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Archive for Yamakase

Yamakase Seven

Nov09

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: November 4, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Always awesome!

_

Yamakase is just hands down one of the most fun evenings in LA. Not only is the “modern” Japanese cuisine incredible, but the convivial nature of the place is just great. It’s not very big and as usual we take the entire sushi bar, but not tonight.

The location is in a good neighborhood, but something about this particular strip mall is a bit sketchy. Maybe it’s the 7/11. There are a lot of strange characters hanging about.
Inside, chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto rules over the sushi bar.

This time, being a Friday and a smaller party, we were 4 at the bar (of 11) and the place was packed with a total of 21 people!

Have a little tuna/toro! With the big crowd he went through two of these.

Larry brought: Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse. This release is based on the 2005 vintage and was disgorged in winter 2012/2013.

Homemade sesame tofu and uni. A “typical” Yamakase tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors.
 Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

Persimmon butter sandwich with marcona almonds. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

Mantis shrimp, baby peach, scallop, giant clam, and seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely. The baby peach was incredible.

From my cellar: 2002 Maison Leroy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Le Charmois. 94 points. Reductive, fresh, and delicious.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

Steamed/boiled cod sperm sacks with truffles. Sounds scary, but tastes great.

Roasted unagi with tomato sauce and truffles. Unusual combination that tasted like an Italian seafood dish — pretty awesome.

Frozen toro, uni, and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Hokkaido scallop in a dill sauce. A new treatment of some familiar ingredients. The dill sauce make for a different (and tasty) take on things.

Seasoned rice, baby fish, and marinated blue fin. An amazing dish with that fish over rice quality I really love.

Have a little foie!

From my cellar: 1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. 97 points. Absolutely exquisite. Soaring, kalediscopic nose, with swirling aromas of salted caramels, vanilla, honey, jasmin, ginger, almonds, and orange peels. Just mind boggling. Sensuous, smooth, and nutty on the palate, with a level of refinement that the other (also excellent) LdH blancos just can’t reach and a salty finish that leaves your palate tingling for what seems like minutes. A masterpiece that will last for ages.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

Hokkaido ready spikey crab. Never had these before!

Crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

The master stirring the pot.

Larry brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. 95 points. The current release of Krug Rosé is a beautiful wine, which is comprised of a blend of fifty-nine percent pinot noir, thirty-three percent chardonnay and eight percent pinot meunier. It was disgorged in the spring of 2013 and includes reserve wines in the blend back to the 2000 vintage. The wine is beautiful and still very youthful and discreet on both the nose and palate, wafting from the glass in a lovely and blossoming blend of white cherries, tangerine, wheat toast, stunningly complex minerality, delicate spice tones and a topnote of dried rose petals. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and seamlessly balanced, with a lovely core, pinpoint bubbles, bright acids and exceptional focus and grip on the pure and still quite primary finish. This is very easy to drink today, but it deserves some cellaring time to really blossom.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with crispy onions and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good. The broth had quite a white pepper kick too which was amazing.

Slicing the beef.

Look at that A5.

The documentation to prove it, including nose print.

Miyazaki goes beyond Kobe!

Miyazaki beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Some people got sashimi instead of sushi.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

Chu or O toro. Lethal. We had several pieces of this each.

Prepared to make the rolls.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse! Had two of these.

Hazelnut biscotti gelato. I made this gelato and brought it in (I have a special traveling cooler now for my gelatti). A pure hazelnut gelato with Italian (waffle) cookies and hazelnuts!

A small taste of baby peach sorbet. Super light and refreshing. Yama makes a very pure sorbet, no stabilizers, probably only fruit, water, and sugars.

There are different was to experience Yamakase, depending on you number. This was the first time in 4-5 years that I haven’t taken the entire sushi bar (and usually we have the whole restaurant on a weeknight).  This time it was just 4 of us in my party — at the bar — and on a Friday with a crazy busy crowd. At the tables there were mostly young Asian power couples. Quite the date night!

The food was as great as ever, and Yama added some extra staff so the service remained top notch and super attentive. The energy is a bit different with so many others and the space was packed. It’s louder, but with people staying more in their chairs. When we have the whole place, people are up and hanging out quite a bit. Yama also had to work like a banshee to produce nearly twice as many of each dish. He was right in front of me and it was impressive how fast he had to chop, plate, slice, dice, simmer, boil, etc. The knife was a flying! Those crabs had no chance. He is a total master and I’m proud to have him as my partner in Ramen Roll.

Food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable. He is unquestionably a genius. Yama has a tremendous range within Japanese cuisine, first rate ingredients, and a savvy palate. He is quite skilled at very traditional more subtle Japanese as well, but has tuned up the typical Yamakase meal with high end ingredients and bolder combinations for a more contemporary wow factor.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase Return
  2. Sumo Bowl Yamakase
  3. Yamakase Summer
  4. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  5. Yamakase Yummy
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, Sushi, Yamakase

Yamakase Summer

Jul18

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: July 8, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

_

Yamakase is just hands down one of the most fun evenings in LA. Not only is the “modern” Japanese cuisine incredible, but the convivial nature of the place is just great. It’s not very big and as usual we took the entire sushi bar (we had 10 this time, but you can squeeze in 11 or 12).

The location is in a good neighborhood, but something about this particular strip mall is a bit sketchy. Maybe it’s the 7/11. There are a lot of strange characters hanging about.

 Inside, chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto rules over the sushi bar.

In the back there are a couple of small tables — but the bar is really where it’s at!

Have a little tuna/toro!

2000 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. BH 95. This is more mature than the 2001 with a beautifully layered nose of yeast, lemon rind, brioche, dried flowers and spice hints. There is excellent volume and superb intensity to the firm mousse that despite the firmness exhibits a very fine bead. This is exceptionally impressive in the mouth with the same striking complexity of the nose coupled with positively gorgeous length. A knockout that could be drunk now with pleasure or held for a few more years first; personally I would opt for the latter but either way, this is a classic Clos des Goisses.

agavin: our bottle was delicious, but perhaps a touch advanced.

Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse. This release is based on the 2005 vintage and was disgorged in winter 2012/2013.

2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. A wonderfully layered and nuanced nose features an intense yeasty character to the maturing fruit that displays interesting phenolic characters, in particular petrol, along with aromas of apple, pear and soft citrus hints. In contrast to the nascent maturity expressed by the nose the flavor profile is still tight and backward with a genuinely gorgeous texture, all wrapped in a strikingly persistent and highly complex finish. For my taste the 2000 Brut is at an inflection point as the nose does offer enough maturity so that it’s really quite pretty whereas the palate impression is substantially younger. As such it really just depends on how you prefer your Champagne because I suspect that the nose will be very mature by the time the still very youthful flavors attain their majority. For my taste preferences it would be no vinous crime to begin enjoying this now but be aware that this will age for a very long time. The best approach is probably to buy 6, or even 12, bottles and enjoy them over a longer period of time.
 Homemade tofu, Momotaro tomato, and uni. A “typical” Yamakase tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors. I could even handle the tomato!

