Kabuto Edomae Sushi — Restaurant in Spring Valley

We enjoyed dinner at Kabuto Edomae Sushi.

Overview: The food was outstanding and beautifully plated. All staff were welcoming. Our server Chiharu was very engaging, knowledgeable and professional.

Details: It was our first visit and when we arrived for our reservation (they only offer two seatings per night- 5:30 and 7:30) we were greeted by several staff and promptly seated. The interior is best described as minimalist with a large vase with cut flowers on the wall behind the sushi chefs and little else. In fact, on the outside their small sign above the front was not even lit. You might easily miss their location if it wasn’t for the address. It is a small restaurant with three or four tables along the wall opposite the long counter that seats a dozen or so. Shortly after we sat down the entire restaurant was filled. We chose the Yoroi course prix fixe menu $120 vs the Kabuto menu $175 per person. The Kabuto includes additional premium sushi plus a seasonal grilled item. We found the Yoroi to be the perfect amount.

Our meal began with kurage jelly fish served over Okinawa seaweed. The crunchy jelly fish was excellent. Next was the snow crab with mountain caviar (not fish caviar but Tonburi which is a seed from cypress trees) and tofu. A delight. This was followed by scallops with mirco greens including cilantro, edamame and shiitake mushrooms, all served warm. Nice contrasting textures and enjoyable but not very tasty scallops.

The next course was Young yellowtail and separately red snapper with a Kabuto special aged soy sauce. Both were buttery tender and super fresh. They, however, needed the wasabi to bring out their subtle flavors.

The Nigiri selection came next, a total of ten pieces. Including striped Jack, sweet shrimp, tuna, sea bream, tamagoyaki (3 egg omelet), fatty Toro, Jack mackerel, fluke, sea urchin and giant roe. We enjoyed each, eaten in the order suggested by Chiharu, except for the mackerel and sea urchin (which were perfectly prepared but just not taste we enjoy).

This was followed by a handroll of fatty tuna and scallions. Tender and tasty.

The next course was the miso soup with mushrooms. It was good but not as robust in flavor as most miso we have had.

For desert Chiharu surprised us with mochi ice cream in a brown syrup surrounded with fresh fruit and on a platter with a strawberry cut in the shape of two hearts and an happy anniversary sign. Earlier Chiharu had asked us if we were celebrating anything special and we said no, but our anniversary is in a couple of days. A really nice touch!

Why only four stars instead of five?

As noted, the food and service were outstanding. However, when we first walked in the aroma was fishy, normally not a good sign for a sushi restaurant. I am not sure if it was an issue with the air circulation but we both noticed it right away and since this was our first visit it was a bit concerning.

The other contributing factor was the ‘tone’ of the reservation process communications. When we initially made the reservation through Resy, we were informed that you had to provide your credit card at that time and that there would be a $100 per person charge for no shows if not properly cancelled. OK, all of that is understandable. But then several times over the following days I received text, asking me to reconfirm my reservation and/or be charged $100 per person for not showing up. Each time I confirmed my intention in response to the text. Once or twice would have made sense, but multiple times was clearly too...

Wow.

If you've ever watched Shokugeki no Soma, or Food Wars in English, my experience with eating my first piece of nigiri sushi here was exactly like how the characters have foodgasms in the show. The level of umami that hits you is ridiculous, the rice and nikiri was highly seasoned. I almost cried from how rich and luscious my first bite was. It was that good. If this was anime, I'm sure my clothes would have been stripped off and schools of fish would be doing questionable things to me.

I came as a walk in on a Friday but they were booked, so I opted to make a reservation for the next day. I highly recommend you make a reservation, otherwise you might not be able to grab a table.

The next day, I arrived and they addressed me by my name I put on the reservation. They continued to address me as such throughout the meal, making the experience so much more personal. Halfway through the meal, I went to the bathroom and when I came back, my server was waiting at my seat to pull the chair out for me.You have no idea how much I appreciate this level of service. Michelin star quality right here. Terrific job FOH management, honestly.

I got the Nigiri Omakase and added on a few a la carte items afterwards. Like I mentioned earlier, the first few bites were ridiculously good. But unfortunately, they don't mix things up too much and my taste buds had gotten acclimated to the taste a couple pieces in. I was yearning for some yuzu really bad (a piece with lemon eventually came, but it wasn't that amazing yuzu flavor I love).

I was talking with Peter, the guy who works at the station closest to the window, and he said that the restaurant uses around 400 different kinds of fish a year. Holy cow, that is just ridiculous. Given what he says, the nigiri omakase will most likely be different a couple months from now. That's exciting. They might even have pieces that gives you a more balanced course compared to mine.

One thing I did not like was the vibe I got from the head chef. Either he was working too hard and serious while being busy with orders or he just had no customer relations skills. I just felt like he was cold and a bit distant, compared to my server and Peter who were very intimate and welcoming. And there was definitely a hostile atmosphere between the chefs. Maybe management can help ease this tension that the chefs might be under and then this new positive energy can flow out and affect the customers who then become positive and happy. Or maybe it was just me on the wrong day and the wrong time.

The pieces for the fish were also thin and small, and the rice accordingly sparse (compared to Ohshima in LA; Ohshima is still the most thick, ridiculous pieces of nigiri I've ever had). The tamago was just standard, I was expecting kasutera style and it wasnt. The only thing special was it being warmed up and branded. Slightly disappointed.

The green tea roll cake was a bit of a let down as well, I wish it could have been served warm or maybe even more fluffy and fresher(?). I wasn't feeling it, but I appreciated the hot tea that came with. It helped with the stiff sponge texture.

Overall, I had an amazing experience here. For the Omakase, it is very well priced. I highly recommend it. Get the Kamasu a la carte if it's on the menu :) and then walk over right next door to Sweets Raku...

This is hands down the best sushi as far as both quality and experience that I've had in my life. I have been to fine dining US style sushi Vancouver, Seattle, California, and this was better. Note: this is the first time I've had actual Japanese omakase style sushi, and I've never been to Japan before so I'd assume Japan sushi would be similar (another customer remarked after the meal that the food was just like what he had eaten in Tokyo).

Make reservations, it's a very small place. They take reservations by phone only and open up reservations up to two months in advance. From what I could tell they have a 6 pm dinner and an 8 pm dinner? It seemed at 6 pm everyone came in at once and trickled out by 8 pm for the next wave.

We got two of the omakase meal, $120 each. They were good and asked up front about allergies and replaced things as needed. Be aware there are rare things like sea urchin and baby eel so if you aren't wanting to experience new foods let them know ahead of time. There's is a smaller version available for ~$70-80ish or a la carte pieces that you can order individual dishes. There's also sake pairings you can get for yourself or share with someone, no extra fee to share. It's a very personalized experience, you can sit right up where the chefs are preparing food. They have great timing for each next course and for the nigiri they do the traditional style and put the wasabi under the fish for you and brush on the soy sauce. You are supposed to eat nigiri with your hands and they'll tell you so and give you a hand towel.

Get the matcha green tea to drink when they offer tea or water, get both!!!! The fresh hot matcha tea is ridiculously good.

The desserts were stunning. I liked the strawberry sorbet most.

Another note: you may want to lookup how to eat sushi at a Japanese restaurant or in Japan, there are little things you should know.. like not mix wasabi into soy sauce, always keep chopsticks parallel to the bar, eat nigiri fish side down so you taste the fish more, and etc that are good to know. The food is very expensive because it is top notch quality fish and dining there is an experience, and it's very much worth it. I didn't see any dress code required and saw pretty casual dress there. Jeans and a dress shirt and normal shoes should...