I had previously only been to Umi for happy hour and thus my only memory was fuzzily searching for the bathroom, which is camoflouged into a wooden wall and not ideal for those of us who have had too much cheap sake.
But this time we had missed Happy Hour (which runs til 8, so you must be very flaky to miss). So we had a look at the extensive fresh sheet and the two enormous pages of menu items.
I started with the oyster shooter. Each of the components–a sorbet, the oyster, and the salsa type veggies on the bottome–were delicious, but I very much like my oyster and found it very overwhelming to have all that going on.
I had a similar experience with the 007 Roll, which we tried later in the meal. I loved the concept of jalepeno and cilantro on a roll–it reminded me of Bahn Mi, but the lime slices were very overpowering. By removing them from the roll, just a hint of the lime remained and I found that much tastier. It was also a little unwieldy having everything (salmon, jalepeno, cilantro, lime) on top of the roll, since they didn’t really mold into the rice, so it was difficult to eat. However, the flavors were extremely inventive and I like that they are able to do new american style sushi in such original ways.
They are also capable of traditional sashimi just the way I like it. We ordered the smallest of the sashimi omakase’s ($25). We were brought a huge platter of a multitude of different kinds of fish, including multiple salmon, many fish I couldn’t name off the top of my head. Each and every one was delicious and well cut. I even ate the surf clam, which is not normally a favorite of mine. I wish I could remember what they all were so I can order them individually at places with out such an incredibly good deal!
We also had two other appetizers, the rainbow tartare and the king crab tower. They were eerily similar for being to such different things. Both came like a chirashi bowl, with avocado and rice. They both were nearly drowned in a wasabi mayo sauce as well. The rainbow had great fish and I loved the crab meat, but like the oyster and the 007, I felt that they didn’t leave the tasty and amazing fish they served to speak for itself. Sometimes simple is better.
Even so, I would return for another Omakase, and maybe a few other things too, I just know now to stick to the simple pleasures of raw fish.
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