Persimmon butter sandwich with marcona almonds. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

1994 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Vendange Tardive. 93 points. Burnt creme brulee, dried apricot, carmelized peach/apricot in the pie tin; rich, creamy, full bodied with medium sweetness. Slight petrol-botrytis evident here (although not supposed to override varietal characteristics, I believe it does in this case); round, soft, but with overwhelming apricot notes; long finish.

From my cellar: 2009 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Dürnsteiner Kellerberg. VM 92. Medium green-yellow. Seductive aromas of ripe peach, subtle blossom honey and mandarin orange. Becomes more exotic in the mouth, adding papaya and lime to the mix. Sweet peach and papaya fruit is lifted by extraordinarily elegant lemony acidity. Finishes with palate-staining fruit and intense wet rock minerality. Wonderful to drink now, but should be even better between 2014 and 2024.

From my cellar: 2004 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. VM 95. Pale, bright yellow. Ripe pineapple, liquid stone and exotic honey on the nose, with a spicy lift that suggests an oak influence this wine does not possess. On entry, this is sweeter and creamier than the Frederic Emile, but it livens up quickly in the middle, showing powerful minerality and sharply delineated flavors of liquid stone, pineapple and citrus peel. Still, this conveys a distinctly glyceral impression that suggests more sweetness than its 5 grams of residual sugar, no doubt a function of the 20% or so botrytized berries (in contrast to the Frederic Emile, which included no botrytis). Communicates an impression of power with elegance, finishing minerally and long but not austere. Pierre Trimbach compared this wine to the estate’s great 1990. This is already showing more Rosacker terroir than riesling character. About 9,000 bottles were made from 1.5 hectares of vines.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

Mantis shrimp, baby peach, scallop, orange clam, and seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

1996 Domaine Bernard Morey et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets. VM 93. Knockout nose combines herbs, white flowers and spiced pear; at once oily and precise. Rich-bordering-on-thick but given clarity by juicy limey acidity. Very long, palate-staining finish. The yield here was a good 50 hectoliters per hectare, says Morey. Yet this is so much more fleshy and pliant than so many ’96s.

2004 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Boudriotte. BH 89. A deft touch of wood frames citrus and earth infused ripe chardonnay fruit aromas that lead to rich, full and fleshy flavors that are robust if not especially structured, all wrapped in a delicious and easy to like finish. There is good freshness here if not great underlying tension with fine overall balance and fine length. In sum, this is a generous and easy to like effort that should repay a few years in the cellar.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

Roasted unagi with eel sauce and bamboo shoots. This was very fresh, light, and seasonal.

2006 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 96. Pale, bright yellow-green. Knockout nose combines ripe pineapple, dried fruits, lemon, lime, crushed stone, minerals and mint. A wine of outstanding intensity, power and thrust, with sappy mineral and toasted bread flavors saturating the palate. Most impressive today on the explosive, mounting, tactile finish, which leaves the mouth vibrating. This called to mind Corton-Charlemagne-or a great Austrian riesling. Winemaker Seguier loves this but feels that the 2004 is in the same quality league. And the 2007 is even more chalky, he adds.

From my cellar: 2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM93+. Musky aromas of chicken broth, lime and crushed stone; quite austere and slow to open. Then less fruity but more important on the palate, with bracing flavors of lemon and apple and an impression of minerality I can only describe as creamy. A very rich, dense wine with a strength of material that belies the normal-for-Raveneau yield of about 50 hectoliters per hectare.

2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 93. The 2009 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is super-impressive. There is a level of detail, nuance and energy to the fruit that is quite rare in 2009. The Montée de Tonnerre possesses dazzling purity all the way through to the finely articulated, chiseled finish. This is yet another superb effort from Raveneau. I have a slight preference for the 2010 here, but the 2009 will offer fabulous drinking while its younger sibling ages in the cellar.

Shrimp with tomatoes and parmesan. A new dish, and a delicious one. The tangy tomato/parm sauce was quite lovely.

Chef Yama works on his next course.

2001 Marc Colin et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. 92 points. Beautiful from the get go showing honey, roasted hazelnuts, some white chocolate, and a little tropical fruit. Reminded me of an Aubert Chardonnay in many ways. Nice mid weight…not a blockbuster but at the low end of outstanding.

2002 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne. VM 92+. Very subdued nose hints at apple, minerals and nutty oak. Then intensely flavored, penetrating and youthfully backward, with bracing flavors of apple, spiced pear and powdered stone. Very densely packed, spicy wine that’s currently dominated by its powerful spine. This needs a good five or six years to blossom in the bottle and may well merit a higher score.

Frozen toro, uni, and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, salmon egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness. White truffles apparently this time of year. In December it was black.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 93. While understandably tighter, this is still drinking much like the same wine in 750 ml format (see herein). An expressive and still quite fresh nose includes white flower, pronounced honey and exotic fruit aromas nuanced by spice hints flow seamlessly into a similar flavor profile on the thick, powerful and vibrant middle weight flavors yet that possess more than sufficient acidity to buffer the weight and richness. Overall, this is beautifully balanced, long and offers superb intensity and has everything it needs to continue a graceful evolution. As one would expect from magnum, this isn’t quite ready for prime time and while it could be drunk with pleasure, if you wish to see the wine at its optimum point of development, it will be necessary to wait for a few more years first.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 91-94. A subtle touch of pain grillé highlights citrus notes that, like the Pucelles, exhibit hints of honeysuckle and fennel nuances that complement perfectly the textured, rich and sweet medium plus weight flavors that are quite supple yet remain detailed, energetic and strikingly long on the explosive finish. This is a relatively powerful Bienvenues. In a word, terrific.

Orange clam and scallop in a dill sauce. A new treatment of some familiar ingredients. The dill sauce make for a different (and tasty) take on things.

Bluefin tuna, caviar. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

From my cellar: 1985 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. A little oxidized. Not premoxed, just getting old.

From my cellar: 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. VM 96. Taut, vibrant aromas of grapefruit, apple, pear, and powdered and wet stone. A great expression of rocks in the mouth, with extremely pure flavors of grapefruit and lemon. Conveys a powerful impression of sweetness allied to sheer energy. Fabulous, consistent wine with near-perfect balance and extraordinary length. As penetrating as it is today, I would not describe this wine as austere.

