Lawyer.Eats: Sebo: A Bastion of Unilicious Serenity

SEBO.

It was wonderful! We had such a great, fun time and the sushi was very good.

The physical place is serene and simply decorated, with green tea ice cream colored walls, lots of shiny wood and dramatic lights glowing behind white screens along the wall. The outside is very simple and understated. We came in and easily sat at the sushi bar, which is thoughtfully designed with the fish storage recessed so you can watch the preparation of the sushi up close and without obstruction. We asked one of the chef/owners, Dan, to serve up whatever he thought we might like until we cried uncle, and ordered a bottle of cloudy Kizakura sake. (A little sweet for my taste, but still refreshing.)

Dan served us up a couple of different sushi and sashimi combinations, including wild big eye tuna (ruby red, lean and delicious), sardine (looked like little Lexuses on our plate, so shiny and pretty!), blue banded sprat which was also lovely, amberjack, horse mackerel, super fresh sea urchin (a.k.a. uni), wild scallops that were tender and tasty, big fin reef squid that was a bit chewy, monkfish liver (a first for me!) and perfectly fine ikura (I am an ikura freak, as I told Dan...I'll put salmon roe on anything...but that is another tale for another time.) Noticeably quality pickled ginger and wasabi was served on the side. Dan also served each of us a delicious charred-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside piece of Neiman Ranch beef in a bowl on top of garden-fresh sliced golden tomatoes and perfectly ripe avocado, with a tiny bit of some kind of ponzue-esque balsamic drizzle on it. I liked that the little piece of beef was sliced up in the style of a piece of fatty sushi, like toro. It was really different and very delicious. Em couldn't stop raving about it.

The sushi was very good. It was not the best sushi I've ever had, but it was up there and very respectable. It passed the have again test: I would definitely go back. Standouts were the uni and the monkfish liver (a.k.a. ankimo, as my native Tokyoite friend Mari recognized it when I was telling her about the meal). The uni was from Hokkaido and Dan told us they get it maybe a dozen times a year, and it is really special. It was smaller and browner than any uni I've ever eaten. However, the texture was perfect, like eating a creamy feather, and the flavor was really intense and wonderful. It was probably the best uni I have ever had, and I have had some serious uni in my time! And apparently uni is not even in top season right now. Lucky us. I ordered another piece at the end of the meal, it was so good, even when I was nearing my stomach capacity limit. Em was an uni virgin until last night (chicka-woh-woh) and now has set a high bar for other uni to hit, which gratifies me greatly. She was fascinated by its flavor, which is so unique the only thing I can compare it to, when it's good, is canteloupe and oysters have a musky baby. When it's bad, uni is BAD: unpalatable, mushy, and tastes like vaguely sweet, slimy dirt. This one was perfect and put me in a state of urchin-induced bliss.

The ankimo looked like a liver from high school bio class, which I found simultaneously exciting and sketchy. I made Em eat her piece first, even though I am not usually intimidated by eating viscera. Dan sliced it up really thinly, placed it gently on the little pad of rice, and wrapped it with a strip of nori (the seaweed wrap on sushi). It was sooo good. It was incredibly creamy, melt-in-your-mouthy, and had a really meaty, light flavor. Loved it. Sort of like a foie gras's Japanese cousin.

We finished up with a big bottle of Orion beer and a small bowl of cherries they gave us. (And later, hit up Citizen Cake for a rocky road cupcake to split later over a very nice Taz 2004 Zin, whose remainder glass I am now sipping on post-hike. That's how we roll!)

Dan made the experience for us, we both agreed. He was so charming and witty, and he gave us lots of great information about the various dishes we ate. He was just super nice and lovely. If you go, he is the one who looks a lot like Paul Rudd-- just add some hipster black square-frame glasses, beautiful Japanese countryside arm tattoos, and impressive knife-yielding skills. He got into sushi when he became friends with sushi chefs while working in fish wholesale on the East Coast. He also is a culinary school and Cornell grad. He was very welcoming and knowledgeable. Clearly, he and his business partner, Michael, have worked really hard on making Sebo work-- and it has definitely paid off.

Overall, Sebo was a delightful experience. I would definitely recommend checking it out. The icing on the cake: the bill was very, very reasonable for all the nice things we ate.

Food: (3.5)