After reading about Kuromori on this subreddit, I decided to make a reservation almost immediately. The restaurant is situated in a residential area, close to Zuihoden in Sendai. I had just visited his former sous chef’s restaurant on the same street a few days earlier and was really looking forward to this meal. Throughout all my previous meals, Kuromori’s name would be repeated many times once I mentioned I was coming to Sendai by other chefs in the Tohoku region.
Chef Kuromori specialises in Cantonese style cuisine, which utilises an ingredient to its upmost with minimal heavy spices. Traditionally the food is light and a bit more mild in flavour, the ingredients will speak themselves. He has a tonne of experience working in and leading cantonese style restaurants in Japan and decided to open his own restaurant in Sendai which is rich in land and sea ingredients.
I had reserved the abalone/awabi dinner course which was about ¥40,000 and with the non alcoholic pairing which comprised of alot of tea and a few non alcoholic wines. The meal is served kaiseki style prepared in front of us, with the counter able to seat 10. It was me and a single group of local diners. Behind us we had a gorgeous view of the city, the restaurant moved to its current location in 2019. The building is 2 floors, with the first being an open floor layout with kitchen and counter space. Its all very modern and clean, great place to just relax and enjoy a delicious meal.
The chef’s wife doubles as hostess and the drink specialist who speaks a bit of English. Only other staff present was the sous chef who helped prepare, plate and serve dishes. The chef was focused on the meal so he didn’t interact much with the diners other than when he was introducing each dish. The hostess would often explain about the drink pairings selection and origin. Hostess and sous chef were pretty friendly and service was overall very pleasant.
The dinner course was what I had expected it to be, high quality ingredients treated with respect and tasted very nice. It was very clean and light, the seasoning for me was very balanced but to those who prepare dishes with more spices could interpret it as bland sometimes. My favourite course was the hassun, was blown away by the ingredients with minimal spicing. Other standouts were the pork, stir fry vegetables and noodle dish.
Dinner was no frills and outlandish plating with garnishes, you get to try top of the line produce sourced locally and its treated with respect by the chef. I think its good to try many different styles of cooking and doesn’t necessarily need to be complicated dishes. I would recommend trying Kuromori if this sounds like something you’re into, I imagine not everyone prefers this type of cooking which is fine. At the end of the meal I was given a membership card to record my visits so in the future they will serve me new dishes
by misnopeo
1 Comment
Is that an empanada