1999 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet. 94 points. Light yellow in color. A bit of hazelnut to start but also some wood and bitterness. About 6 hours later, the wood resolved and the wine expressed some pear, honey, and hazelnut. This was supported by plenty of lemon acidity. Still very young.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

1998 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart. VH 95+. Bright ruby. Highly complex nose melds black raspberry, Indian spices, gunflint, tar and smoky oak; seemed to grow fresher and more vibrant with aeration. Dense, thick and highly concentrated, with brilliantly defined but still rather backward fruit flavors. Finishes with great length and extremely fine tannins that dust the entire mouth.

2002 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart. VM 95. Bright red-ruby. Highly nuanced, expressive nose combines strawberry, raspberry, minerals, lavender, chocolate, underbrush and fennel. Superconcentrated, silky and sweet in the mouth but with superb definition and energy. The wine’s sheer density of material completely buffers its 14+% alcohol. Finishes dry and classic, with explosive rising fruit and terrific thrust. The tannins are buried in fruit and soil tones. A great Burgundy

The chef is working on his ramen. Bright yellow eggy noodles.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good. The broth had quite a white pepper kick too which was amazing.

1986 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. 94 points.

1996 Denis Mugneret Père et Fils Richebourg. BH 93. Subtly complex nose of leather, earth and dried grasses with delicious yet quite structured flavors and fine length. There is good sève and muscle underlying the flavors though the tannins are completely ripe and the wine should drink well over the medium term. This is not flamboyant or especially opulent yet it delivers plenty of character and quality in a refined, discreet style. I like this very much.

1953 Remoissenet Père et Fils Richebourg. 95 points. Domain release. Must have been reconditioned as it tasted crazy young (for a ’53).

Miyazaki beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Some amazing sake!

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

Chu or O toro. Lethal. We had several pieces of this each.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse! Had two of these.

A small taste of baby peach sorbet. Super light and refreshing.

“Only” 25 bottles of wine. 10 people. Great stuff tonight too. No bad or spoiled wines. Stuff was great in all 4 categories: champ, white burg, red burg, and sake. Just some really stellar drinks.

There are different was to experience Yamakase, depending on you number, but all but one time I’ve taken the whole bar. On a night when the bar is split between a collection of smaller parties it might be more staid. But when we take over, it’s certainly not. We do the wine service ourselves for the most part with a little aide from the accommodating servers. It feels like a “private party with Yama.”

Food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable. He is unquestionably a genius. Yama has a tremendous range within Japanese cuisine, first rate ingredients, and a savvy palate. He is quite skilled at very traditional more subtle Japanese as well, but has tuned up the typical Yamakase meal with high end ingredients and bolder combinations for a more contemporary wow factor.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

Related posts:

  1. Sumo Bowl Yamakase
  2. Yamakase Yummy
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  5. Yamakase Return
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, kobe beef, Krug, Sushi, Truffle, White Burgundy, Wine, Yama, Yamakase

Sumo Bowl Yamakase

May25

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: May 20, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

_

Yamakase is just hands down one of the most fun evenings in LA. Not only is the “modern” Japanese cuisine incredible, but the convivial nature of the place is just great. It’s not very big and as usual we took the entire sushi bar (we had 10 this time, but you can squeeze in 11 or 12). This is my second time at the new location and while the back was empty first time around, this time there were 8 or so people at 2-3 tables back in the “depths” of the restaurant.

The location is in a good neighborhood, but something about this particular strip mall is a bit sketchy. Maybe it’s the 7/11. There are a lot of strange characters hanging about.

Inside, chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto unpacks his giant slabs of tuna.

We start with a bang! 2003 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil. VM 94+. The 2003 Clos du Mesnil is insanely beautiful. Vivid, resonant and textured in the glass, the 2003 boasts magnificent depth and pure breed. Since I last tasted it a few months ago, the 2003 has begun to shut down, which is probably a great sign for its future and overall longevity. Hints of smoke, slate and dried pear gradually open up in the glass, but the 2003 mostly stands out for its exceptional finesse.

Homemade tofu, Momotaro tomato, and sweet shrimp. A “typical” Yamakase tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors. I could even handle the tomato!

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. VM 95. The 1998 Dom Pérignon P2 is open and beautifully expressive today. Unusually open for a young P2, the 1998 drinks well upon release, especially compared to the 1996, which was virtually unapproachable for the first few years after release. That is not at all the case with the 1998, which is quite open at this stage. Hints of apricot, almond, white flowers and chamomile add texture on the fleshy, resonant finish. The added time on the lees has given the P2 an added dimension of texture.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

2002 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JG 99+. At first sight a lovely bright golden colour. A very charismatic fresh nose, promise of natural intensity and elegance with strong presence of fruits, fruits of all types. A diverse bouquet of orange aromas with some notes of liquorice and light chocolate biscuit can be enjoyed.
On the palate, astonishing, balanced and delicate with significant fresh, tropical, wild and crystalised fruits. It is a hymn to fruit: red, white and citrus fruit with notes of cassis, chocolate, candied-orange peel, cocoa beans, honey with hints of smoke and toast enhanced by a vibrant, persistent long finish. It is a balanced dialogue between Pinot Noir (40%) and Chardonnays (39%) with Meunier (21%).

Persimmon butter sandwich. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

Mantis shrimp, baby peach, scallop, seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

1985 Louis Jadot Montrachet Le Montrachet. 90 points. Still intact, deep yellow, but fruit a bit faded.

Fresh steamed eel and baby squid. Lovely textures. I think the green things were bits of sisho too, or shiso flowers.

1986 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. 94 points. From a virtually perfect bottle, this wine had a deep yellow center and clear rims. Not surprisingly, the nose was rather closed at first. Eventually, the high- intensity nose showed apples, vanilla, macaroons, and white stone. In the mouth, this wine was reasonably ripe and rich but the wine’s majesty came from its powerful acidity. Not surprisingly, it showed awesome length after some time.

Scallop or clam with salmon row and steamed ice fish. These tiny little fish are so cute!

2007 Louis Latour Montrachet. BH 95. A deft touch of wood serves as a background presence for the reserved but fresh and bright floral, citrus, brioche and spice aromas that are strikingly complex and broad and complement the full-bodied flavors that are deep, dense and massive with exceptionally powerful drive and intensity on the gorgeously long and palate staining finish. This is an impressive wine blessed with great underlying material, perfect balance and superb harmony plus it’s built for the long haul. Note however that the expressiveness of the nose aside, the flavors are like a block of stone and thus I would suggest not opening a bottle for the next few years as it would likely be a complete waste.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

1979 Domaine Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots. JG 92. Or bottle was in great shape!

Seared beef, foie gras, and a foie gras sauce. Rich and delicious.

From my cellar: 2002 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Montrachet. Burghound 93. Tight yet fragrant aromas of stunning complexity reveal hints of peach, pear and a trace of wood spice, leading to large-scaled, extremely ripe flavors that stain the palate with wave after wave of sappy extract. Exceptionally powerful and very masculine, this is a very backward wine today with impressive focus and precision and it will require a minimum of 5 to 7 years of cellar time to arrive at its peak, though it should be capable of lasting a good deal longer.

