A couple months ago after eating lunch in Kagurazaka at Kohaku, part of the Ishikawa Group of restaurants, my wife and I made reservations for lunch at Ishikawa’s nearby sushi restaurant Hatō (波濤). A friend had been once or twice and really liked it, so we decided to give it a shot.
Despite the heat, I rode my bicycle to the restaurant and met my wife on the main street nearby. The restaurant is in a small building on a narrow side street, with its only identification being the name written on the noren hanging over the door. Needless to say, when I walked in I was quite hot, and ready for lots of water. But we also ordered a beer to share.
The restaurant is simple but nice. The counter is long and spacious with only eight seats; there is also a table with two chairs and a small sofa which is probably used more for waiting than dining. The counter itself is made of what appeared to be a single slab of African bubinga wood, a dark rosewood (I had to ask) that goes well with the sumi (charcoal) mural of waves breaking on rocks in a stormy sea painted on the wall behind the work area (the name Hatō translates as something like waves breaking). The dark, rather than white hinoki counter and Zen influenced decorations made it was immediately clear that this was not a typical sushi restaurant (sushi is not even included in the name).
The food started off with a dish of hamo covered with a nice yuzu-based sauce. That was followed by young (green) ginnan (ginko nuts) sliced in half and placed on top of sushi rice as if it were a serving of nigiri, some very good shinika from Kyushu, some very tendered slices of awabi served on a shiny pewter plate with a dollop of awabi-kimo (liver) reduction sauce, some aburi kinmedai, with the final bit of grilling being done on a small hibachi set on the counter accompanied by a dish of karashi in dashi. There was also a very nice green nasu simmered in konbu and katsuo dashi. So far, this was definitely not what is normally served at sushi restaurants.
It turns out Kumagiri san, the chef, has spent most of his career learning kaiseki at the nearby Michelin three-star Ishikawa. Actually, he worked there for eleven years before spending one-year learning sushi at Higashi Azabu Amamoto before starting at Hatō in March of this year. Kuma is only 29 years old while his assistants were 19, 24 and 31. All in all a very young crew.
The rest of the meal was more typical sushi fare, with a very good anago with fresh sanshō, a non-traditional kohada (less vinegared) and a delicious aji which was, along with the hamo beginning, my two favorite dishes. A lot of the fish was from Kyushu, with the obligatory maguro (akami and chū-toro only) being from a 164 kg fish caught off of Ireland. We also had two good pourings of sake, one from Kyoto, the other from Akita. The final few dishes were served not with the usual strong green tea but with what may have been a type of oolong tea (we forgot to ask), perhaps something Kuma san brought from his home prefecture of Shizuoka. The final dish, besides some refreshing ice cream, was also very un-sushi-ya-like; a delicious bowl of hot sōmen noodles in a soup made from the leftover parts of the hamo that started the meal.
The overall experience was interesting in that it was a new example of hybridizing cuisines, in this case a kaiseki influenced sushi. Its novelty is probably why it has a relatively low score on Tabelog, especially among sushi “purists.” It was expensive, but not outrageously so. Not that there is such a thing as cheap (under ¥30,000 per person) sushi anymore.
Overall, we liked it. And made reservations for November. I will be curious to see what is different then.