Brian. Fucking. Reinhart.
Look, I've loved the guy ever since his hilariously wheels-off evisceration of The Mexican (look up that D Mag review if you missed it). But man, you led us astray on this one, Brian.
We excitedly booked a reservation here for the day after the D Mag mini-review hit. Affordable omakase?? Hell yeah! So, here's where Brian isn't totally to blame, because we assumed the 16-course "market price" omakase wouldn't be much more than the 13-course option ($75). I mean, Brian described the restaurant as affordable/approachable...with no caveats noted...and how much more could 3 extra courses cost?? Well, we deffffffinitely should have verified that price assumption, because when the bill came for $175/person, we were a little shell-shocked.
Ok, price aside, let's talk taste buds. All of the nigiri were excellent. The other dishes were...fine. But for $175/person, every single course should be incredible.
Service? I love the people here. I really want them to succeed. Everyone seemed so kind. That said, I have to say that there were several missteps. I'll overlook most of them given that they'd been open for less than a week. However, there was one issue too big not to mention. I have a shellfish allergy (side note: I appreciate that they're open to substitutions on the omakase for allergies) and informed the waitress of this when we ordered. But...I guess she didn't inform the chefs? Not one but TWO courses with shellfish were put in front of me. I noticed the first one; the second one was scallop under pudding, and I would have dug right into it without knowing if they hadn't frantically run over and stopped me. Kudos to the younger sushi chef who consistently kept an eye on the dishes being served to me.
In terms of ambiance, the interior is lovely but falls short of the glamorous interiors of most restaurants in Dallas where I'd drop $175/person. The easiest and most impactful change they could make would be to adjust the lighting, which is rather bright. I realize it's tough to give the chefs the light they need in such a small space, but I think there's still room for improvement here. (Bathrooms too.)
Finally, I have to note that the owner/manager(?) was going around to every table asking for one-star Google reviews. Sort of a shtick about how they aren't competing for stars, from what I understood (although I don't quite understand it -- ratings platforms are only helpful if the ratings mean something, and a single restaurant isn't going to break Google). Anyway, I mention that as a possible explanation for the bizarrely positive one-star review among the current Yelp reviews (not the one complaining of racism, which I didn't observe in any form, FYI).
Ultimately, I wouldn't come back here for the 16-course omakase (so long as it's priced the same as others in DFW that, in my opinion, are more deserving of the pricetag), but the nigiri were fantastic, so I'd probably come back for that at some point. It's still not exactly cheap, but for those times that you want something a little more elevated than your neighborhood sushi joint, I think it'd be a good option for some nigiri and rolls. Or maybe that $75 omakase option is worth a try...but I think I'd rather spend my money exclusively on nigiri here. read more