Showing posts with label Omakase. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omakase. Show all posts

Monday, August 11, 2025

Ichijiku Neighborhood Sushi Bar

So heard of an omakase in Chinatown.
Walked in the place was jumping... turns out most people were taking advantage of the happy hour.

The offerings aren't bad from the looks of it.

But I'm here for the sushi.  I love how they display their fresh fish in a nice box. And twist my arm...

To start, we got a miso soup.

Oysters on the half shell, it has ponzu sauce and scallion.  Pretty decent.

This is a Spicy Tuna on top and crispy rice at the bottom.  Even with the flavors, the texture didn't grab me.

Got the truffle fries, it came with Japanese mayo. 

As part of my omakase, it has 3 mini apps - it has edamame, tempura veggie and shrimp, and chicken wings. 

Then came the Tuna - very fresh. 

Then ginger soy, aioli and salmon with tobiko on top. 

After that is hamachi, with yuzu soy and micro wasabi - the micro was so small, you wouldn't even get a hint of the wasabi.  I do like the aioli. 

This is Madai with yuzu salt and chive.  I do love me some yazu salt. 

Then the waygu - it's not the best cut, it was too chewy. 

Not pictured Ebi shrimp with mayo and tobiko.

Then spicy salmon roll.

For dessert, Warabi mochi, it's mochi covered with soybean flour and syrup with a scoop of matcha ice cream and frozen strawberry.  It was interesting to taste, you got 3 very distinct flavors on that one plate.  But I was so full that could barely touch it.

Overall, was it good? not spectacularly.  Was it bad? no.  But given Houston has so many options, there's nothing stood out here.  

At any rate, the Happy Hour is popular here, but by 7pm the place cleared out.  I do worry that people are here for the snacks and it can't stand the wave of the meal and they have so many staff manning the shop.  

If you find yourself in the area and want a quick meal, they are fast.  Their happy hour is worth checking out.  But do that instead of omakase.  If you do want to come for happy hour, couldn't hurt to make a reso.

Ichijiku 
9393 C Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036


 

Monday, June 6, 2022

Uwa - Monthly tasting

Went to another Omakase, this one only does a monthly tasting.
They are created by the team at Kanau Sushi.

The pretty envelope has a very nice lacy card with menu on in it. 

First of all, this is picture heavy.  So you've been warned. 

Amuse Bouche is Pomme De Terre - fried potato bite with hone creme fraise injected and a dab of truffle aioli on top and bottom and topped off with a bit of caviar.

Front row seat to watch the chefs hard at work.

Not pictured, but super nice was Amberjeack with soy caviar and slices of kiwis cooked in cucumber fish stock.

Then we go outside to enjoy the skewers that is miso seabass.  It was literally falling off the bone as you bite into it.  The sauce they used is super delicious, and of course I loved the shishito peppers skewers.

Here's the salad course: it has feta & goat cheese with watermelon and concasse tomatoes topped with olive oil.  Super refreshing for a summer evening.

This is the Molecular Noods, I've seen a lot of molecular artistry on TV, never experienced in person.  This has Vermicelli with crab, tomato and their sauce on top and the foam is made with Vietnamese fish stock. 

I liked the fish stock foam a lot, bun the noodles was too thick for what the combo and taste.  The mixture on top was great though, wish it can be done by itself. 

Here's the mood and atmosphere of the place.  It's super nice and classy.

This is Medusa, it is made with jellyfish with compressed cucumber (thinly sliced on there) with yay citrus and topped with King crab and caviar.   

I've never had jellyfish before, this was my very first time. It reminds me of sea cucumber prepared Chinese style, cold and chewy.

For Intermezzo - also a palette cleanser, is the caviar course, but not that normal caviar mix that I'm used to.  It has Soy, Citrus/Lime, Strawberry and regular Roe.  

So you have a bit of sweet, a bit of savory and altogether all refreshing when it's all cold together.  You know what the taste remind me of?  The poppin' boba, where the juice and flavor all came out when you bit into it.

This is the Pea Course.  I have to fess up with full disclosure, I am not a fan of peas.  As a matter of fact, when I see them, I pick them out.  I've once had a dish with a bed of peas as part of the dish, I ate all but the peas.

That said, and being up front.  I actually ate EVERYTHING on that plate.  That is pea soup with ribbon carrot, ribbon cucumber, and beet, even the flower on there are edible.  The dish is served cold, and like I said, I ate every single bit on that plate.  That's a first for me.  Mainly because I do not like my peas fraternizing with my food.

Then we have Bagel and Lox.  It has cream cheese at the bottom, house cured lox (very flavorful) with caper and red onions. 

Unlike a regular bagel & lox., there's no bread, but macaron.  I will say that this is a very well done Mac.  Typically when people pull this trick, the Mac shells are just less sweet.  But they took it to another level, where they have some special seasoning in the shell.  So when you take a bite by itself it is slightly savory/salted, and when you combine with the rest, it's very true to the bagel and lox you would have.

Here's their Tuna & Egg Salad.  I would say, out of all the courses, this is my least favorite. It has squid ink rice at the bottom - that piece is fine, egg with vinaigrette on top - that's fine.  Then tuna tartare in the middle and seaweed on the side.  It was not great when you put them all together.  On to the rest.

