A great omakase addition to North Dallas that offers something a little more than just sashimi.
This place is tiny. There's 8 seats total. There's one hostess/waitress who quickly and effectively clears your table, refills water, and slips in some comments every now and then.
The chicken pate is simple but beautiful. I wonder if they make It in house? Because it doesn't taste like any typical pate to me.
The turnip cream soup is comforting and didn't seem out of place even during the heat of the summer. I could tasted the browning of the starchy turnip coalesce with the cream.
The bluefin sheet draped over foie gras, topped with caviar and shiso flower was an unexpected joy and mental process. While there was several meats stacked on each other, the overall taste made me think of a savory grape. It sounds weird, but it was also a delightful realization. Its not often a piece of sashimi is served as a sheet rather than a rectangle.
The sashimi box was the last time we would have sushi this evening, but it was a lovely spread of items. Served on ice within a box, the chef said there was no method on how to eat it. Personally, I would go right to left, leaving the otoro last, but eat it however you please. While its garnish, don't ignore the spiral cut cucumber!
The oyster Rockefeller was what you would expect from a Rockefeller, but with a quality oyster that shines through the butter and cheese. They shuck it in a way that you don't have to use any utensils, but I would wait a solid 2 minutes before eating this. These were piping hot and I could not hold my lips to the boiling hot liquid butter for very long.
The squash blossom with snapper tempura and matcha salt was not only tasty but a work of art. It looked delicate, but holds up fairly well (as long as you're not holding it from the stem). The snapper filling on the inside worked so well with the overall whole, and I could have eaten a handful of these. The matcha salt takes it to another level!
The yakitori section of the meal was good, but I couldn't help to feel it wasn't mind blowing. Don't get me wrong, these skewers of meat are comparable to what you could have previously had at Teppo or Tei Tei Robata, but I feel with everything else on the menu, there was a missed opportunity to show off something more creative or special in regards to how the meat was sauced, spiced, glazed, or presented for that matter. This was definitely the part of the meal where I was disenchanted by how wonderful the rest of the meal was. The weakest one in my opinion was the romaine heart. Im not one to frown upon grilled vegetables, but the charred taste was barely there and the cheese didn't do much to compliment the crisp, watery taste of the lettuce. The A5 wagyu was of course the best one, with the miso black cod being in second. Keep in mind, there are additional skewered items you can order as a supplement which were higher quality than the chicken they serve.
The uni, caviar, and egg rice bowl is simple, but all three meats shine in harmony. To anyone who dislikes gooey, creamy textures, this meal will NOT be for you. About the only thing that it could have used was a touch of soy sauce for my preference.
They don't list it on the menu, but there was a chicken broth soup they serve after the rice that I thought would have gone great to drink alongside the rice. The broth itself was a savory, salty treat!
The sticky toffee pudding with hojicha gelato is the right amount of sweetness, bold in its dark, low tones, and had me licking up the bowl with every last drop of gelato remains.
For $200, surrounded by good company, and not having to fight to drive into downtown Dallas, Id say this is a great choice! The biggest factor in how I could see improvement is a more creative or decadent approach to the skewered meats. But by no means were the meats bad. If anything, they were still above average quality wise. While Mabo is a different omakase experience than Shoyo, I enjoyed Mabo much more than I did Shoyo. read more