Frozen toro, uni, and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les . BH 94. Razor sharp aromas of wet rocks, earth and white fruits meld into flavors that are crystalline in their precision, purity and transparency. Understated, discreet and fine yet this is painfully intense with buckets of minerality. Quite backward presently but this is a genuinely breathtaking wine that defines class. In two words, absolutely brilliant and consistent notes.

agavin: our bottle was fabulous. still reduced even.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness. White truffles apparently this time of year. In December it was black.

1999 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Canet. BH 92. Slightly exotic fruit (often a characteristic of Champs Canet) with notes of pineapple and banana with that mouth watering Granny Smith apple acidity. Marvelous intensity on the mid-palate that continues on to the long, powerful yet discreet finish. Not flashy and in fact rather understated for Champs Canet but it has arrived at its peak and is drinking perfectly now. Impressive in that it’s generous yet precise and pure with lovely harmony of expression.

Some kind of delightful raw shrimp or such in a dressing.

Bluefin tuna, caviar. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

2000 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. BH 91. The nose is still relatively fresh though the aromatic profile is one of a fully mature white burg, offering up notes of dried flowers, green apple and citrus hints that are also picked up by the elegant and pure medium-bodied flavors that display some wood influence on the otherwise admirably long finish. This is a Corton-Charlemagne of finesse and about the only nit is that one could wish for a bit more mid-palate concentration. No other recent experiences.

Yama’s new assistant plating.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.
 Uh oh, crabs!
 King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.
 At work in the kitchen — which is right behind the sushi bar.

From my cellar: 1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. 93 points. Garnet color, with light bricking on the rim. Red fruits on the nose, with some spice as well. The red fruits are also present on the palate. Long finish. Very good given the vintage and kept very well.

The chef is working on his ramen broth. Bright yellow eggy noodles.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good. The broth had quite a white pepper kick too which was amazing.

Because I asked I got the lefthand “sumo” bowl as my personal portion. It was so large even I couldn’t finish it! Almost though.

From my cellar: 1982 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 88. Superb nose of dried rose petals trimmed in minerals and damp earth follow by middle weight, slightly thinning flavors that display excellent complexity and frankly more structure than the mid-palate sap can adequately buffer on the finish. That said, this receives its marks for the sheer breadth of flavors and the clean, pure character. This is a first rate effort in what was a very difficult vintage.

agavin: 94 points. I thought this was drinking great.

This is real Japanese Wagyu, from Miyazaki. It comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes the cow’s nose print and stats. Yeah, the actual animal.

Miyazaki beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

A super complex sake Adam brought.

Erick brought this premium sake back from the brewery in Japan.

Another special aged sake Adam brought.

Some opted for the sashimi plate.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Sea bass. To die for.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Chu or O toro. Lethal. We had about 4 pieces of this each.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse! Had two of these. The second one almost gave me a gout attack!

A small taste of baby peach sorbet. Super light and refreshing.

“Only” 16 bottles of wine. 10 people. Great stuff tonight too. No bad or spoiled wines. Stuff was great in all 4 categories: champ, white burg, red burg, and sake. Just some really stellar drinks.

Plus, food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for. I’m headed back in July for more.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase Yummy
  2. Yamakase Return
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  5. Katana – Stripping it all Down
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Champagne, Foie gras, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, kobe beef, Krug, Sushi, Truffle, White Burgundy, Wine, Yamakase

Yamakase Yummy

Dec21

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: December 17, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

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My Foodie Club Yamakase meal last May was so good, we just had to go back before the year was out.

Again we had the whole place, but it’s a new place, having moved a little closer to my house into a space that is perhaps twice as large. Now that’s still small, but they have about 4-5 feet behind you instead of 18 inches and there is a section beyond the 11-12 person sushi bar with a couple of tables. No one else was there besides our 12, so we just used those tables for wine staging.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. A nice youthful vintage Champy.

Homemade sesame tofu, Momotaro tomato, and uni. A “typical” Yamakase uni/tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors.

From my cellar: 1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. 94 points. Superb rich butterscotch nose. Medium gold in color. Not oxidized. Classic batard richness and oiliness. Still some fruit but the oak becames more prominent with time.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 89 points. This was a nice Perrieres, showing round yellow fruit and slight florals, although it could have used a bit more acidity. I’ve had 3 bottles of this before, and this was the weakest yet.

Persimmon butter sandwich. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

1996 Verget Corton-Charlemagne. VM 91+. Extremely reticent aromas of Granny Smith apple and white chocolate. Vibrant and powerful, but hermetically sealed today. All sinewy structure, with a blazing mineral character and a slightly hard green edge. I’m a bit less confident about the future of this wine than I was a year ago. But certainly true to its terroir.

Lobster, baby peach, scallop, seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. Brilliant and ultra fine aromas of green apples and limestone lead to almost Chablis-like intensity and razor-sharp, incredibly delineated, chiseled flavors that offer superb texture and an almost chewy finish. This is quite different from many examples of 2002 Corton-Charlemagne as this more of a world class gymnast than a weight lifter as it’s sleek, silky and taut plus the delineation is like a hot knife through butter. In short, this is reference standard Corton-Charlemagne and highly recommended.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

2005 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 94. A strikingly complex nose of green apple fruit, pear and a distinct floral note complements perfectly the hugely powerful flavors brimming with dry extract and built on a base of solid minerality. This is a borderline massive wine that is textured, concentrated and sleekly muscled yet it remains precise, pure and balanced with positively huge length. A very impressive wine that could actually surprise to the upside as the underlying material here is as good as any 2005 Corton-Charlemagne.

Cod sperm sack. Oh yeah, looks like a miniature brain. Filled with creamy cod sperm goodness. This was just steamed and served with a light ponzu. If you can get over the look and idea of it, it was delicious.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright color. A quintessence of Corton-Charlemagne dirt on the nose: stone fruits, lemon, iodine, ginger, minerals and mint, all complicated by a musky, leesy note that reminded me of a Coche-Dury wine. Then compellingly dense and penetrating in the mouth, with captivating, soil-driven flavors of raw pineapple, white peach, white flowers and crushed rock; a sulfidey complexity and a saline element add to the wine’s spectacular subtle complexity. Hardly a blockbuster but conveys an impression of great solidity. This remarkably precise wine coats the palate with dusty stone and leaves behind a suggestion of honey. My sample at Bouchard in early June was painfully young and closed though obviously outstanding, but this bottle, tasted in New York in August, was spectacular. (Incidentally, my following notes on the Chevalier-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte and Montrachet were from bottles tasted at Bouchard-also quite backward at the time-and I would expect my scores to prove to be conservative.)