This is the Waygu course, it has a 100 layer potato chip at the bottom.  Meaning, it has 100 thinly sliced potato chips all compressed together then fried.  Topped with Texas Waygu beef tartare with Korean Gochujung sauce mixed with dehydrated egg yolk (the yellow bits).  

This is definitely unique.  I will say the beef wasn't the best, turned out to be chewy.  The potato chips was very good, and we were hoping there's more of those.  

For dessert, it has a very poetic name, called Spring of Antheia.  It has Kiwi sorbet with dehydrated meringue with mascarpone bits.  So the meringue, they actually use dried ice to make right in front of us.  it took less than a few minutes to solidify, and he just crack them like chips and it's done.  The sorbet is also made in house so it was super fresh.

Antheia is a Greek Goddess, as our chef explained, of swamp and flowery wreaths.  So this is sorta look swampy.  But don't let it fool you, it tasted awesome.  And our chef was making it right in front of us bit by bit and we didn't even realized. 

At any rate, the whole meal cost a pretty penny and it's hard to get in.  They offer wine pairing which is another $85, and don't forget to tip your servers.  In order to get in, you have to stalk their Instagram account and as soon as you see the announcement, you have to ask them to put you on the list.  There are 2 seatings, 5:30 & 7:30 but truly it's 8pm.  If you can't get in, you can ask them to put you on a waitlist.  They are very responsive, though slow, they do answer.   

They have valet parking complimentary and also street parking.  Towards the evening the meter will stop, so you don't have to pay for the full duration of the meal.  If you can't get into the dinner, go to Kanau Sushi, they also have a good menu on their book and they will do an Omakase as well.  Another thing they will do at Kanau is Tuna Break down, you will get super fresh Bluefish Tuna.

Uwa
https://www.instagram.com/uwahtx/



 

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Neo HTX

Heard a lot about Neo's Omakase.

It's kinda unique, the dinner is inside a boutique transformed from a townhouse, a beautiful one.  They sell nice clothes then you see the drying fridge.

Hooray for us though, we walk thru the doors and are greeted with a glass of wine.  
Cheers, Snoopy!

Fish that will be feature tonight.

This is Pastry Guyere, it is topped with Winter Truffle.  This is what I called the Super Cheesy Love.  

Scallop crude with almond milk, cucumber and a bit of mustard, scallop from Hokkaido. 

For the following courses, they served Junmai Sake - I'm not sophisticated enough on the topic, I'm just going to say, it goes down smooth and light bodied.

Next up: Madai that has been aged for 2 weeks.

Kingfish with yuzu vinaigrette - I'm telling you, give me that vinaigrette, I'll put it on everything. 

Their play on Lox on Bagel - it has sour cream powder and chive on top of salmon.  That does taste a little like lox on bagels.  Just didn't have the bread.

Sea perch with caramel fish sauce, it's sweeter than I thought.

King Mackerel  with XO sauce - it was quite fragile but full of flavors. 

Blue Fin Tuna with freeze dried strawberry and strawberry sefredo.  That's pretty unique, I never had freeze dried strawberry in sushi mix before.

Tuna aged 15 days with Black Garlic mole' on top.  I would say out of all of them so far, this has the best flavor. 

Blue Fine cooked with White Oak Charcoal & Tamari on top.

This is King Crab with Yuzu emulsion - this one is a LOVE.  Wish they make more like these, the flavors are just off the chart.

Then we have Wagyu with mushroom butter - also very good flavor in the mix.

This is Unagi broke it down in house with Japanese Mint

Steam monk fish with its liver

Himalaya morel sausage and jus with lamb and butter.  Super flavorful, definitely different and reminded me of dishes with a hint of Portugal 

For the add-ons: I got a pice of A5 Wagyu from Miyazaki with Black Summer Truffle - gimme gimme.

Sorbet done in-house, Shiso Oil & Lime - churned in house, and super fluffy.

Bon Bon done with Mostly Chocolate - it's savory inside.  

Chocolate with chocolate shavings & Kefir Lime topped by dehydrated morel.  This is definitely a unique dessert.  It has a lot of chocolate, but not super sweet at all.

Another add on: it is freeze dried banana with ice cream and caviar.  The banana delivers a very good surprise.  I'm not exactly sure how the caviar adds to it, but it's neat and different and doesn't taste bad.  The ice cream is done by Underground Creamery.

As there are more and more Omakase in town, and it's now a trend, even Uchi is jumping into the game.  Mind you, they already have a Omakase on the menu.  But it is fun nonetheless.  I appreciate the chef's creativeness expressed thru food.  I'm not quite on their humor level like I am with couple other ones I've been to, but that's ok. You make friends with the neighbors very quickly. 

Overall the experience is $225 per person before tip and add-ons.  They do have specific instructions for when you arrive, where to park and what not.  There's only 8 seats so if you could get in, count yourself lucky.

My tip about trying to get in, follow their instagram account.  Go sign up as soon as they announce dates.  Sign up for multiple dates.  Also check back for any last minute cancelations.  Their staff are kind and courteous.  

Neo HTX
https://www.instagram.com/neohtx/