first mountain berry so I was well aware of the tiny seed inside the red spiky fruit, but without a warning from the server I can see that being a possible surprise.  At first, the berry seems too sweet and oddly placed, but after the taste seeps in, you can see that it pairs well with the subtle sweetness of the ankimo as well as the tofu and uni.

First glance this white mount looked like a potato, but its actually a tomato.  A gentle scraping the tomato and a spoonful of broth releases an unexpected spoonful of sweetness from the "tomato soup".

Along with the gorgeous presentation the appearance of a grilled course made this omakase almost like a casual kaiseki.  The lightly grilled and salted arctic char gave way to a well cooked fish that flaked off in perfect pieces.

While omakase seems to be the most obvious choice in a restaurant like this, a lot of people still came here just for the sashimi and sushi.  The sashimi course of the omakase made this a well noted sashimi option when getting my otherwise expensive sashimi fix in the city.  Top; clockwise;  ahi tuna (maguro), hamachi, halibut (hirame).  Each slice of fish was firm and fresh.

Left to right:  amberjack and blue nose.  While most of the nigiri courses were better than what you can normally find in the city, I found the sashimi course much more satisfying and tasty.

Fatty and flavorful, both the chu toro (left) and salmon (right) checked both boxes.

Left to right:  saba, aji. 

Left to right: ika (squid), uni.  While the uni was fresh and smooth, I wasn't too impressed with the ika (squid).  Usually, I love a good ika, but this one was much too chewy and hard to eat.

Its fall so its no surprise that nameko mushrooms are making a strong appearance in at least one dish of this omakase.  The small mushrooms really bring out the earthiness of the otherwise simple miso soup.

The yuzu lemonade ended the night with a bright, fresh flavor.

    

Address:                  Maruya
                                 2931 16th St.
                                 San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                        Japanese

Popular chomps:      omakase

Chomp worthy:         omakase

Kabuto

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I don't eat sushi as much as I would like to in San Francisco because the quality of sushi there is really upsetting.  I can probably name about five restaurants in the Bay Area that serves good sushi.  That being said, I do try to eat my fair share of sushi when I'm in the LA area, but surprisingly I've found that Las Vegas has better sushi than San Francisco.  Out of all my food lineups on this Las Vegas trip, Kabuto was the one I was most excited about.  They offer 3 choices of omakase  - $45, $85, $120.  All three come with a mixture of sushi and cooked dishes.  This ended up being one of my favorite meals of the trip and some of the best omakase I've had in a long time.  Had I not had a full food lineup going on, I would have loved to try the $120 omakase.   

To start off the $85 omakase, a small glass of Fuji apple sake mixed with crushed iced was given.  I've never had sake so juicy.  It replicated the taste of a sweet, juicy apple almost exactly.  Refreshing and fruity.

Chunks of super red blue fin tuna and slices of Japanese cucumber and seaweed were the amuse bouche.  After visiting Japan, I rarely eat tuna because I've found the taste to be more watery and bland, but the tuna here was superb.  Fresh and full of flavor plus the texture was meaty and not mushy. 

From left; clockwise: blue fin tuna, ocean trout, oyster, and clam.  Every piece of seafood was super fresh.  Delicious.

Left to right:  Striped pig (a whitefish) topped with a sweet miso, kobe beef with yuzu, and grilled snapper.

Japanese sea bass.

Blue fin tuna.

Oki aji.

chu toro (medium fat).  Although the omakase comes with the chef's choice of sushi, you can opt to add more sushi after its completed.

Minced blue fin tuna atop lightly seasoned rice.  I adore the amount of wasabi they use for all their sushi.  While it doesn't seem like much, its just the perfect amount to compliment the fish.

Ikura is another sushi item that doesn't get me very excited.  I usually find the saltiness of the salmon roe to be to overpowering when it comes to most ikura sushi.  However, this small shot glass sized container filled with rice and topped with ikura was so well put together I couldn't help, but gobble it up.  The ikura to rice ratio was so balance that even the last spoonful had the perfect amount of ikura and rice.

super custardy smooth and fresh uni.

Its rare for me to see tamago (egg) made in house so when I do see it I have to gawk at it for a bit to appreciate this sweet eggy delicacy. 

A handroll (temaki) or a maki (roll) signals the end of the omakase is coming.  Here its a tuna handroll.  This simplistic roll is not to be taken lightly.  The sophisticated flavors of the rich tasting tuna, perfectly seasoned rice and the roasted seaweed makes it one of the best and most memorable dishes of the omakase.

The soup course has a choice between a fish miso or a mushroom miso.  A lot of focus goes into eating the fish miso soup since the white fish has a bunch of tiny bones.

November is the season of mushrooms so its no surprise that one of the miso soup choices is a mushroom miso.  Small button shaped mushrooms and wakame (seaweed) float through the subtly soothing miso soup.

Housemade salted caramel vanilla ice cream.  The flavor of this ice cream was much different than any other salted caramel ice cream I've had.  It was much more vanilla tasting than salted caramel.

The green tea tiramisu was light and airy.  A subtle sweet way to end an omakase.

Address:                      Kabuto
                                     5040 Spring Mountain Rd.
                                     Las Vegas, NV
   

Type:                            Japanese

Popular chomps:         omakase
 

Chomp worthy:            omakase  

Sushi Go 55

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The seemingly deserted mall in Jtown has a couple of popular hidden restaurants tucked away.  Sushi Go 55 is one of them.

A tray of tasty pickled appetizers are presented before your dishes arrive to your table.  From left:  pickled cabbage, eggplant, and cucumber.

