Kitayama (2)

by chrishei on October 1, 2011

The last of my long past-due posts. I had neglected to write this because Han had already written about Kitayama, and I didn’t want my post to be considered sloppy seconds. The two of us decided to go in early August when I was in the OC for a friend’s party, because it was one of Han’s favorite restaurants in the area. Again, I’ll do an abbreviated post here due to the time away.

We sat at the sushi bar for an omakase that night. Besides the sushi bar, which seats a dozen or so and has a room of its own, the restaurant was huge. There a big main dining room, where cooked dishes and shabu shabu are available in addition to the sushi. There’s also a garden outside, as well as a bar and lounge at the front of the restaurant. I didn’t get to take a good look, but Han says that it’s quite a sexy place.

Just a general overview of the omakase. The progression was interesting. Three of the sushi early on were blowtorched, and a couple of those had a yuzu kosho topping (minus points for using pre-made though). One sushi also had a pickled jalapeno-esque topping. The ikura had a distinctive taste that was a little different from the usual soy marinate. And the snow crab and avocado combo was like a fancy version of the California roll. Other highlights of the omakase were the uni and the toro, both which were fresh. However, while all the fish were good and the progression was rather interesting, the omakase as a whole didn’t really wow me. Nothing wasn’t a revelation. Just a solid sushi meal. But at least it’s good to know that the OC has decent sushi options as well. And the meal was a pretty good value (around $50/person).