Food

Does the Perfect Panna Cotta Texture Exist? It Does @ Sato Omakase in SF!

March 22, 2023 / Comments Off on Does the Perfect Panna Cotta Texture Exist? It Does @ Sato Omakase in SF!

Another Omakase in SF, just a month between each other! My brother’s birthday was coming up and one of my cousin’s birthday has passed, so I treated both of them (one belated bday and one pre bday) to an omakase dinner @ Sato Omakase in SF. 

Sato Omakase

1122 Polk Street. We went during St. Patrick’s Day weekend and I accidentally wore green. So many people for pub crawls, and Polk Street did make sense since there were bars and pizza places nearly on every block around that area. Anyways, Sato Omakase is within the Sushi Sato restaurant. There is a bar and dining area, but there is also an omakase option where you go to the other room in the back. Pretty cool!

All Members of the Party Present

My brother and I got there a bit early and went in. They put us at the bar so we can look at their cocktail menu and other alcoholic beverages. My cousin then walked in and the hostess took is to the other room for our omakase. 

The menu for the evening. Very exciting!!

Omakase Bar

There seems to be 2 rounds of omakase here – an early round – 5PM/5:30PM and a later round – 7:30PM/8PM. We did the 5:30PM one and by the time we’re about done, the chefs were setting up the seats and dishes for the later group. 

Saketini. We weren’t really feeling the cocktails on their menu and the bartender (only her second day on the job!) was amazing. She said she can make whatever we’d like and said she made a mean saketini with some raspberry. SOLD! We all decided on that. They loved it and one of the diners asked what the drink was. A bit too heavy on the raspberry for me, but they, I’m glad my bro and cous really enjoyed it.

Time For the Meal – Part 1

Images and captions are the easiest for me, so this will be the format for this post as well. Enjoy!!

The yellow drink is non-alcoholic. This is their amuse-bouche. Seedlip citrus, shio leaf, cucumber, lemon. Used as a palate cleanser. I personally liked my prior omakase experience drink starter a bit more as this one was a bit too sugary for me. It was good, really hit all the flavors listed, but not quite my thing.
Oyster - Trout roe, radish. Very good and fresh! I’d prefer it to be a touch colder, bit it’s a really good oyster. We saw the chefs prep these for the later group - they plated with the shells at first and the actual oysters were in a small container. Those were placed on the shells and then all the garnishes were placed on the oysters. Very smooth and flavorful. Even the guests that doesn’t normally like oysters really enjoyed this!
Chawan Mushi - Sea Urchin, red crab, steamed egg custard. OMG chawan mushi is one of my fave things at omakase places and Japanese restaurants that have them. The steamed egg is so soft, perfect texture. The roe and uni was remarkable. Good balance of all the ingredients. Delicious, warm, comfy.
Sawara Takaki - Seared Spanish Mackerel. Mmmm I love sashimi, and this was flavorful. The skin was torched beforehand, giving some of the bite a subtle crunch. Beautiful presentation and taste.
Ceviche - Tomato, corn, burdock, tosazu jelly. This was like a reinvented classic on the ceviche. The tosazu jelly had this slight balsamic flavor and it was really good. The edamame overpowered some of the bites, but it was a nice lil party in my mouth.

Next – Nirigi (Part 2) 

The above 5 items were part of round 1 – before the nigiri stuff started. Overall, the chawan mushi was my favorite. The mackerel and oyster were excellent as well. The ceviche was good, but not my fave, and I wasn’t a fond of the amuse-bouche citrus cucumber drink. 

Start of the Nirigi portion - Muki Hotate - Sweet scallop from Hokkaido. I love a good raw scallop. This one was really good. Excellent flavor and texture, but not the best scallop I’ve had. I wished the scallop was a bit thicker (or less rice) and a bit colder. Yum though.
Shima Aji - Yellow Jack from Kyushu. Amazing texture here. Smooth, has a bit of a bite that I absolutely adore. I’m a fan.
Sakura Masu - Cherry salmon from Hokkaido. Only comes out around the spring time, so this sounds seasonal. There’s a cherry blossom plant portion on this and that really added the flavor to this piece. I love salmon, but this piece wasn’t one of my faves.
Barracuda from Chiba. So my brother and I learned about barracuda during our omakase adventures and we’re a fan. That subtle smokiness from the chef’s prep adds so much to this fish.
Zuke Chu Toro - Soy cured medium fatty tuna from Spain. YESSS, fatty tuna!!! This was extremely delicious. Can we have some more please?

