Sometimes I give 4 forks because the overall experience was fantastic and sometimes I give a place a high rating because there's one dish that really stands out. While I loved the overall experience at Takashi, the fried oyster dish was simply mind blowing and is the main reason why I'm giving this place 4 forks.
Mr. Takashi is well known for having been on Top Chef Masters but this place is also literally a 2 minute walk from Deanna's and when they opened up a Sunday brunch option, we were really eager to check it out. It's obviously not brunch in the traditional sense instead they have a bunch of hot and cold Japanese inspired small plates and then a few main dishes with ramen being one of the main entrees. While they do have some vegetarian options, their best dishes are those for meat and fish lovers. The table next to me probably ordered one of every small plate on the menu and they all looked fantastic (especially the pork buns and the fried chicken). Deanna and I split the steamed kabocha squash ($5) to start. It was 4 large and delicious pieces of sweet, soft squash in a soy-mirin sauce. It was a perfect summer appetizer. I loved the pumpkin like flavor to it and the sauce was perfectly light but flavorful as well. For my own personal appetizer, I got the fried oyster ($9) and it f*cking amazing. It was 4 huge juicy and perfectly fried oysters. I mean the outside was crisp without being oily and there wasn't much filler or breading to it - just an amazing large bite of oyster. While 4 is definitely more than enough for 1 person to eat on their own, I would have gladly just sat there and eaten a whole basket of it if I could have. Deanna also got the kinpira ($5) which was lotus root, carrots, burdock, and yam cake. I'm not a huge fan of lotus root, so I didn't give it a try but Deanna enjoyed it.
For my main, I ordered the Kaisendon ($19) which is really the same thing as Chirashi. It's raw pieces of big eye tuna, hamachi, sweet shrimp, fluke, octopus, squid and salmon served over sushi rice, wasabu and umami soy. It was a solid sushi dish with really high quality fresh fish (I was especially impressed with the octopus which was not chewy at all) and nicely seasoned sushi rice. I definitely enjoyed my meal but as I saw the waiter bring out all these other hot small plates, I kind of wish I ordered more of those because I can get chirashi almost anywhere but some of the small plates looked pretty unique to the restaurant. Deanna got the Kinoko-Mochi ($13) which was long tubular pieces of rice cake with a medley of fava beans, mushrooms, corn and tofu. I had a bite of it and the sauce was fantastic but I can see how the rice cakes can be a bit filling as they are very dense and heavy. We ended our meal with the green tea tofu cheesecake ($7) - which was much more on the green tea and tofu scale than the cheesecake side. It's served with red bean and tofu ice cream and it was a pretty light dessert compared to what it should have actually been with a real cheesecake and ice cream.
All in all, I'm really happy that we finally made our way here. I definitely would recommend it with more people and with those that can split more of the meat/seafood based appetizers. The small plates are all very reasonably priced at around $5-11, so if you split it with a bunch of people, it'll make for a pretty affordable meal at such a high quality restaurant. Total bill: $72 for 2 with tax and tip
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