In DC, coincidentally right next to where I was staying, Chef Makoto Okuwa has opened a food hall concept named Love, Makoto. What’s unique about this Japanese food hall is that each restaurant comes from him and his brain (whereas food halls typically represent a variety of chefs) but covers different dining styles (four, to be exact), from quick service to omakase. I am a sucker for a good omakase, especially a reasonably priced one, so I hit up Dear Sushi ($85 for 15 courses with optional sake pairing and opportunity to “supersize it”…I tacked on both, obviously).
Dear Sushi is a love letter – a real physical one you’ll see when you get the wax seal menu – to sushi – both its deeply rooted traditions and the evolution it has experienced. I was wary of the gimmick of it all: the soy sauce dish forms a heart once your pour in the condiment, for example – is this all for social media? Nope. I found the flavor and intention to back it all up.
You start with two appetizer courses. The first is black sweet potato puree with lotus root and a soup with generous nori. Next, there are two hand rolls: tuna and baked crab. With the presentation here you’re introduced to the theme of the evening: juxtaposition of old and new school. With each course, they showcase both traditional and modern takes on both flavor and preparation.
The it’s onto the nigiri courses, but first a moment for the wasabi that was so fresh and clearly hand mashed. It may be odd to be so impressed by horseradish, but here we are. For the nigiri, each type of fish (5 in the standard option, 7 in the supersized) is served two ways: old school and new school. Old school treatment has soy, ponzu, sesame; new school is garnished with things like bottarga, hay smoke, and the heat of a blowtorch. I can’t remember which was my favorite – everything was good – but I do recall really liking the salmon and o-toro.
The sake pairing was wonderful and the servers were great about walking me through them. When I found the final sake cocktail to be too sweet for my taste, my server suggested adding some soda water to make it more my speed. I also added on a nightcap and found they made a great bourbon cocktail.
The final course was a dessert – not something you typically get at an omakase experience. This is the kind of thing I’d usually swat away – I’d rather have another savory course – but this strawberry ice cream with puree and shell was a trick to the eye and a perfect end to the meal.
Dear Sushi is a novel dining experience, but that doesn’t make it a gimmick. They’re not just making noise here.
Peaches to Apples 