Mina, who has been a fan for more than a decade, wanted to give Tominaga a prominent stage in San Francisco to showcase his work. That partnership became a reality with Pabu, Mina’s newest restaurant, along with the more casual Ramen Bar next door (see the accompanying review).
The Japanese style is a departure for Mina, whose more than two dozen restaurants include RN74, Bourbon Steak and the new Bourbon Steak and Pub in Levi’s Stadium.
It’s also a career-capping move for the Tokyo-raised Tominaga. Pabu, which seats up to 220 as opposed to Hana’s 65, allows him to expand his vision as well as to blend old and new traditions. His wife has taken over the bulk of the duties at Hana, while he divides his time between the properties.
The design of the restaurant capitalizes on the high-rise venue, which includes a dining room, sushi bar, patio, private room and lounge. Soaring ceilings and three-story-high columns create a dramatic setting for the modern lanterns centered over the five-sided bar. The impressive installation is surrounded by burgundy wool banquettes, along with modern sofas and cocktail tables. A see-through partition separates the lounge from the main dining room, which also includes an open kitchen and sushi bar. Wood-framed booths opposite the kitchen mimic tatsumi rooms and help break up what could be a cavernous space. There’s also a glassed-in greenhouse-style patio that overlooks the building’s pedestrian plaza.
Each area seems to create a different mood, but it’s all upscale — relaxed and bustling at the same time. The fact that the restaurant is packed every night shows that if the concept is right, crowds will follow.
Tominaga’s menu is extensive. On any night, the sushi and sashimi selections might include 25 different fish and 20 maki rolls. There are also more than 40 other dishes designed to engage all the senses, whether it’s octopus ($13) bathed in sweet miso with cucumber, slightly chewy giant clams and seaweed, or Monterey squid ($13) marinated in soy, quickly grilled and dusted with togarashi, or red chile pepper, that makes it pop. It’s sliced into rings and served with shoyu kewpie, Japanese mayonnaise sauce.
His omakase menu, at $95, is one of the best deals around. If you want to see the kitchen at its best, this is the way to go. The preparations don’t have the subtlety or precision of what’s served at nearby Kusakabe, but the combinations are unique.
The tasting menu kicks off with an equally explosive combination called the Happy Spoon, stacked with Kusshi oyster, uni, tobiko and ponzu creme fraiche. Next are two slices of kampachi arranged on a shallow pool of yuzu ponzu and topped with tobiko, pine nuts and fried shallots.
The sushi courses progress from lighter to more robust, which makes for some interesting comparisons. It almost goes without saying that the fish is expertly cut, marinated and seasoned to bring out its best qualities before being draped over a modest pad of rice where the grains are tender but remain distinctive.
The first sushi course, called Geta, features sea bream, sea robin, scorpion fish and fluke fin, which is lightly seared and seasoned with sudachi, a pungent citrus fruit that stands in for vinegar. The Dari presentation includes three kinds of mackerel — horse, Spanish and Japanese — along with young gizzard shad that only needs a little soy to bring it around.
Variations of tuna come next: bluefin, big eye and two fatty bluefin cut from different parts of the fish. The sommelier paired it with Take No Tsuya Junmai sake, and then brought out a bottle of water from the underground springs on the producer’s estate in Honshu used to make the sake. It was a revelation to taste the water’s purity and delicacy.
Up next are more assertively textured and flavored offerings: surf clam, snow crab, geoduck and sea urchin boosted by salmon roe. This leads to shabu shabu — slices of Wagyu beef designed to be quickly cooked in kombu broth with chunks of tofu, mushrooms and onions. This course was paired with warm Honjozo sake that has a rich mineral quality to stand up to the intensely flavored beef.
The dinner concludes with cherry sorbet served next to chunked slices of nectarines and cherries, with sparkling sake fizzing around it.
The wine pairings ($50), which I highly recommend, include a flute of Iron Horse Cuvee Michael Mina sparkling wine. The rest of the selections come from the extensive sake selection. Explanations are provided on the menu, and the sommeliers on the floor can talk extensively about each one.
If diners want to venture away from sushi on the a la carte menu, offerings include fried chicken ($11) with a thin golden coating. It’s served with spicy mayonnaise that helps to bring it alive, but a more generous hand in seasoning the meat would have improved it a bit. There’s also excellent tempura, especially the maitake mushrooms ($13).
The menu also features nine skewers, including chicken thigh with scallions ($7); tender chicken meatballs ($6) with an egg yolk and togarashi for dipping; and chunks of chicken breast ($7) with shisho and umeboshi. The chef’s skewer tasting ($26) might include beef tongue, skirt steak and pork belly.
Other hot small plates worth considering: sake steamed clams ($12); chawan mushi ($15) with shrimp, scallops, shiitakes and salmon roe; and pork gyoza ($12) with the filling barely visible within a very thin leathery/tender wrapping.
Shabu shabu can also be made with hamachi snow crab and scallops ($42); American Wagyu ($38 for 3 ounces) or Japanese A5 Wagyu ($32 per ounce).
Larger plates include a crisp flounder ($24), where the double-fried carcass serves as a basket to hold the fried fish fillets and tempura-battered shishito. The basket’s golden bones have a potato chip-like crunch so diners can break off pieces and eat them. Other choices include black cod ($32) assertively flavored with miso and mustard seeds, accompanied by summer beans; and duck ($32) with glazed plums and mountain yam dumplings.
Dessert includes a fine-crumbed sake roll cake ($8) wrapped around yuzu curd, with strawberries and coconut; soy caramel custard topped with sesame candy and cubes of coffee jelly; and green tea/white chocolate pudding ($8) with plum and sake jam. The best is the simplest: cherry sorbet ($6), a light, vibrant way to end the meal.
From start to finish, the preparations follow tradition, but with enough departure points to please the widest variety of diners. Even someone like Willie Brown, who says he doesn’t eat raw fish, can find something to love at Pabu.
Article and Photos Sourced From: http://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Bauer24-Pabu-5701894.php
