Finally made it to Oheya for omakase.
They basically took over the old Southside coffee shop, and connected the two places. So you can actually enter from Uchi side, or you can sneak into the mini rock garden and enter at their door.
You sit down and they have an envelope with your name, and in it, is the menu for the evening. It's customized daily, obviously depending on what they have that's fresh.
They also have Sake or Wine pairing as well, with a $75 charge.
Got a Lemon Fizz, not too sweet, nice summery drink.
Setting the stage, the chefs briefly talked about the theme and how it comes together. And they do say that they do not make accommodation, so keep that in mind.
For amuse bouche, we started with the duck tart. I did wonder if the tart was house made because it's' too light compare to the store bought ones. You have the little flan-like texture on top and it has hint of the flavor.
First course is the Scallop Curd, it has pineapple dashi (which is a first for me), sea lettuce and basil. Definitely a first for me.
Chef meticulously getting the zest for all of the pieces.
This is Hirame nigiri - that's Japanese flounder, with blood orange juice, finger lime, and avocado oil. It's pretty good taste-wise.
This is Aji (horse mackerel) that is a fatty piece with sweet soy sauce and garlic and ginger.
This is quite unique - it's tofu and tomatoes, you can't see the tomato because it's hidden underneath. The tofu texture is interesting because it's almost like a creama kind of texture, with basil oil to add the flavor.
This is their Crab Handroll, it is crab and tempura squash blossom, they snuck in some uni. To dip, you get the brown butter ponzu sauce.
This is vichyssoise, not totally, it's a soup with pickled green tomato, poach oyster with coriander granita. It is cold and for a hot, humid day, this works perfectly. For a person who doesn't like pickle like me, it was a nice surprise. Like and airy, and cold.
This is Masu- smoked ocean trout with roe on top. It has a yuzu vermouth sauce, with peas. I like the sauce, the only reason I like it is because they left the skin on and that part is crispy. While flavorful, not one of my fav.
This is Engawa, which is flounder fin muscle. This might be my first time having this, and I love it. It has black garlic, tamari and lime zest on top. Texture is kinda interesting, it's crunchy but it has collagen texture too.
Here's Asparagus with duck fat and coconut lime sauce with berries. They basically stripped the green of the asparagus, have lemongrass while cooking it. The soup/sauce is definitely a Thai style, but not sure if I care of asparagus too much.
Not pictured: Sweet Prawn, very nice, but not as sweet as I'd like for prawn.
Bluefin Chutoro - that is the medium fatty fund with tamari sauce. Pretty good flavors.
This is a A5 Way strip loin - it has caviar and onions on top. It's been torched, yummmm.
This is an interesting one: it's a funky take of grilled cheese. It has millefeuille with puff pastry on the outside. Inside it has cheese sauce and guava jam. It's interesting, it's a bit salty and a bit sweet. The sweet from the guava jam was interesting, and the cheese sauce is great on its own.
This is duck dish, with cabbage salad and orange hoisin sauce. It is a very good piece of duck, not too fat, the sauce plus cabbage together in one bite is good. Here's the thing though, why am I having better duck here than
Coccody?
This is a bonus dessert, It's panna cotta base with rice ice cream on top. That is a piece of candied lettuce (kinda interesting) and ginger bites. I will say the ginger bites are caramelized so the sauce plus the panna cotta was nice. But I truly think the rice ice cream was the star here.
That is Strawberry dessert with sourdough toast. Inside there's strawberry consume and strawberry chunks. It also has sourdough ice cream - that I really cannot tell if it's the case or not. Can I go back to the rice ice cream?
Overall, the service is great. I've always liked their service. Since there's 12 per seating, they don't need to have more people to do the service than that, since the chef also serves the food already. The food selection for the omakase, I feel like it's not worth $175. Of course, the food is good, it's Uchi good. But also felt like we can get just as good food at Uchi itself. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I tried it, but coming from Uchi, I had higher expectation.
You definitely need to make a reservation here. There's only 12 seats at this omakase. You do get to pick from one of two seatings each evening. It is $175 pp before tax and tip. If you don't show up, like the guy's date that sat next to me, you do get charge the full price.
Parking, they have valet complimentary. Or you can go across the street and self park at the underground garage.
Oheya
904 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77006
713-522-4804
.jpg)
.jpg)
