Takao has been our neighborhood go-to sushi bar since the first day it opened. In fact, we were the very first customers. Takao has always excelled at clean presentations, well-executed cooked dishes and high quality fish. Unfortunately, Saturday night was not Takao’s finest hour.
Snow crab, fava beans, eggplant – the eggplant seemed out of place
Japanese Flounder – the accoutrements were to be added to the soy sauce – good
Blue fin tuna coated with wasabi sauce – the wasabi was so overpowering that we ended up scraping all of it off.
Spanish Mackerel, sesame seed, red onion, carrot, scallion, ginger – way too many ingredients that hid rather than highlighted the fish.
Cooked Octopus with spicy chili oil – the octopus was so tough and chewy, it was inedible.
Fresh water eel with egg and Sukiyaki (bonito-flavored soy) sauce sprinkled with Sansho – Takao is known for his finesse with cooked dishes – this was a mess – no internal integrity to the dish, just a jumble of ingredients.
Soft Shell Crab Tempura with fried onions, red, green and yellow pepper, ponzu sauce
Once the dish was deconstructed and the elements separated, the soft shell was excellent.
Tempura – asparagus, squid, uni
The best was the uni tempura
Chutoro
Shima aji
Kanpachi (amberjack)
Seared halibut
Takao usually gets first quality fish – this was second tier
Bottom line : a disappointing Takao meal and not up to his usual standards.
Wow, i’ve never had an uni tempura before, I have to try it. Best part, I can walk there. yay