Alexander K.
Yelp
Unfortunately, I felt a bit tricked by the aggregate Yelp review for Takumi. I realize that not everyone has had the experience of eating $400+ omakase meals from the highest echelon sushi establishments, but I can't really fathom why a 4.5 star is the average here.
Let's start with the positives. The service and appetizers were good, which consisted of the kanpachi carppacio and the calamari pasta. The carppacio was a bit over-sauced for me but not a huge deterrent as the sauce can be drained a bit off to the plate. The texture was firm and had a familiar "fresh" taste, a term that is overly used in sushi reviews. The fact is that larger fish are aged for days or weeks prior to it being served. Anyways, the calamari pasta was the highlight of the omakase for me. The mix of the julienned calamari, uni, julienned shiso leaf, and thin nori all worked in a harmonious unison of texture and taste. A tasty and well executed dish.
So, let me now list the negatives. I am deducting one star for shari execution; the rice seemed to have little to no seasoning, was cold, and was pressed too firmly. The other star deduction is for value; the meal came out to over $300 with tip and tea. We had an amazing meal in Oahu at Sushi Sasabune for nearly the same price with more courses. The neta was mostly fine but clearly not the best I've ever had; they included bluefin tuna, hotate, walu, arctic char, hiramasa, various uni, ebi, bronzino, tai, sawara, and salmon.
Anyways, don't trust the 5 star reviews here. They clearly don't know anything about upper echelon omakase. I would suggest to spend a little extra on Sushi Nakazawa in DC, as the quality and value is better.