Omakase at Umi: Money Well Spent

Umi
5849 Ellsworth Avenue
Shadyside

We had the chance to do experience the omakase at Umi in Shadyside. My sister and brother in law bought us gift cards for Christmas, and two of them were for Big Burrito restaurants. After 9 months of debating where to use them, we decided on Umi, and on the tasting.

After climbing three sets of narrow, steep stairs (note to self: do NOT drink too much alcohol and fall down these stairs), we arrived in the tiny restaurant upstairs of Soba, another Big Burrito restaurant. We were seated at our table, and our waiter, Drew arrived shortly thereafter. We were struggling with our drink order, and Drew recommended a bottle of Sake that was reasonably priced ($22) and would pair well with the meal and our taste (we like our wines on the dryer side.)

While we were waiting for our first course, Drew brought a bowl of edamame for us to nibble on while we waited. He apologized for the wait, which we had not realized had been, as we were busy watching a table of four try to get into their seats at the in-floor seating. (Note to self: do NOT drink too much alcohol and attempt to climb into one of those tables.)

The omakase started, and the first course was a toro tartare. It was presented beautifully – in a small ramekin on top of a banana leaf on a bed of crushed ice. The tartare was chopped with wasabi and onion, there was a wasabi soy sauce on the bottom and some sturgeon caviar on the top. It was amazing – spicy but balanced, hearty but light.

Round 2 was sawara (Spanish mackerel) seared in hot sesame oil. There were four, thin pieces on each of our plates. The searing was the most delicate I have seen – the fish was so thin, but the outsides were seared without browning and the inside was raw. It was served with a delicate ponzu (citrus based) sauce and some chives.

Next came the new style fluke sashimi. Sashimi is thin, raw fish. The fluke was prepared as such, and was served with a soy-based sauce and Japanese ginger. It was tender and wonderful.

Round 4 was served the same style as the fluke, but with white tuna instead. Drew promised it would be more tender and buttery than the last dishes, and he is a man of his word. Like buttah! It was served with a dot of wasabi on top. The wasabi was not a hot as some I am used too, but the milder version did well to not overpower the fish.

Next up: tempura rock shrimp. My past experiences with rock shrimp left me concerned about this dish, but apparently I had been served the spam of the rock shrimp world and Umi introduced me to prosciutto di parma. The shrimp itself was meaty in texture but delicate in flavor. It was lightly tempura dipped and fried. Under the shrimp was a thin soy-based sauce, and coated onto the shrimp was a thicker, spicy orange sauce. This was the classiest (and more impressively the most delicious) form of buffalo shrimp I have ever tasted. This dish was such a contrast to the fresh, simple courses that preceded, but it was just as unique and wonderful.

Black cod with miso was the next dish. It was marinated in miso and oven roasted. The skin was crispy and delicious and the meat was tender. There was a miso glaze on the bottom that was sweet but not overpowering. We both loved this course.

The next course was the sushi course. Not to be confused with sashimi, sushi is vinegar rice topped with fish. The rice was less dense than other sushi rice I have had. We received a piece of toro, snapper, salmon, tuna, and sawara, each with its own sauce. The toro and tuna were served with a light soy, the snapper with mint (yes, mint, and it was perfect), the salmon with tomato and sour cream, and the sawara with sesame.

At this point in the meal, we got a little panicky. My husband had told Drew that we were “in his hands” when he asked if we had any special requests for the omakase. We hadn’t expected to get so many courses, and the menu had set the omakase price at “$75 and up”. The table next to us, who arrived after us, also ordered the omakase, and they had gone from what had been our second course to the cod. As my husband and I were trying to figure out exactly how many more courses we had and how much more money that might mean, we heard the waiter explain to them that their raw dishes were delayed because Sidney Crosby had been at the sushi bar, which seats six, and had ordered some extra courses which were putting the sushi chef behind. The table beside us was going to get their cooked courses while the sushi chef caught up, then return to their raw courses. We, on the other had, were going to be able to exhale and to stop worrying about how many dishes we had to clean to pay off our “in your hands” statement.

Dessert arrived next. Drew explained it as a monkfish liver frozen pate, then smirked as he set it down and awaited our response. We dug in, not thinking entirely about what he had said, and he explained that he was kidding – dessert was a frozen cashew mousse with a chocolate ganache icing. I am not a dessert connoisseur, and I wasn’t expecting to love this course anywhere near what I had the last seven. I was pleasantly surprised. The mousse was light and slightly sweet, the icing was dense and rich, and the mango and raspberry sauces were tart. The combination was wonderful.

Our bill came to $184 ($75 each for the tasting and $22 for the wine, plus tax). I am not going to try to convince anyone that this was a bargain meal by any means. I am also not ignorant of the fact that we had received a generous gift card to help us with this meal, and that we had been watching our food budget in preparation for the meal. Having said that, I do want to suggest that this was a “good deal” in relative terms. The fish was the most fresh available in Pittsburgh (flown in daily) and was expertly prepared (Mr. Shu is well renown). The courses, ordered separately from the menu, would well exceed the $75 price. The wine was good and moderately priced. The meal took us about an hour and a half to eat, and it was such great food that we spent most of that time staring at each other with “I can’t believe how F-ing great this is” grins on our faces. We were full when we left. In our books, it was money well spent.