Chef Frank Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Sacramento

We wanted Omakase dining at the last minute for dinner. I found Chef Frank on Yelp with great reviews and decided to give them a try. I called the same day (Sunday) and got reservation for 5:30 pm seating. The second seating is at 7:30 pm. For those not familiar with Omakase dining, it's similar to pre-fixe dinner. It's a set price ($125) for 15 courses, and the chef makes the selection for you. You usually sit in front of the chef. It's intimate and an experience worth trying at least once if you enjoy Japanese food.

We started off with Uni Seared Tuna Monaka as appetizer. The Uni was fresh and 5 stars for the creativity to serve as a mini sandwich. The sashimi course was Hamachi and Scallops. Both my favorites! I loved it and wish I can have more! For the 3rd course was a steamy hot Truffle Mushroom Steamed Egg. It was shockingly delicious! I haven't had anything like this and I thoroughly enjoyed every spoonful! The next 10 courses are Nigiris served one piece at a time. Chef Frank explained the fish region and how it was prepared. There were so many different types of fish. All mouth-watering and fresh! By this point, I was pretty full. We finished off with Unagi Crab Meat Spring Roll presented in a Hand Roll style. Very interesting and nicely fried. The dessert was Panna Cotta with either Matcha or Red Bean. I wasn't crazy about it. The Matcha should have been ice cream or a creamy custard like topping instead of a tea in liquid form.

Overall, we had a great experience. I would suggest slowing down the service a tad bit to allow time to savor the food...

Chef Frank is a culinary genius.

As you'll see from my reviews of countless sushi restaurants, I am nothing if not a connoisseur of sushi. I've lived in Japan where I was fortunate to have eaten at some of the best sushi restaurants Tokyo has to offer. I've had meals at every sushi place on the peninsula of the bay and in SF. Believe me when I say that Frank and his team of chefs run a tight ship. The sushi was absolutely on point. The rice was the perfect consistency. It had the perfect flavoring. The balance of portions in the crafting of each piece was perfect. The traditional nigiri and maki were authentic and delicious.

I usually stay away from the 'big California-style' rolls because they are NOT the sushi I've ever had in Japan and definitely not a familiar concept to any of my Japan-dwelling friends. However, we did try three of them to get the full experience. The Rainbow, Sunset, and Superstar Rolls were fantastic. Perfect balance of flavors!

I always tell my wife that she can tell if I like the sushi or not by whether or not I mix the wasabi into a dish of soy sauce to drown out the terrible flavors. Tonight, I ate using the traditional style of dipping the pickled ginger (white, not RED!) into the sauce and then mopping lightly over the fish with a small pinch of wasabi on the fish that deserved the hint of umpf. No drowning for this delicacy!

Anyway, I now have a sushi destination in the Sacramento area worth visiting. 5/5,...

I'm not sure why this restaurant gets such great reviews for its food. The service is decent and the atmosphere is okay. (Not as loud as Spago, by any means, so that's a plus.) The sunomono served as an appetizer was tasteless. I couldn't taste the rice vinegar at all. The sushi was passable, with an over-reliance on sauces. The spider roll I had was bland. A lot of everything else besides the soft shell crab. The hamachi (yellowtail) wasn't at all memorable. They did something weird to the ikura (salmon roe),.Possibly they used their sweet eel sauce. The ikura' was no longer the usual bright orange, but a dark reddish color, and it tasted all wrong. Their ama ebi was good, I'll give them that. They should have left their fatty tuna (o-toro) alone, but they dotted it with something green. The panna cotta (dessert) was like a soft, jiggly flan. The topping, no matter which, was gritty. I fail to see how red bean should be gritty at all.

I ordered a bento box online a week or so before and it was all right. As for that, I wouldn't order salad. (I've never seen sadder cherry tomatoes.) And I'd avoid their miso soup, as the cubes of tofu are so tiny and they don't give you either scallion or wakame. Their teriyaki is fine. Not overcooked, but there was lots of sauce in the box. The tempura is fine. The unagi would have been good except it got too hot / steamy in its little container, so...