Glass fish wrapped in shiso leaf, with shiso flowers and a light tangy sauce. I’ve never had the shiso flowers, which carried a light shiso flavor. I love shiso.

1995 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. An extremely fresh anise-infused nose features the classic ripe honeysuckle and subtle spiced citrus aromas that continue onto the very rich, generous and lightly mineral suffused medium-bodied flavors that coat the palate with dry extract on the impressively long finish. This is lovely and displays no botrytis notes and for my taste, this could benefit from another year or two of cellar time and then drink well for at least another decade in this format.

Frozen toro and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Yama-san working with his beef.

1969 Remoissenet Père et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts. 93 points. Step up in finesse and elegance on the palate (not always associated with Malconsorts). This remains powerfully tannic but it is ripe although tannins are a touch rustic on the finish. Overall this has terrific full flavour and is in outstanding condition.

Sliced seared beef with ponzu and chives. A very light delicious beef carpaccio.

2003 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 90-2. Very pale, green-tinged color. Pure, reticent nose hints at cold steel and lime. Dense, sweet and vibrant, with enticingflavors of white peach, minerals and spring flowers. Finishes bright and very long, with an almost tannic impression of power.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. Racy, silky and vibrant in the glass, the 2004 Dom Pérignon is all about energy. Here the flavors are bright and delineated throughout, with veins of acidity and minerality that give the wine its sense of drive. Mint, rosemary and yellow-fleshed fruits linger on the finish with the classic DP reductive overtones that are such a signature. Once again, the 2004 Dom Pérignon truly shines. The 2004 Dom Pérignon is a wine to treasure over the next thirty or so years.

Hokkaido scallops with Japanese roe and olive oil and yuzu. The sauce elements worked together like a dressing and then combined with the soft scallop and the slightly chewy umami of the roe into an amazing concoction.

The olive oil was from Eisele vinyard! Yeah, like the WOTN the previous week at the California dinner.

Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. Burghound 94. Medium rosé hue. A cool, restrained and highly complex nose that is not especially fruity displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively firm supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé that is difficult to resist already though it should reward extended keeping if desired.

Bluefin tuna, caviar, pine nuts. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

1999 Sine Qua Non Tarantella. VM 92. Slightly hazy pale gold color. Captivating, soil-inflected, but rather restrained nose combines gunflint, nuts, smoke and stone. Then wonderfully aromatic, rich and vibrant in the mouth, with intense yellow fruits and musky, leesy and mineral nuances. Thick but utterly succulent thanks to lively, perfectly integrated acids. Long, palate-saturating finish. Potentially Manfred Krankl’s best dry white wine since his 1995 The Bride.

Yellowfin or some similar fish lightly flash boiled and then served with a lovely vinegar based sauce. The fish was melt in your mouth.

2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos (magnum). Burghound 95. This too is ultra pure and fine with its nose of wet stone, white flower, sea water and iodine that precedes delicious, full, detailed and impeccably well balanced flavors that are tight but long with a laser-like sense of focus and coherency. This too finishes with noticeable austerity yet there is real freshness and presence, indeed vibrancy here. The ’04 Le Clos will require at least 5 to 7 years to really begin to open up but once it does, it should drink well for 15. A stunner of a wine and one of the stars of the vintage that will be a long distance runner.

agavin: sadly, this bottle was corked 🙁

Yama slices truffle cheese.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

From my cellar: 2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. AG 94. Mint, white flowers, pastry and yellow orchard fruit meld together in Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée. This is one of the very best versions of the Grande Cuvée I can remember tasting in recent years. The impression of total silkiness on the palate is classic Krug. Even though this release is exceptional today, I would be tempted to cellar a few wines for the future, as the best Grand Cuvées age effortlessly. This release is based on 2006 and includes wines from 11 vintages going back to 1990.

King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

Ron generously brought: 2000 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 91-93. Wonderfully aromatic with essence of pinot fruit plus racy and rich flavors, slightly oaky flavors that have abundant material underlying the cool, reserved edge. Complex, long, fine and seamless with a sweet backend that builds in volume. Very impressive for the vintage and this too delivers buckets of marvelously intense sappy extract.

agavin: drinking great, with a real lovely power.

Erick brought: 1991 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin. 92 points. Quite nice for the vintage.

The chef is working on his ramen broth. Notice the noodle bowls ready for filling.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good.

From my cellar: 1982 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 88. Superb nose of dried rose petals trimmed in minerals and damp earth follow by middle weight, slightly thinning flavors that display excellent complexity and frankly more structure than the mid-palate sap can adequately buffer on the finish. That said, this receives its marks for the sheer breadth of flavors and the clean, pure character. This is a first rate effort in what was a very difficult vintage.

agavin: 94 points. I thought this was drinking great.
 Yama-san cutting the kobe beef.

 This is real Kobe, from Kobe. It comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes the cow’s nose print and stats. Yeah, the actual animal.

Kobe beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Real wasabi being ground for the sushi.

2001 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 92. Yellow fruits, smoky oak and a suggestion of truffley earth on the nose. Rich, ripe and smooth, with fruit-driven flavors of white plum and wet stone. Almost deceptively accessible today, as this has softer acidity and a bit less volume and grip than the 2002. Oaky on the finish, but boasts lovely fruit.

2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 93. More noticeable wood spice than in the prior wine combines with wonderfully pure green fruit and white pear aromas underscored by intensely stony notes, leading to ripe, chiseled, vibrant, wonderfully precise flavors that offer excellent definition. This really coats the palate and the finish lingers for several minutes. I like the punch here yet the intensity is delivered in an ultra refined, classy and pure style.

Dr Dave brought: 2008 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 96.  notably more elegant, cooler and more reserved nose of white flower, green apple and ample minerality complements to perfection the silky-textured, pure and stylish medium weight plus flavors that possess excellent volume but also wonderful detail and punch while culminating in an intensely mineral finish of superb intensity while remaining a study in purity and refinement. This is one of those ‘wow’ wines that amazes through transparency and delicacy rather than brute force. Still, don’t be fooled by the finesse as the intensity is such that a deep breath is required after sampling this.

agavin: I’d agree with the 96, this was a VERY sexy Chevy.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

2002 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 94. An expressive, elegant and pure nose of spice, white flower and green fruit aromas are followed by dense, big, rich and explosive full-bodied flavors that are blessed with abundant dry extract and a finish that won’t quit. Not withstanding all of the size and weight, this is impeccably balanced and overall, this continues to display that “wow” factor. Note that like many ’02s at this point, the ’02 Bâtard could certainly be drunk with pleasure but for my taste, I would suggest a few more years in the cellar first. Consistent notes.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Big, rich and muscular yet this offers excellent definition with explosive fruit trimmed in obvious anise notes and luxuriant, sappy, dense flavors of uncommon depth and complexity. The finish is rather linear presently yet offers wave after wave of mouthwatering extract, all beautifully framed by more than sufficient buffering acidity. A Bâtard worthy of the name and a great success for the vintage.