Small Break from Nigiri (Part 2.5?)

It’s a nice touch on the omakase that not all the nigiri portion are at once. We get a break with an amazing lobster dish. 

Lobster - Butter poached Maine lobster with Ostera caviar. I got a photo of this before they put on the amazing dashi (see header photo for the full photo). They cut the lobster with such precision and carefully layered everything. The broth was so good that we all drank all of it and we all enjoyed the lobster and the caviar. Def one of my top dishes for the evening.

Second Half of the Nirgiri (Part 3)

That lobster was so amazing. Now let’s move onto the rest of the Nirigi!

Ji Kinmedai - Golden eye snapper from Shizuoka. Not sure of it was from right after the lobster, but this snapper wasn’t really memorable. It wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t wowed by it. Still good though!
Kanpachi - Amber Jack from Kyushu. A lighter fish right after another. This one had some fattiness to it which made it really tasty. I love how they put on the right sauces and a perfect amount of them to enhance the fish itself.
Seki Aji - Wild horse mackerel from Oita. Wow, I love how we’re exploring a various part of Japan with all these fish. Mackerel can be a hit or miss to me, and it’s a hit at Sato.
Toro - Fatty tuna from Spain. Very creamy with that fattiness. I love it. There was a bit too much rice on this piece for me though since it took me a while to find that toro greatness within this piece. Once I found it, it was amazing.
Uni - Sea urchin from Hokkaido. Does Hokkaido have the best sea urchin or something? This bite was soooo darn delicious. Really good uni, very smooth. Sad to hear this was the last piece!

Supplement Options 

We had options to add on a Temaki (hand roll, with chopped fatty tuna, uni, and caviar) for $35 a piece and an Uni Truffle Bowl (rice, with chopped fatty tuna, black truffle, uni, and caviar) for $55 a bowl. I didn’t want to supplement on my own, so we skipped out on this. We already tried their toro, uni, and caviar, so it wasn’t really adding much new for us. If they had Wagyu as a supplement option, that’s when I’d say ok, take my credit card again and gain. The supplements look amazing. The bowl seemed popular and that can be shared since slices of seaweed was given to put the stuff in to make your own wraps or handrolls. Next time, or a la carte. 

Soup and Dessert (Part 4 of this Omakase)

Ahh, ended the nigiri portion on such a good note with the. Uni. Now comes the owan (soup) and dessert. 

Owan - Fermented red miso soup, sansho pepper. Yuzu Panna Cotta - Japanese citrus panna cotta, mango purée. These came at the same time and we were instructed to drink the soup first. The soup was good as we all enjoy miso soup. I had a bit of soap flavor in mine, which came from the tofu. Not sure if it sat on a board that had some soapiness or if my tastebuds were just playing around with me. The soup was amazing though. Great warmth to it too. Nice way to wrap up the fish. The yuzu panna cotta had one of the best panna cotta textures. SO GOOD!! Citrus kind of bothered me, but I liked the panna cotta so much that it didn’t bother me as much. The bottom had some red bean in there which didn’t really serve a purpose. If it was mango instead, that’d make the dish better and more cohesive in my option. Overall, great way to end the meal.
Birthday Dessert - Matcha cheesecake. My brother and my cousin got one of these for their birthdays! So pretty. I took a bite and personally didn’t care for it since the panna cotta was far superior.

Overall Sato Omakase Review 

My brother said he liked this place more than the prior omakase we had, so YAY!!!! I picked well. There were a lot of highlights here and I’d definitely want to come back and try a la carte so perhaps I can finally get their truffle uni bowl and some Wagyu. Location is a bit out of the way for me, but I’m sure we’ll find a way to make it work. We were all satisfied here. Worth it. Hopefully Sato Omakase will be the same (or even better) as time goes on and that they don’t get lazy after they get a Michelin star. YUP, I’m looking at you places where you raise the price and do some shrinkflation after you get that star… 

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