Vince and I have been wanting to go to n/naka for so long that when restaurants started to open up again, we decided we didn’t need a special occasion to go. Everything being closed and not being able to travel was a good enough reason to treat ourselves to a good meal and what better place and way than n/naka. It took a while for me to get reservations so that by the time I did, it was a week before his birthday. Might as well treat him to a nice birthday meal with Brody and Marian. Now the last time the four of us went to a Michelin together was Alinea in Chicago like 3 or so years ago. That’s so long ago!
Chef Niki Nakayama delivers her modern interpretation of kaiseiki in a simple and sophisticated fashion. I have heard that she never makes the same meal twice. I think this might be from Chef’s Table on Netflix. The restaurant is also not obvious from the outside so it is easy to miss, but once you see inside, you know you are at the right place.
Now to dine here, you have to present a digital or actual covid vaccine card OR test negative for covid within the past 3 days. I love this rule. We realized we felt very safe inside of her restaurant.
There was a special meaning to why both ends of the chopsticks are narrow and there was a word for it. I totally cannot recall but it has something to do with both worlds or ends meet?
For our first course, we had the luxury of choosing our own vessel to drink from. This was a little fun moment for us!
SAKIZUKE. Uni, cauliflower purée, carrot coconut ice, trout roe, nori sable. This dish was accompanied by a watermelon drink, which was very light and refreshing. This was a delightful first dish. There were many different textures playing with each other, from the crunchy cracker to the creamy uni to the slight pop from the roe. I appreciated the very light salt that the roe and uni delivers to contrast with more subtle ness of the vegetables.
ZENSAI. Ni Yasai, Corn tofu, oyster lime, shishito white fish tempura, fig, unagi avocado, fig, wagyu nikogori. This was very fun to eat! We all ate ours in different orders from each other but we would comment out loud how we liked each one until we finally merged in all our tastings. Each one was such a nice bite but what stood out to me was the broccoli and carrot in the mushroom cream sauce and the corn tofu! The corn tofu had a semi firm texture. The unagi also pleased me but only because I am not a personal fan of unagi. But this I liked!
MODERN ZUKURI. Hirame, California nori, pistachio. Oh the freshness of the fish with the delicate and thin seaweed was such a nice contrast in textures. The pistachio cream underneath added a nice element of salt to the dish.
OWAN. Tai, eggplant, beans. They pour the dashi broth right in front of you. Honestly I don’t know what was the eggplant in here but I loved each bite and gulp of this dish. Apparently there is egg plant in this red snapper? It was very warm and comforting. The fish was very tender.
OTSUKURI. Traditional sashimi. Tuna and kanpachi with a watermelon radish. You can tell from the picture how fresh and carefully cut the sashimi pieces are.
YAKIMONO. Tasmanian sea trout, artichoke, preserved Meyer lemon. You only eat the ends of the artichoke. The sea trout was my favorite fish today! The flakiness of the actual trout as I separated the fish was unbelievable and moist while the firm crispy and savory skin was just a bomb of flavors in my mouth.
MUSHIMONO. Tomato, lobster shinjo, tomato and fennel mochi. Inside the tomato, there is lobster in the form of like a meatball. Sorry to describe this elegant dish in such layman’s terms. The tomato was robustly sweet and soft. The broth was delicious. This dish surprised me and made me enjoy eating tomato. I love that the tomato is skinned.
SHIIZAKANA. Spaghetti, abalone, pickled cod roe, truffles. This was very good. I wish I had a big plate of this pasta! I appreciated each abalone and the truffles is moderately present but not too strong. Of course roe is such a nice elegant way to add salt to the plate.
NIKU. A5 Miyazaki wagyu beef, corn. Oh the corn and the wagyu. I was not surprised we would be served a Wagyu round because it is a Japanese Kaiseki Michelin restaurant after all and this is a signature fine protein.
SUNOMONO. Nopales, golden kiwi, cucumber, aloe, chia seeds. Very refreshing and light palate cleanser it feels like after our wagyu piece. This white soju drink was very light and lightly sweet and very good!
This was the first time I had miso soup with soft onions in it.
Round 1 of nigiri course: Isaki, toro, katsuo. Isaki is a chicken grunt fish that is actually considered a shiromi (white) fish even though it has a pinkish color. It is highly prized in nigiri and sashimi. And we all know toro. Katsuo fish is skipjack tuna which is one of the most important fish in sushi before it was known as skipjack. It is a major seasoning of dashi stock and better known as bonito.
Round 2 of nigiri course: Scallop, baby barracuda, uni and ikura. All the nigiri are so good!
Round 3 of nigiri course: crab handroll. Now while the flavor of the crab is good and the seaweed is crispy, I have to say this handroll is inferior to Kazunori. There wasn’t enough crab filling, the rice was cold and the seaweed was wrapped carelessly I would say? But it is okay, I won’t ding n/naka because it is not a specialty handroll dining bar. Haha!
MIZUMONO. Lychee sorbet, shiso lime granita. The first round of dessert took me by surprise by the tartness of it. The sorbet was veryyy good and it did contrast well with the sour ice at the bottom. However, there was too much of it and if I ate the dish in its entire whole, it would be too sour for me.
MIZUMONO. Ginger poached plum, lavender ice cream, warabi mochi, honey crumb, tuile. Oh I am absolutely in love with this dessert. The honey crumb was such a wonderful crunchy cracker in its delicate fineness. The mochi was soft and chewy. The ice cream was light yet full of lavender essence. I want to eat this again!
They surprised us with a red bean cream puff with a matcha whip on top. There was 4 of us and I knew Marian would want to try it. I asked for a knife to cut it in half and our server came out with a second one saying there was an extra! What great service!
When our server came out with the birthday dessert, she also had a Polaroid camera with her. She took a group picture of us and gave us the Polaroid to keep for memories. What a personal and memorable small gesture! I absolutely appreciated this!
And wow to cap our night even further, Chef Niki Nakayama came out to our table to ask how we enjoyed our meal. We were absolutely star struck and froze. I can tell we all had shocked looks on our faces. She said she was here because she was obviously cooking for us. Why else would she not be here?? That’s when it dawned me, she prides in cooking for each and every guest and humbled enough to stay in the kitchen and then come out to each guest to greet them. Now that is something!
Thank you Chef Niki Nakayama for a memorable meal.