From my cellar: 1999 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. Burghound 93. Young Montrachet can often be quite austere yet this is forward and flashy with expressive aromas of oak spice, orchard fruits and a background note of acacia blossoms followed by large scaled, relatively dense flavors of remarkable complexity and a fine minerality that continues on into the intense and remarkably powerful finish. A very impressive effort.

agavin: so big it probably needs even more time.
 O toro with salt. Wow, wow wow. These might have been rich, but they were some of the best nigiri I’ve had in a long long time. Chef Yama spent a lot of time cutting and probably threw away 2/3 of the fish.

Chu toro. Lethal.

2005 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 95. Here the nose is completely different with pungent and almost aggressively intense green apple aromas infused with an underlying sense of wet stone that is in keeping with the character of the pure, chiseled and fantastically intense full-bodied and muscular flavors that possess serious punch and verve on the equally explosive and very fresh finish. This also has that ‘wow’ sensation because of the beautiful sense of tension that is like a tightly coiled spring. Terrific.

2008 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. An almost completely inexpressive but relatively high-toned nose of lemon rind, acacia blossom, ripe peach and apricot gives way to almost painfully intense full-bodied and overtly muscular flavors that offer exceptional richness on the magnificently long, mouth coating and palate staining finish that is wrapped around a very firm core of ripe acidity. Chez Pernot, I typically prefer the Bienvenues but as good as it is, and it is very good, in 2008 I give the nod to the Bâtard, if only by a nose, no pun intended.

Handroll ingredients.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse!

Emil brought: Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Old Family Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 45.2%. 95 points. This was a great Bourbon and Emil was very generous because these are selling for a lot of money. Perhaps, however, a big glass of this at the end of a meal, after 27 bottles of wine split by 11 people wasn’t such a wise move as my hangover was pretty epic too.

A bit of berry sorbet. Dessert is not a big deal at Yamakase.

27 bottles of wine (well 26, with one being a magnum). 12 people (but 11 real drinkers). Plus a 750 of Bourbon. That 2.34 bottles of wine alone per person. Woah! Great stuff tonight too. Only the 2004 Rav was seriously flawed. We had lots of great whites. The awesome Krug Rose, and the few reds we did open (Yamakase being a white focused cuisine) were stunning. Really great stuff.

Plus, food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

A gift from Kaz at Totoraku. haha

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  2. Yamakase Return
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  5. Raw Crab Guts are Yummy
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: beef, Foie gras, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, Sushi, tori, Truffle, White Burgundy, Yamakase

Yamakase Return

May22

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: May 15, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Even better than last time!

_

I’ve been meaning to get back to Yamakase for forever (2 years) and finally got around to booking the whole place again (which is really the only way to go!). The Foodie Club easily jammed in here. Not that 11 seats are that much to fill for such a great place.

This is the kitchen. Well it’s also half the room.


Yamakase is the brainchild of chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and video game executive Stan Liu. Here Yama-san scoops out some Japanese Uni. The restaurant is Omakase only, serving up a single seating of epic creative Japanese Kaiseki/sushi.

Those little white squiggles are some kind of seasonal baby fish. Accompanied by Hokkaido uni, some kind of homemade tofu, green onions, and I don’t know what else. This is typical of the Yama style, a mixture of richness and various sea-born textures. Very very umami.

This is the pescatarian (no shell fish version) with a special kelp.

Baby eels. Seasonal baby eels with caviar and a kind of slightly spicy mayo sauce. One baby sea creature not being enough, we have the eels, which are almost like mung bean noodles in consistency. This was bowl licking good.

Sea bass. Instead of the eels.

Uni and baby fish. The fish are wrapped in shiso and drizzled with a puree of avocado or asparagus or something like that. Delicious.

Abalone. The softest abalone I think I’ve ever had.

Perhaps Amberjack. Another replacement for the abalone.

Sashimi. This delicate fish was with a slightly tangy sauce. Amazing again.

Japanese scallop. With a light lemony sauce. Absolutely amazing.

A whitefish with a similar sauce.

Bluefin tuna, caviar, pine nuts. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

Bonito. Again in a lovely vinegar based sauce. The fish was melt in your mouth.

Various marinated seafood. Scallop, two kinds of shrimp, and a pickled baby peach.

A version with no shellfish.

Oyster spoon. Kushi Oyster, quail egg, uni, caviar. This single taste shot is an amazing combination of umami flavors.

The chef chunks up some foie gras.

Eggplant and Foie. Foie gras, caviar, Japanese eggplant.

Toro rules. Chopped toro on eggplant.

Floored. Chopped toro, crab guts and meat, quail egg, and truffle cheese. Yeah, truffle cheese. This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious.

Various spoons of toro, cheese, and quail egg.

This hairy crab from Hokkaido was still alive when we arrived.

Yama sets to work on them after steaming.

Served up steamed, simple, but delicious.

Red mullet or snapper cooked up in foil with mushrooms. The fungus turned into a lovely broth.

Ultimate bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good.

A more classic fish-based dashi soup.

Toro “Sandwich”. A slab of frozen toro on top of uni on top of some toast. Wow.

Yama flames up some beef.

Yama slices the beef. True Kobe wagyu.

Wagyu with truffles. Simply cooked, with a bit of a soy based sauce. Wow.

Toro with truffles and sea salt. Wow. This was just amazing. Very salty though.

Blue fin tuna sushi. Mouth watering.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

Chu toro. Lethal.

O toro. Even better.

O toro with salt. Wow, wow wow. These might have been rich, but they were some of the best nigiri I’ve had in a long long time. Chef Yama spent a lot of time cutting and probably threw away 2/3 of the fish.

A dessert sorbet. Baby Japanese peach (in season) with yuzu and mint. Very light and refreshing.

This was one of my best meals in a long time — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. The restaurant is only 11 seats. This made for a really fun time. We were there from 7 to midnight too. A total blow out.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “stew” were some of the best dishes I’ve had in forever.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

The one and only (and very attentive) server

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  2. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  3. N/Naka – Farewell to Foie
  4. Shunji Super Omakase
  5. Go Sushi Goes To Lunch
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: beef, Foie gras, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, Sushi, toro, Truffle, Yamakase

Yamakase – Burghound Bday

Jun17

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: June 11, 2013

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Even better than last time!

_

For my birthday I like to do a big wine and food blow-out with the Foodie Club. 2010 was in Spain at Calima, 2011 in Italy at Arnolfo, and 2012 was at Il Grano (spectacular) and this year, after an epic first meal at Japanese newcomer Yamakase, I decided to take over the entire restaurant: all 11 seats!


This is the kitchen. Well it’s also half the room.