The jellyfish was one of the whiteboard specials of the night.  Not sure what I was expecting, but it was very similar to the jellyfish served in Chinese restaurants.  Large cuts of jellyfish tossed with sesame oil and sesame seeds make for a crunchy appetizer.

The tamago was sweet and spongy.  Not sure if they make this in house though.

The sushi combination was fresh and full of salmon, tuna, octopus, hamachi, kampachi and white tuna.

The chirashi presentation was unlike any that I've seen before.  Two boxes, which made me think they had sent two orders of chirashi to my table.

The first box was full of fresh sashimi that included uni, mackerel, salmon, scallop, octopus, hamachi, white tuna, kampachi, and tuna.  The fish was fresh and better than most sushi restaurants in SF, but I think Komasa's (see post HERE) is fresher.

Instead of laying the rice under all the sashimi in the chirashi, its placed in a separate box and topped with roe, ikura, shredded egg, and some pickled cucumbers.  I almost prefer this presentation since I usually end up putting some fish off to the side so I can eat some rice when I'm eating chirashi.

       

Address:                  Sushi Go 55
                                 333 S. Alameda St.
                                 Los Angeles, CA
 

Type:                        Japanese/sushi

Popular chomps:      chirashi
                                  sashimi/sushi combination

Chomp worthy:        nothing       

Tokie's

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Tokie's has long been a favorite sushi restaurant on the Peninsula.  I'm back on the Peninsula again searching for lunchtime options... 

Although the miso soup was of the standard fare, there was a surprising presence of noodles.  A first for me, but I can't say that I hated it.  Odd, but it made sense in a weird way.

The Rainbow roll was rather skimpy, both in size and in the amount of softshell crab.  The fried softshell crab was overcooked and dry. 

I'm not a fan of chirashi on a plate, its just not the same.  Various fish on top of rice that didn't taste much like sushi rice.  The unfresh fish made for a disappointing lunch.

There are a list of lunch specials on the board in the front of the restaurant.  The katsu curry was one of the specials of the day.  The curry was thick and flavorful with the katsu fried perfectly.  Not the greatest, but it was decent.

Address:                  Tokie's
                                 1058 Shell Blvd. Ste G
                                 Foster City, Ca  

Type:                       Japanese

Popular chomps:     sushi

Chomp worthy:        miso soup       

ICHI Sushi

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ICHI sushi reminds Sebo in Hayes Valley.  A sushi place specializing in omakase served up by non Japanese sushi chefs.  While sometimes order omakase at a sushi bar can seem a little daunting, the sushi chefs are friendly provide a lot of guidance and information on each piece of sushi and every plate along your omakase journey.  The omakase here has an option of mixing it with cooked dishes or straight sushi.  Of course, I have to eat everything, so the omakase I chose was a mix of the two.  I did notice that most of the cooked dishes can be ordered straight off the menu.  Some things to take note:  omakase here is served until you are full (so the 15 items I had cost around $60/person) and the sushi is served per piece and not in the usual by pairs.

The night started off with a chilled cucumber salad with a light tahini dressing and topped with sesame seeds.  It was crunchy and refreshing.

A shisho leaf under red snapper nigiri with yuzu and a dash of green tea salt.

Lightly cured fluke with shisho and ponzu.

The miragai aka geoduck clam was crunchy and topped with green tea salt.

The inside of the geoduck clam was lightly fried and served with a little ponzu dressing.  Delicious, chewy, and one of my favorite dishes of the night.

I've had seared tuna many times, but this Big Eye Hawaiian tuna had a dry, smokey taste and texture.

Ahi tuna mixed with avocado, ginger, and green onions.  Essentially its a poke.  While not the best poke I've ever had, I love avocado in my poke.

Gorgeously presented snapper sushi.

At first glance, it looks like a regular piece of tako (octopus), but its actually sous vide so the octopus is really tender.  Its good, but I love chewiness of tako.

I absolutely love the way they serve up the cooked dishes and sushi.  Its like I will never get bored of sitting there and thinking what will come next.  Fried snapper mixed with pickled peppers.

Hawaiian amberjack with yuzu zest.  Yuzu seems to be a popular flavoring here, whether as a zest or as a sauce.

Shiro maguro with garlic ponzu.

ICHI sushi has no kitchen in their restaurant so how well cooked the hot items come out is impressive.  Best dish of the night is this yuzu chicken wings.  They are sous vide and then fried.  The batter is light and crispy, but the flavor of the chicken is amazing.  One of the best Asian style fried chickens I've ever tasted and I've eaten a lot of fried chicken.

It looks like salmon, but its actually ocean trout with a touch of ume (plum) paste.

I am not a big fan of mackerel.  The oily fish is even too fishy for me.  At ICHI, they layer it with a sake reduction so it cuts most of the fishiness. 

    Uni is amazing when its fresh.  The Fort Bragg uni is custardy and fresh.  

ICHI sushi is not the best sushi I've ever had.  The sushi is above average, but I love how they present it in a very friendly setting and try to introduce omakase and other fish, besides the usual tuna, salmon, hamachi, to other sushi eaters.  While I do love a some sushi eaten with specific chef made sauces, its a little overkill here.  Every fish is hit with either a green tea sea salt, yuzu, or ponzu flavor.  It would be nice if they let some of the fish flavor just shine on its own.

updated - Working my way through the 2013 7x7's SF big eat 100 things

Address:                  ICHI Sushi
                                 3369 Mission St.
                                 San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                       Japanese

Popular chomps:     omakase
                                chicken wings

Chomp worthy:       omakase
                                chicken wings