Chika - Omakase — Restaurant in San Antonio

Confused from the minute I got there. You walk into a loud noisy club atmosphere and apparently are supposed to wait until a server comes out to get you out of the club? We were very confused for about 20 minutes trying to figure out where we were supposed to be or where we were supposed to go despite getting a text that we were ready to be seated 20 minutes before we actually sat down. I guess you’re expected to hang out at the club and pay for drinks while you wait to be seated 20min past your reservation time (but we already paid for wine pairing and didn’t want to be floating out of there drunk at the end of the night so we didn’t really wanna waste money on additional drinks before we sat down to eat).

Music was cranking LOUD the entire time we were eating. So loud I had no idea what my server said about anything (we paid extra for wine pairing but couldn’t tell you a thing about any of the wines we drank because we couldn’t hear a word that was said about any of them) and at times couldn’t hear the person I was sitting next to (mind you I’m in my early 30’s and I’m not used to complaining about noise…).

The food was really good and elevated and the dining room was lovely but I left hungry as each “course” was a single piece of sushi. Also every place I’ve been that has a coursed out meal like this at this high price tag offers clean plates and utensils with each course. We used the same chopsticks and plate for every single course and the chef hand delivered each piece of sushi onto every single plate of each person in the dining room and each time a piece was delivered there was full contact of his hand to my used plate as well as every other plate he served. Living in a post Covid era I could not believe the hygiene (or lack there of) of that gesture. I’m sure I got a sampling of each and every single persons saliva in that dining room with each course. We ordered dessert but never got it… until the busboy asked us why we were still hanging around when we confusedly said “we’re still waiting on our desert?” (The whole evening was so confusing that we weren’t sure if it was part of the evening to wait until everyone else had left before deserts were delivered and thought maybe we were the only ones that paid for desert so we had to wait until everyone else had left? And we couldn’t hear the instructions to know if it was still coming). Eventually when they realized the error they did reimburse us for the desert and on their behalf they did whip something together for us but wasn’t worth the time we spent there waiting on it.

A solid effort by staff/ambience/kitchen but on the whole, they totally missed the mark on this one. Not at all worth the money (400$ in total for 2 people) in a town that has so many other...

The perfect sushi experience for omakase lovers. The perfect culinary experience for chefs looking for inspiration. The perfect unforgettable experience for a date night.

Chef Jonathan Reyes and Chef John Ramos will provide you with a beautifully prepared dinner that tells a story of growing up in San Antonio and weaves an intelligent and thoughtful tapestry of blending cultures.

I even hesitate to call their dishes fusion as the connotation would imply risky experimentation. The sushi dishes presented integrate flavors and spices with careful consideration and masterful expertise.

The evening is just as much a celebration of music as it is for food because DJ Chef Reyes curates a unique playlist every night that ebbs and flows with the pace and movements of a sushi symphony. Be prepared for him to pull from genres such as Disco, Funk, Gospel, Blues, Soul, and Trip Hop.

Each night is presented with a unique omakase playlist as both chefs are honoring the freshest fish and ingredients available but here are some notable offerings for my night:

Kanpachi Belly Nigiri with Salsa Verde - A salsa could overwhelm the taste of the fish but no in this case it serves as the same umami and warming that your traditional soy and wasabi would serve. Delicious and smart!

Vermillion Snapper Nigiri Hibiki Style - This piece of nigiri was one of several dishes that tasted like a story. Inspired by the San Antonio seafood scene, this dish delivered a very familiar taste of family dinner.

Sea Scallop Nigiri with Thai Style Chili Crisp Oil - Chef Reyes warned that it was a crowd favorite for a reason. The freshest succulent sea scallop topped mouth watering onion and garlic is fabulously yummy.

Mexican Bluefin Tuna Nigiri with Tandoori and Comino seasoning topped with Pineapple Pico de Gallo and Torched Beef Tallow drippings - one of the most elegant blending of flavors that pays homage to the integration of Lebanese cuisine into Mexican cuisine in the selling of Al Pastor tacos from Lebanese immigrants; impossibly delicious and playful and brilliant.

Blueberry Mole Unagi Nigiri with Chocolate Chicharron - quite possibly the first dessert nigiri that I have ever had in my life and it was paradigm altering. Replacing the “eel sauce” that is usually lazily squeezed on top of grilled unagi is instead an amazing blueberry mole and blueberry compote. This is what dessert should always be.

I cannot recommend Chika enough. They are a celebration of sushi, music, and culture. Can’t wait...

We came with very high hopes and left hungry and disappointed. The sushi pieces were tiny and few. Think about the size your fingertip and maybe 9-10 pieces in all. The preparations were mediocre and imbalanced, with the other flavors completely drowning out the fish. The wine pairing wasn’t really a pairing, the sommelier just showed the bottles to the room at the beginning of service and then filled all of the glasses in front of each guest without comment.

The whole thing was very rushed and halfhearted, with very little interaction. At the end, the chefs abruptly left the room without serving all of the pieces they had described at the beginning of service and the entire dining room was asked to leave (without even finishing our drinks). When we asked about the desert and wagyu pieces the chefs had promised at the beginning of the meal, the server ran to the back room to consult the chefs before returning awkwardly to inform us that it wasn’t going to be served and we needed to leave to they could reset the dining area for the next seating.

So we rushed out, drinks still in hand. While we stood outside the dining area quickly finishing our drinks, we were told by someone else we couldn’t stand there and needed to leave.

So, we left and went to Whataburger. It was better than this, for 5%...