And the other half. Actually, this doesn’t really show the seats itself (narrow lens) but it ain’t big.

And what would an Andy Gavin birthday be without great wines? I don’t know, because it never happens. All of the wines tonight came from my cellar except for the 1999 Grivot (which Erick brought). All except the dessert wine are Burgundies — because I love Burgundy! We begin with a couple of old white Burgs. These are Chardonnay, but not just any Chard. White Burg is the ancestral home of the grape, the only place that does it real justice, and the more or less the only place where it ages well.

1985 Bouchard Père et Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. In great shape, honeysuckle and creme brûlée.


Yamakase is the brainchild of chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and video game executive Stan Liu. Here Yama-san carves up some pig leg.


Jamón Ibérico with Caviar. I’ve had a close cousin of this dish several times at various Jose Andres restaurants. This was nice thick cuts of the ham in Spanish style. On the right is a bit of cucumber and uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido.


Fresh sea scallop in a sweetened soy dashi with seaweed.


A fish version of the same dish.


“Spoons” are a Yama signature. These feature soft tofu with uni in the back and in the front as “caprese” with tomato and olive oil. This east/west combo is surprisingly delicious.


1989 Hospices de Beaune Meursault 1er Cru Charmes Cuvée Bahèzre de Lanlay. 94 points. Darkening toward amber. Opulent nose, butterscotch, mango, and wheat coming and going. Very rich with a penetrating intensity and a finish of near grand cru length. Probably at peak.


Halibut sashimi with 500 million year old Himalayan sea salt. The back bits are cut in the “thicker” style with a bit of a sweet sauce.


Super rare young yellowtail with a mixture of crab guts (kani miso). The gut sauce was amazing!


Without the guts.


2001 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 90-92. The aromas are riper than the 2000 version though with a similar mix of green apple, melon and muscat notes followed by extremely fresh and wonderfully pure chardonnay fruit suffused through and through by an intense stoniness followed by relatively big and still quite tight middle weight, taut, muscular flavors of considerable tension and breed. This is a stunning effort for the vintage and may ultimately equal the excellent 2000.


This hairy crab from Hokkaido was still alive when we arrived.


Not so much half an hour later.


Served up steamed, simple, but delicious.


Bonito tuna sashimi with olive oil and sauce.


1996 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaumonts. 90 points. The nose is this gorgeous baking spice with fresh strawberries and white pepper. The moment you pour it into the glass it just explodes. The nose just kept going for hours as it got more and more expressive as the depth of the fruit built. On the palate you get that soft texture with concentrated dense red fruit and this wonderful minerality that persists throughout the finish. The broad structure makes me think the wine will fill out even more over time.


Another fish in a mayo / roe sauce.


Red snapper with yuzu and lemon.


1999 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. Burghound 90. This is a very powerful wine if not necessarily an elegant one with plenty of Vosne spice and rugged, structured, dense and punchy flavors that display solid length. The tannins are ripe and this will clearly take its time coming together but it’s a powerful and serious blessed with excellent underlying material.


Rare seasonal sea eel. Because of the bones yama-san cuts them in a special way with his sword of a knife.


They are boiled simply.


Then served with three different sauces: eel sauce, honey, and a plum sauce. Really delicate and delicious.


Atlantic salmon (some special northern Salmon) served with olive oil, another sauce, and salt and pepper.


1999 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. Burghound 91-93. Roasted ripe fruit that has a mix of red and black fruits, especially black cherry with wonderfully spicy, complex flavors that are both rich and dense. This is very ripe but the acidity is more pronounced which does a better job of balancing off the richness. Clos St. Jacques is almost always the finest Gevrey 1er chez Jadot and 99 is no exception. Grand cruquality and because of the richness, this will be approachable young but drink well for a long time.


Another round of spoons. In the back, kushi oyster with blue crab salad and quail egg. In the front, oyster with uni and quail egg.


Yama lays out the ramekins to make his signature seafood custards.


Chawanmushi, a egg custard. This one was very hot (it usually is) and included 7 kinds of seafood. Various crab, fish, lobster, uni. It was delicious, rich, and very unami.


1996 Domaine Joseph Drouhin Charmes Chambertin. Parker 92. This medium-to-dark ruby-colored wine has a fine nose of deeply ripe blackberry and cassis. On the palate, this well-concentrated, thick, complex, and harmonious wine is replete with loads of black cherries and spices. It has extremely ripe and supple tannins in its long finish.


This is a giant slab of amazing Spanish blue-fin tuna.


Watching him cut and partition it into “tuna” and “toro” sections was really interesting. Everything that doesn’t make the “cut” is tossed.


Blue fin in soy sauce with pine-nuts. Incredible, like the best Poki you ever tasted.


Another spoon, with toro, quail egg, wasabi, and some sauce. Delicious!


Boiled monk fish liver.


Served up with chives and a ponzu. Almost certainly the best akimono I ever had.


A “toast” of frozen toro, blue crab, egg, and brioche. Very interesting flavor/texture/temperature combo.


1999 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. 95 points. Wine had a beautiful, intense aroma of bark, tar and musty dark fruits. On the palatte, lots of dark fruits–blackberries, black cherries and cassis. Lots of forest floor hints, and great minerality. If I had one complaint, albeit a very minor one, this wine lacked ever-so-slightly in elegance–I guess there’s the difference between this one and a Grand Echezeaux. The wine was medium to full bodied, showing wonderfully with still a bit of soft tannins on exhibit. I think this wine is in a great spot right now. As I always say, there’s no better wine than a fine burgundy–this and the Echezeau are prime examples. An extremely enjoyable wine!


A bit of genuine Japanese wagyu beef. No fat here.


Salted and peppered.


The chef makes a simple sauce of dashi, mushrooms, maui onions, flour, and a few other things for the beef.


This variant is salmon instead.


A fantastic simple piece of blue-fin tuna (Maguro).


Young yellowtail.


Mackerel?


Amazing salmon with salt.


And the best for last: toro! Melts in your mouth.


2002 Château Climens. Parker 93-94. I suspect most readers will find it hard to get excited about the 2002 vintage for the sweet wines of Barsac and Sauternes after what appears to be a prodigious 2001. However, 2002 is a very fine year for this region, possibly superior to any of the vintages between 2000 and 1991. The wines possess plenty of botrytis, but neither the impressive definition nor supreme elegance of the 2001s. This is a sweet, full-bodied, fat, concentrated, intense effort that was showing well.


A “rice course” with rice, toro, wasabi, and uni (from San Diego). Lots of uni!


A dessert sorbet. Baby Japanese peach (in season) with yuzu and mint. Very light and refreshing.

This was one of my best meals in a long time — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. We had fantastic wines, stunning and innovative food, and a really great format. The restaurant is only 11 seats. This made for a really fun time (and I even staved off the hangover with a milk-thistle, B6, and a lot of water).

