Trying a newer omakase sushi restaurant in the SF Bay Area. I was excited to try this as my previously go to places haven’t been as consistent (I.e. Sushi Shin).
All of the dishes had seafood sourced from Japan and were primarily prepared and presented in a traditional manner.
Here were some highlights.
The first course was a bowl of baby eels, which was a good indication of their traditional prep and seasonal focus. I enjoyed this.
The conch was tender and lightly braised with a semi sweet light soy based which contrasted nicely with the slightly bitter conch liver.
Firefly squid, a favorite seasonal item, was fine but this preparation was ok.
The bonito was amazing. This was smoked traditionally on skewers over straw. This had a wonderful aroma and the texture and taste were masterfully executed. Wow.
Hairy crab was flown in alive from Hokkaido. This made a huge difference in the texture and taste.
River salmon – this was a special salmon like fish that is 2 years old. The chefs noted that they start off using one type of rice for the shari and lighter vinegar but will then use two types of rice with a red vinegar for the later sushi courses.
I enjoyed this and noted the great texture and taste of the fish as well as how well the shari was formed.
Ankimo from Hokkaido. Probably one of the better ankimo I had in a while. The creaminess and taste were amazing.
Ayu lightly fried and put in a hand roll. Wonderful textures of the fish, rice and seaweed. Simple looking but a lot of complexity to this dish,.
Kohada, one of the benchmarks I use to gauge a restaurant’s sushi was good. The vinegar was more pronounced, especially with the fish’s marinade, perhaps it was a bit too vinegar forward or was too traditional for me. It reminded me of how vinegary traditional Kyoto sushi was.
Akami – wonderful, very high quality.
Hokkaido uni – you really can’t mess this up. I did note and appreciate the seaweed. This was given a final roasting during an earlier course.
Anago from Japan. So tender, light and delicious.
Castella tamago – super airy with ama ebi and scallop incorporated with the tamago. It wasn’t amazing but I still wished I had another piece.
I would say Katsu is definitely worth a visit and they have a good sake menu. I ordered the new Dasai Blue as well as a couple of other tasty drinks.
Cheers
by Zincsaucier989
2 Comments
Thought they were glass noodles. Then I noticed the noodles had eyes.
I’m glad you posted this! Sushi Katsu is excellent and my go-to. Edomae with great ingredient sourcing. For me, they are second only to Sushi Yoshizumi in the Bay Area. Katsu-San and the rest of the staff are all wonderful people as well. For anyone wondering, they are located in Mountain View, California.