Pabu
Pabu is the type of place that can make you hate your Facebook friends. Every time someone checks into the restaurant, I was guaranteed to see posts of some delicious looking food. Now, it was my turn to return the favor. And after dining here, I understood why everyone was so excited. It’s a great looking place with even better tasting dishes.
The restaurant was a joint venture between Michael Minna and Ken Tominaga to bring in an upscale izakaya experience to the Financial District here in San Francisco. I have to admit, I tend to steer clear of the FiDi. After all, that’s where people work, including myself, and have power lunches. To me, I imagined inflated prices for mediocre meals.
I sure am naive.
For $95USD a person, we were treated to a very epic journey through Japanese cuisine. Pabu’s omakase nails it. The chef took us from classic izakaya foods to their house specials and rounded it out with quality sushi, that included spoonful of originality. And if you think we went home hungry, think again. Take a look at what we had (see pictures). It was an incredible experience. One that I need to make sure I try again.
Pabu
101 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
+1 (415) 668-7228
www.pabuizakaya.com
Verdict: Yes, do the omakase. You’ll be in for a wonderful journey.
Starting it off, we dive right into the richness of monkfish liver, or as Pabu would name it, “Ocean Foie Gras.” Not going to disagree here. Served with mild pickles and greens, they draw out that distinct taste without making the dish one dimensional. Don’t worry this was shared. I can’t imagine eating all three pieces and having room for the other foods.
Along with our first course came a few items to keep us occupied. One of them were these braised Japanese roots. Cooked firm with just enough saltiness, made them great to nibble on while I sipped my beer.
The other dish were the staple edamame. Though these were tossed with sesame chili powder. They must have known we were going to be drinking plenty tonight.
This tasted more like the tuna tartare that you get from most upscale restaurants. Not that this was bad, but in the world of poke and a lover of Hawaii, I need the big chunks of tuna. Texture adds a big piece to poke in my opinion. This may have been too refined.
Now this was perfect. The balance of tastes and texture in this little bowl was incredible. The pungent pop of the roe with the smooth mellow egg custard to the firm shrimp. That’s how you dance. Well done Pabu. As much as I would have wanted more, there were more things to try. Chawanmushi, I’ll remember to find you next time I’m here.
What a beautiful dish. Too bad we tore it apart in seconds. The egg yolk was just asking for it. Just look at it all smug on top of a bed of deliciousness. What, you think I’ll go straight to the grilled squid underneath? You’re wrong, egg, so very wrong! Yum.
Next up was the grilled squid with a sprinkle of togarashi, Japanese chili peppers. Fine eaten by itself. Yet they do give you a dipping sauce to try. You may guessed, I didn’t. I enjoyed it so much I forgot to dip.
What a variety of skewers. Looked too good to eat. Just kidding. Devoured! Highlights? The pork belly and the chicken hearts. Way to bring it.
A little difficult to share, but a great change up from the last course. Not sure how they made something delicate tough enough to be plated so beautifully. It was smooth eating flavored with that match salt. We were reset from the hearty skewers and gyoza.
Along with are grilled skewers came the fried gyoza. This part of the journey was getting a little filling. Nothing over the top though. As you can see these dumplings were lightly fried, enough to give it that crisp and the skins were thin. Nicely done.
And here comes the sashimi in all its glory. It was if the tofu took us down the river into the sea. Now it was time for us to grab a taste of whichever sea creature we wanted. My favorite was surprisingly the squid, fresh and perfectly cut. Makes for that firm and chewy combo you only can appreciate from squid.
I needed to stay away from the shrimp tempura roll, not that it wasn’t good, it was. It’s because getting too full before the last course would be disaster. Oh it was difficult to stay away from the crunchy goodness and look at the size of the shrimp they used!
I take back what I said about tempura rolls, because this roll has shrimp tempura inside with a smothering of spicy tuna on top. Yeah, I didn’t get the best angle here to show you. Would you believe me if I said I had only one piece?
So simple and so bite size. Didn’t feel too guilty having a few of these.
Magnificent. Nigiri sushi on top of a polished stone slab. This gets the thumbs up for plating, but even more props for the quality of sushi. Oh I loved the uni and of course the ebi (shrimp) served this way, cleaned and uncooked. Even though I was pretty full, this closed out the whole meal with a bang.
I was wrong. This was the last dish. Uni, ikura, and tobiko, in a ponzu creme. Wonder what it tastes like? Yeah, happiness, sure. But it all works out quite well. Amazing flavors and thankfully we had room for it. Though we declined dessert. I’d have to be wheeled out if I had anything else.