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

A Burghound Birthday!

The one and only (and very attentive) server

Related posts:

  1. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  2. Sasabune – Dueling Omakases
  3. Food as Art: Sasabune
  4. Go Go Go Sushi!
  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bâtard-Montrachet, Corton-Charlemagne, Foodie Club, Jamón Ibérico, Japanese cuisine, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, Meursault, Stan Liu, Sushi, The Hump, Uni, Wine, Yamakase

Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!

Mar08

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: March 1, 2013

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best meal in months!

_

Back before its unfortunate incident and closure, The Hump was one of my favorite restaurants. I went every week or two for years. So it was with great pleasure that I discovered its chef, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto has recently opened a new venture. This is a tiny 10 seat sushi bar that follows the semi-secret invitation only style of another of my LA Japanese favorites: Totoraku (going again next week, yay!).


There is no official frontage and just a tiny little room and a 10 seat sushi bar. Yama-san does all the cooking himself with just one wait-person. There is no corkage, which is awesome!


We started with this champagne brought by white and bubbly maestro Ron. The NV Brut Rose is a pretty, gracious wine. Freshly cut roses, red berries and spices take shape nicely in the glass as the wine shows off its understated, timeless personality. Billecart-Salmon’s NV Brut Rose is a reliably tasty wine.


Jamón Ibérico with Caviar. I’ve had a close cousin of this dish several times at various Jose Andres restaurants. This was nice thick cuts of the ham in Spanish style. Yum.


Baby eels (you can see the eyeballs) in a creamy (probably mayo wasabi with flying fish roe) sauce. The green thing is baby peach. These little fellows, besides being tasty, are in season right now.


Burghound 93-95, “It seemed relatively supple and forward, indeed more or less ready to drink. To be sure, there was no obvious secondary nuances in evidence and still good freshness to the rich, intense and vibrant flavors brimming with minerality on the impressively long finish. Impeccably stored bottles might need another few years to arrive at their peak but absent this bottle being an aberration, I don’t think that opening one today would be infanticide.”


In the front, Hokkaido uni with black truffle and some kind of white stuff, which I think is Kusshi oyster or soft-boiled quail egg. It was damn good.


And in the back, arguably better, is “kanimiso” (crab guts) the oyster/egg and truffle. This had a long briney finish. Really long. It paired best with the Champagne.

H Boillot Batard Montrachet

Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar, July/Aug 2006:
and spices. Then wonderfully flavorful and gripping in the mouth, with a sweet orange marmalade flavor framed by lively acidity. At once superripe and precise, and fresh and very long on the aftertaste. This was picked at the beginning of the harvest, with potential alcohol of 13.8%. Boasts superb intensity and density of material. 92-95

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database, April 16, 2011: An intensely floral and still exceptionally fresh nose is nuanced with hints of spice and citrus where the latter can also be found on the textured and borderline massive flavors that display absolutely no sense of heaviness on the exceptionally rich finish that drenches and stains the palate. This is a big wine yet there is a firm acid backbone that keeps everything in ideal balance and overall, it’s an extremely impressive effort. While the abundant dry extract enables this, like many ’05s, to drink

with pleasure now, in magnum format I personally would allow for at least another 4 to 5 years of bottle age. 95


Giant clam, sesame, in the same sauce as the eels. There was probably some citrus in here too and it was very tasty with a nice texture.


More spoons. There is quail egg and some blue crab in sauce on the left, and Santa Barbara uni, oyster, and quail egg on the right. Also awesome, particularly the crab.


Homemade tofu infused with kanimiso and topped with salmon roe. Brine on brine and very good.


Yama-san torches the next course.


Belt fish, charred with sauce.


A pair of Robert Ampeau Volnay-Santenots, 1990 and 1978. Ampeau is a rare producer who releases  his wines years after the fact, only when they are ready. This 1990 was released only last year!

1990: Perfect ruby color with a nose of spicy cherries and sweet earth. Quite full and rich for an Ampeau and made in a reductive style that makes for a mouth-puckering style with a flavor of sour cherries. There is depth to the wine and the finish is complex with great spice notes. Drinking very, very young.

1978: While this was clearly the same terroir, the 1978 blew away the youngish and middle-aged 1990. This had that more even more mouth-puckering thing going on that is one of the great parts of mature Burgundy. Lots of complexity.


The best spoon yet, toro, wasabi, quail egg, and crab. Totally awesome.


Hello, what do we have here?


Hairy crab from Hokkaido, steamed straight up. Delicious all by itself.


Chawanmushi, a egg custard. This one was very hot (it usually is) and included 7 kinds of seafood. Various crab, fish, lobster, uni. It was delicious, rich, and very unami.


King crab legs cooked in the sous vide, with caviar, and truffle butter. A really nice subtle combo!


Parker 94, “The 2001 Barolo Falletto impresses for its layered, silky personality. Sweet roses, tar, licorice and menthol are all woven together in this deceptively medium-bodied Barolo. There is plenty of muscle to back things up. Today the Falletto is quite a bit more delicate than it has been in the past.”

Ron had opened this wine 30 hours before — and that was to our advantage because it was just coming into its own.


Frozen (nitro?) toro with crab, egg, and brioche. Very interesting, and the toro was completely different at this temperature.


A bit of Japanese beef. No fat here.


The chef salts the steaks with his 10 million year-old Tibetan rock salt.


The were sautéed up with mushrooms, ponzu, and Maui onions. Delicious. Rich. Tender.


This older village wine, the 1986 Drouhin Aloxe-Corton, was drinking fabulously. Quite youthful even, but in that mature stage of extended finish.


Don’t piss off the chef with the big knife!


A fantastic simple piece of tuna (Maguro).


An even better  piece of toro with a bit of uni on top.


Then a toro, uni, shiso handroll — delicious. The chef sure loves his uni, and clearly, so does Erick (the tongue).


And his crab guts. This vinegary rice with crab guts and wasabi was really quite excellent. Don’t be scared.


2002 Gerhard Hattenheimer Schützenhaus Riesling Eiswein. An unctuous syrupy dessert wine, really fabulous.


A bit of sorbet. I was so drunk by this point that I don’t even remember the flavor.

This was one of my best meals in a long time — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. We had fantastic wines, stunning and innovative food, and a really great format. The restaurant is only 10 seats all at the sushi bar and so we chatted and shared wines with our neighbors — and the chef. This made for a really fun time (until the hangover set in at about 5am).

Click here for more LA restaurant reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

Related posts:

  1. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  2. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
  3. Tidewater Crab
  4. Matsuhisa – Where it all started
  5. Go Go Go Sushi!
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Allen Meadows, Foodie Club, Jamón Ibérico, Japanese cuisine, kanimiso, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, Stan Liu, Sushi, The Hump, Uni, Wine tasting descriptors, Yamakase
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