Where to: Yoshida Omakase, offering 18-course tasting menus of sushi and other seasonal, seafood-focused dishes in the Back Bay.
Why: Yoshida serves luxurious ingredients in a luxurious setting, where diners receive personalized, deeply attentive service in a serene and beautiful gold-toned room. (The price, $300 per person, is luxurious, too.) You’ll find A5 Wagyu, truffles, and caviar; Hermes dishware alongside traditional Japanese ceramics; and a deep sake list filled with premium offerings. These things are lovely. But the real reasons to go are: to talk with chef Tony Cao about ingredients and techniques at the intimate, 13-seat sushi counter, and to eat sublime bites of carefully cut, thoughtfully prepared fish and rice.
The back story: Cao is originally from Fujian, China, and worked at omakase and other restaurants in New York for more than 20 years before coming to Boston to open Yoshida Omakase. Restaurateur Iverson Guo, of the Karma Asian Fusion restaurants, is behind the project. Because Cao has personal connections at fish markets in Japan, he is often able to get ingredients other Boston chefs may not have access to.
What to eat: Cao specializes in traditional, Edomae-style sushi, using seasonal seafood and aging techniques to develop the flavors and textures of the fish. The set menu shifts with the seasons. It begins with seven appetizers, leading into 10 pieces of nigiri, then finishing with dessert, many of the courses prepared before you by Cao and his team of chefs.
On a recent evening, appetizers include crystal crab topped with uni, caviar, and tiny pink flowers, served over a smoky, vinegar-bright jelly dotted with tiny spheres of watermelon; a bite-size tart filled with rice, lobster, toro tartare, and caviar, presented on a white ceramic cushion; uni-coated noodles with squid and tomato foam; and slices of A5 Wagyu quickly cooked in a nabe pot with maitake mushrooms, then showered in truffle slices.
It’s all a leadup to sushi: pats of rice tinged brown with a mixture of vinegars, topped with fish aged and cut to maximize its texture and flavor. Aori ika, bigfin reef squid, has a lovely sweetness; Cao slices it into tiny, tender arils and tops it with a dollop of pickled plum paste. There is akami, lean tuna, followed by otoro, fatty tuna; fresh Hokkaido uni; anago, saltwater eel. The progression ends with tamago, here more custard than omelet, sweet with bruleed sugar on top. Would you like to add on another course? At this point, you can request one, for an additional charge. Then it’s on to dessert: lemon mousse with guava foam and pomelo — feather-light, and by this point, that’s about all you can manage.
What to drink: There’s a wine list designed to impress, as well as beer and tea. But this is a place to focus on sake. Yoshida Omakase features everything from a $10,000 bottle of Niizawa Reikyo “Absolute 0” Junmai Daiginjo to a $45 carafe of briny, food-friendly Kawatsuru “Olive” Junmai Ginjo, made with yeast culled from olive trees. Ask the staff for recommendations; they know the selections well. Or try a pairing. Whatever you choose will be served in exquisite glassware. (Perhaps one of the Chinese zodiac cups stored in Yoshida’s custom, hand-painted Louis Vuitton chest?)
The takeaway: If you are a diner seeking luxury who wants to splash out, this place is for you. If you are a diner with a very special something to celebrate, this place is for you. If you are a diner who appreciates craft, sourcing, and the opportunity to discuss these things and more with a personable chef with some very sharp knives, this place is for you. This stretch of Mass. Ave., where Asta and Deuxave are also located, has become a dining destination.
51 Massachusetts Ave., Back Bay, Boston, 617-307-9888, www.yoshidaomakase.com
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devra_first.