OTOKO — Restaurant in Austin

First off: any review that begins with “for X DOLLARS, you can get MORE FOOD at SPOT A or Spot B...” is an idiot. Let that sink in for a second

I’m not saying you have to be indifferent to cost, but for the love of god, let’s please stop judging restaurants by the food per dollar. Great food can get expensive. I get it. But, IF you want to be blown away by talent and artistry and quality, Otoko is for you. Believe me. If more grams of food per dollar, is your thing. don’t come. It’s not a valid yardstick.

Back to Otoko: if you want to support the unique value of “craftsmanship” in this world (for lack of a better word for what Chef Yoshi does”), then let’s talk about Otoko for a minute.

I for one value talent and attention to craft...whether it’s $10 or $200 (you can get both). As for Otoko — if you’re up for highest-even talent: Chef Yoshi is a master and you should count your lucky stars for experiencing his place in my opinion. Judge a meal at Otoko not by cost per gram but by how you FEEL after experiencing it. I, for one, felt amazing.

I won’t try to describe each of the ~20 dishes for you - I’ve got no talent for that and no pictures. But, i’ve eaten at a lot of places in this world and I can say that for me the Otoko experience (...which has to start with a whisky highball from Ricky and Whitney at Watertrade IMHO) is a wonderland of taste and aroma and texture and beauty. It left me breathless. {and i’ve done Tokyo}.

So, i will give you a couple of highlights amongst a bunch highlights, since this is a restaurant review;

1. The Otoko meal in May 2019 started with a ‘charcuterie plate of sorts’ - five Japanese bites to start the evening. Bite #1 was a ‘punch-you-in-the-face-in-the-most-delightful-way’ flavor bomb of prickly pear followed by lotus root and salmon roe and ending with a wonderful tiny firefly squid bite that i’ve never experienced before. In other words...bite 1 says “Welcome to the E-TICKET OTOKO ride at Disney...buckle yourselves in.”

2. i get it...people wants sushi. So, here’s My take: Otoko’s sushi nigiri bites were incredibly focused and skilled and clean. Exactly what you want with nigiri. With all deference to the other great places in Austin (and in the U.S. for that matter)...Otoko’s nigiri is up there with the best of the best.

3. Another highlight; the complexity of Otoko’s chawanmushi (a Japanese egg custard) was out of this world. Yoshi adds maitake (the greatest of all shrooms), a bite of shrimp, a little Iberico ham. It was amazing and was an amazing transition from Otoko’s grilled bites (i’ll leave those for you to discover for yourselves...#nospoilers) to Otokio’s tempura.

4. OMG Otoko’s soup (“Shirumono”) to end the savory part of the meal before dessert was amazing. You could hear the “oohs” from the crowd. It was as pleasing and savory and complex and focused a dish as i’ve had in quite a while.

Sorry i can’t provide a more detailed description of Yoshi’s artistry - I just can’t do it justice. And i don’t have pictures. I can only say that Otoko blew me away as is worth your consideration if you’re into this kind of revelatory food experience. Personally, I am thankful to have experienced it and look forward to my next opportunity to spend an evening at Otoko.

[Side-note: get the sake pairings. “You’re welcome.”].

Thanks Chef Yoshi, Adam, Max,...

You pay a premium here to be treated like a king and queen. Service was definitely 5 stars. They made you feel important. Even when they're carrying food, you'll see the rush in their eyes and non verbal communication as they got out of your path. Definitely something that I did not expect at all or felt that i deserved, but it was definitely appreciated hindsight.

The overall service was top notch and took care of all of your needs and extraneous liquids and items, while fluidly being out of the way so that you can enjoy the people that you came with.

Food was delicious and very novel and quite unique near the end of it (we got the kansai experience). Blast of flavors and textures with each bite was on par or exceeded expectations. The small dishes were rather too unique at the end, as i had to eat my significant others fried grasshopper. However that is not dissuading opinion of the place. I definitely want to go back and try the sushi only experience.

Environment was unique and awe inspiring. Unfortunately the kitchen produced fan noise, and i would not recommend sitting at the far right end of the table if you can help it. It didn't bother me every minute, but definitely something that i noticed once and pointed out as a conversation piece. I think the room itself would be more successful with added acoustic absorbing material integrated into the space, as it was already a rather small space. It was by no means a loud and intruding environment and i enjoyed the ambience, i am just pointing out the smallest of minor details that could be improved upon.

There was not a lot of 'entertainment' and interaction from the head chef, like our first omakase at Sushi By Scratch, which was great for a first timer. However everyone works in different ways, and what the head chef and the others, were talented with what they prepared for us.

There was an unexpected added unique touch, we were given menu's of the dishes with a cute note to us to enjoy our anniversary with our names printed on the menu. It listed each dish experience, its ingredients, what fish it was and where it came from. As well as each unique tea paring that we did, and where it was sourced. I enjoyed this as it is something to remember the experience by and something i can look back on to see what fish and where it came from. Something that i enjoyed at the other place mentioned above, but by now have already forgotten where what came where.

Out of 5: poor/fair/good/very good/amazing Overall: Amazing Food: Very Good to Amazing Service: Amazing Ambience/Design: Very Good Ambiance/Noise: Good to Very Good Value: Fair (i might just...

Hoping to indulge in the widely celebrated dinner experience at Otoko, my wife and I forked over our $500 payment a month in advance, all in anticipation of a memorable wedding anniversary evening. What we received, however, was far from the luxury and refinement we were promised. From the very moment we stepped foot inside the restaurant, the staff greeted us with a cold indifference that bordered on outright rudeness. The bartenders, in particular, stood out for their dismissive refusal to even let us sit at the bar, offering no explanation and instead treating us as if we were inconveniences to their elite space. Left to fend for ourselves, we found seating—if you could call it that—on a disgustingly filthy couch that looked like it had been dragged out of the back of a fraternity house basement. The entire atmosphere reeked of pretension, with the staff seeming more interested in making us feel unwelcome than in enhancing what was supposed to be a special evening. When it came to the food, the preparation team was clearly working hard, but the results were laughable at best. Each dish was a tiny, unimpressive morsel that failed to justify the astronomical price tag. Worse, the lack of basic hygiene was alarming. Not one member of the kitchen team wore gloves or hair nets. While that might be acceptable for this so-called "elevated" Japanese dining, it’s definitely not acceptable to find a stray hair in your fish! Then came the final insult. The waiter, an obnoxious caricature of the worst kind of snob, saw fit to publicly humiliate my wife with an unprovoked comment. When I asked for an apology, he didn’t just refuse; he fled across the restaurant, leaving us to pour our own tap water (yes, believe it or not, $500 got us only tap water). To top it all off, the manager’s response was as appalling as her team’s behavior. When I voiced concerns about the treatment we received, she dismissed them entirely, further reinforcing the toxic environment we had been subjected to all evening. Realizing the evening was beyond salvage, we did what any rational people would do: left Otoko and went across the street to Vespaio (a place I highly recommend). Some of you might have good luck at Otoko, as a few reviews suggest, but our experience was nothing short of a high-priced nightmare. Save yourself the time, the money, and the regret—we certainly won’t be back, and I’ll be spreading the word about this disastrous excuse for...