The Comicle restaurant critic, Soleil Ho, ventured down the Peninsula to lil ole B'game for some Japanese food and was impressed. Here Sunday piece notes
For a long time, Kaiseki Saryo Hachi had the air of a secret — a restaurant that existed only in hushed whispers among those in the know. A pandemic-born pop-up with Michelin cred, it didn’t exist on any map. You had to text the owner directly to get a reservation and order the menu you wanted in advance, though there wasn’t an obvious menu anywhere online. And it was hosted in a ramen shop in a strip mall in Burlingame, sandwiched between a yoga studio and a sports memorabilia shop. (That would be Lefty's Sports)
A precursor to modern tasting menus, kaiseki is an elaborate, multicourse style of Japanese cooking that centers seasonal ingredients and aims for a steady balance of color, texture and various cooking techniques. Only a few restaurants here, including Ranzan in Redwood City and Wakuriya in San Mateo, are dedicated to this genre.
I've dined at Wakuriya up in the shopping center in the San Mateo highlands Crystal Springs Shopping Center, but had not heard about our B'game option. Ho writes
When I finally secured a reservation in July, I faced a procession of intricate, summery dishes, a $200 per person menu with 10 courses that impressed the whole way through. Eating here is intimate: just one seating a night, with just a dozen or so seats in the cafe-like dining room. It’s hard to feel too serious when you can see people stroll past the windows, pumpkin spice lattes in hand, which can make eating here feel more comfortable for people who don’t love the pomp of fine dining. I think the ambience adds to the charm. Owner Yuko Nammo carries out each dish herself, while collaborator and husband Shinichi Aoki mostly stays in the kitchen during service.
Click through to the full article that describes the food so you can decide if you are up for $200 pp or not. With this much press, you may not be able to get in for a while.
If you were hoping that the B'game dining scene would rally around B'game Plaza and Kaiseki Saryo Hachi, you will be disappointed by this news:
Kaiseki Saryo Hachi, one of the Bay Area’s rare kaiseki restaurants, will move from its current home in a Burlingame strip mall to a new space in Saratoga next year.
Husband and wife owners Shinichi Aoki and Yuko Nammo have taken over a tiny space at 14417 Big Basin Way, where they plan to relocate their fine-dining restaurant around July.
Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho called Kaiseki Saryo Hachi a true hidden gem with Michelin-level cooking: “Imagine walking into a neighborhood coffee shop and finding Alain Ducasse cooking behind the counter.”
Nammo said they’ve felt somewhat limited in the Burlingame space, which was originally her ramen restaurant and isn’t quite designed to operate as a kaiseki spot. They shifted to making kaiseki when Aoki lost his job during the pandemic. The couple always wanted to design their dream kaiseki restaurant but were “so used to being turned down” before the coroanvirus by landlords who were looking for tenants with deeper pockets, Nammo said. They stumbled onto the new space during a recent trip to Saratoga; the landlord happened to be there when they walked by, and was ready to take them on in light of pandemic-forced retail vacancies, Nammo said
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Acclaimed-strip-mall-fine-dining-restaurant-16710554.php
Posted by: Joe | December 20, 2021 at 07:19 PM