Ainsley E.
Yelp
Okay, no. I'm sorry, but our experience here was weird. I cannot recommend the omakase. It might be fine if you come and just order random sushi and drinks, but expect to wait and pay a lot.
Started off on the wrong foot when our server told us that since we booked a couple weeks ago, the omakase prices all went up by $30. That's after a $100 non-refundable deposit. So we ended up going with the lowest tier ($90) instead of the middle tier (previously $90, now $120). Glad we did, because the other folks seated at the bar with us went with higher tiers and the differences were minimal and definitely not worth another $30. It was like, a slightly different soup, one additional shrimp nigiri, and some different toppings on the nigiri. Whatever.
The "sake pairing" advertised is not what you think of as a drink pairing. It was a single bottle of sake "cold or hot," we had to ask which it even was, and it was for the whole meal. No pairing with courses. The server was nice enough to notice a gnat had flown inside the bottle and gave us a replacement. (There were several gnats flying around the sushi bar).
The music here is weird. It was like, disco "shake your groove thang" and Michael Jackson dance hits. Not something you'd expect in a high-end or even an Asian restaurant. It was distracting.
The staff was visibly in disarray. The food was running behind. Their walkie talkies (weird?!) were audibly going off and calling for certain people to do things. This business has been open for half a year at this point iirc so, what's going on with management where things are going off the rails on a Thursday night with only maybe a quarter of the tables occupied? We were there an hour and had only been served soup and oysters.
During the omakase we had:
1. Miso soup - fine.
2. Oysters two ways - the hot one was nasty, supposedly there was cheese in there but it tasted like mayonnaise and left a greasy palette. The cold one with the quail egg was very good but oddly warm.
3. Baby octopus - did not eat this, I typically like grilled octopus, but could not stomach it in this presentation (entire tiny creatures).
4. Sashimi - this sat out exposed on the bar to get warm for a good 10 minutes before being served to us. Kind of gross. Nothing special, but I liked the mackerel and scallops. It included toro, which was nice.
5. Nigiri - this was among the strongest of the courses. Several had really nice combinations of fish cuts and toppings. However the chef made sure to mention to everyone several times that it has FRESH WASABI that cost $150 a pound. He told you this until you acknowledged it and seemed impressed. Sea bream with scallion and salmon with garlic were our favorite nigiri. We had a squid and daikon one that legitimately tasted like soap... I have no idea how or why.
5. Salmon hand roll -- very good, but difficult to mess up?
6. Matcha panna cotta dessert - this may have been my favorite of all the courses. Simple and fresh, could have eaten bowls and bowls of it. I feel like the dessert shouldn't be the highlight of an omakase meal.
I will not be returning to Tabe. The omakase was almost a total waste of money. The service was awkward and slow. There are other good -- better -- (and more affordable) places to get sushi. This place has a lot to work on.