Dozo Dozo — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

American diners are spoiled. There, I said it. We're spoiled. We have too much to pick from - too much variety when it comes to eating out. Especially when it comes to Asian eateries. What's wrong with a Chinese place serving just Chinese dishes? Better yet, what's wrong with a Chinese restaurant specializing in just one or even two dishes? In today's Americanized food marketplace, restauranteurs have decided that they no longer want to identify as just one cuisine, because Americans like variety (and we're spoiled! There! I said it again!) As a result, your local Korean BBQ now also has to serve Vietnamese dishes, and the village Chinese restaurant must now serve Thai, and when it comes to Japanese - oh boy - the restaurant must serve a little bit of every dish that the Nipponese culture has to offer. Restaurants in Asia tend to focus on a handful of items that they specialize in and perfect; and nobody does it better than Japan. When you go to a sushi restaurant in Japan, you don't expect to find Chicken Teriyaki, Yakitori, Katsudon, or heaven forbid, Ramen, on the same menu. It just doesn't happen that way. Pick a specialty, master it, serve your customers and repeat. That's how it's done. If done otherwise, menu items become mediocre, boring and lacking. That's why so many Asian restaurants are just... well, boring. It's not that the food quality is bad, or the ingredients themselves are good - it's that they aren't utilized to achieve their fullest potential. In some instances, It takes an apprentice chef YEARS to master both a dish and the skills required to prepare it. That is why apprenticeships are so crucially important in restaurant culture in Asia. After all, you don't throw a bunch of ingredients into a pot of boiling water and call it soup... well, maybe some people do, but there is a SCIENCE to making GREAT soup! Anyway, I've gone a kilter off topic - but there is reason for it! Dozo Dozo suffers from this 'Culinarsus Americanitus' - they have too many things on their menu! Specifically, too many specialty items followed by too many mediocre things. This restaurant screams, literally SCREAMS, Japanese Omakase.

Hardcore. Japanese. Omakase.

It is painfully clear that the establishment wants so desperately to just serve sushi - and I'll tell you what - the sushi here is F*CKING AWESOME. The fish is aged beautifully, cut perfectly, served precisely chilled, and seasoned magnificently. The accompaniment ingredients are all top notch and selected expertly. Even the soy sauce on the table has been specially selected to add that slight extra saltiness should you want it, but it's not really necessary because it's already perfectly seasoned. And speaking of perfectly seasoned... the sushi rice. HALLELUJAH! It's SEASONED PROPERLY!!! Those of you who've followed my reviews know how much a stickler I am about seasoned rice. And those who know, know. It's the RICE that makes the sushi, well, sushi. If this place JUST SERVED SUSHI, I would tell you that this place would be impossible to get a table at. Here's where it goes wrong - the other dishes are just... meh. The presentation is beautiful (despite my Ramen being served with the spoon submerged in the soup. Tsk tsk - 10 points taken from Griffyndor). But the cooking quality is 'blah'. My dining partner (okay, FINE, my mother) ordered the Beef Teriyaki. It looked beautiful, but the seasoning was flat, and the beef was tough; overcooked. My order of Ramen had a chance to really shine, but it, too, was weakly seasoned. That is not to say that it wasn't flavorful - the tonkatsu bone broth had a nice flavor, but the salt seasoning and 'fatness' of the broth were lacking. The ingredients - i.e., the toppings - were just nonchalantly placed on top, and it was missing the Naruto (fish cake, not Shinobu ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village). And, not to nit-pick, but to nit-pick, the noodles were overboiled.

Service was great. The interior, beautiful. I will go back, but just for the...

My wife and I went to Dozo Dozo for the Omakase, and it was spectacular. We’ve had a few other Omakase menus in the city, and this was the best we’ve had in multiple ways.

The quality of the fish itself was amazing, better than anywhere we’d been before. Fresh, and the flavor combinations were a combination of thoughtful, but also unexpected (in a good way).

The sushi rice was head and shoulders above ANYTHING we’ve ever had. We looked at each other and said “so THIS is what sushi rice is supposed to taste like”. It nearly stole the show 🤯 I would come back just for the rice!

Service. At so many sushi restaurants, you feel rushed, even with Omakase. Sometimes things feel like you’re going immediately to the next bite without time to savor the last one. This was not the case with Dozo Dozo, things were spaced out perfectly. This allowed us to enjoy our time on our one night out, and we felt as though it was an experience rather than a meal. Also, our sushi chef was clearly assigned to only us and the couple next to us for our respective omakase meals. This combined with our wonderful server made for a beautiful experience.

The entire experience, from the moment we sat (we also were given about 20 minutes from when we sat until our first bite to settle in with our wine, another thoughtful touch) to the moment we left was amazing. Thank you, Dozo Dozo, for such a memorable meal...

I will start by saying it is hard to find an omakase experience on Long Island. I found Dozo Dozo on yelp and it showcased a 5 star rating. I can say I agree with that rating.

I did not catch our chefs name however he was very knowledgeable having been a sushi chef for 19 years. He was an expert at blending textures and flavors and also educated us on the importance of how the fish is stored and prepared.

Although the experience was not as intimate as I had hoped (you are seated at the chef station of the main dining area) I can say that the friendly staff, chefs, and kitchen crew make you feel at home.

I would recommend this to anyone who has tried omakase, or has not. The food and experience is high quality (better than an experience I had in manhattan) and is well worth the $120 price tag for your meal. Included are 3 appetizers, 7-8 piece main course, and dessert. This meal is filling, and satisfying as you get to try a large variety of fish specially prepared for you by your own personal chef. I will definitely revisit this place in the future.

Thank you for your kind hospitality and...