Naoe - omakase in Miami

(all pics link to larger versions)

The big banquet for Beth's conference was on Saturday evening. She'd actually managed to scrounge up a meal ticket for me at the last minute, but wouldn't you know, she called just a few minutes after I'd made a reservation at Naoe, a brand new Japanese restaurant Sunny Isles Beach in Miami. Just my luck.



Naoe is a two-person operation -- Kevin Cory, the Chef/GM/dishwasher (as his card says), and Wendy Maharlika who does everything else. They're both warm, friendly, funny people with an amazing amount of passion for their work, and they made the three hours I spent sitting at Naoe's hinoki bar as pleasant as anyone could hope for.



The only printed menu is a list of drinks. Water, Ramune, Calpis, and a half dozen sakes brewed by chef Cory's family at the Nakamura Brewery in Ishikawa. When you arrive, Wendy gives you the details: everyone starts with a $26 chef's choice bento box comprising four dishes plus a soup. If you're still hungry after that, Kevin will serve you nigiri until you cry uncle. Wendy asks you about your dietary restrictions and then you wait and watch.



After a bit of a wait, the bento box and soup. Here's what's in it (descriptions provided by the restaurant):

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organic carrot egg tofu and mitsuba clear soup


- steamed organic yellow squash, live pacific oyster, organic shiitake, anaheim pepper and okra
- deep-fried whiting with organic millet
- deep-fried live aoyagi clam with monkfish liver sauce
- organic gamet yam and sesame tofu with a dashi soy sauce


- local mutton snapper sashimi on wasabi leaves, wasabi flowers and shiso with seaweed shavings on top


- steamed sardine rice topped with rice bran pickled daikon and fava beans


- sake simmered & steamed scottish salmon with organic baby bok choy, organic portobello mushrooms on organic tofu

Everything was wonderful, well seasoned, perfectly cooked as appropriate. My personal highlights were the unbelievable wasabi leaves and flowers with the snapper sashimi, the sardine rice, and the whiting/aiyogi clam combination. The wasabi leaves and flowers were especially revelatory, with all of the flavor of real wasabi and none of the heat.

After all of this, I wasn't quite full, so I let Kevin send me nigiri for a while.


- scottish salmon belly nigirizushi: rich and luscious and sweet.


- aji nigirizushi topped with grated ginger: the bite of the ginger was a nice non-wasabi counterpoint to the oily mackerel


- live scallop nigirizushi with orange soy sauce (video): perfect, pristine scallop.


- freshly sea salted and rice vinegared kohada nigirizushi: A new fish for me, and it was exceptional. I'll be looking for it elsewhere.


- local spanish mackerel kojizuke nigirizushi covered with rice vinegared white seaweed: "kojizuke" = "pickled in koji" = pickled in steamed rice with koji mold spores mixed in, the precursor of sake. The sweetness of the koji plus the slight acidity of the seaweed were a great match with the mackerel.


- sea urchin roe nigirizushi topped with fresh grated wasabi: Lovely.

I stopped with the uni, and it was a nice ending. The chef put forth one more dish, a plate of cantaloupe with a sweet rice vinegar + fish stock sauce meant to ease the transition from fish to fruit (it worked, as far as I can tell).

I don't really have any complaints or notes on the meal. The pacing was relaxed -- about 2.5 hours from start to finish -- but not annoyingly so. All of the fish was incredibly fresh, the flavors well balanced, and nicely presented. The total, not counting drinks/tips/tax was about $80, and it felt and still feels like a great value.

Naoe just got a very favorable review in the Miami New Times -- Chef Cory won their "best sushi" picks in 2004 and 2005 at his last restaurant -- and I can only imagine more great press is coming. They deserve it, and I hope they get a lot of business from it.

If any of you are in Miami, go see Kevin and Wendy. They're great hosts, and you'll have a great meal.

Naoe Japanese Restaurant
http://www.naoemiami.com
175 Sunny Isles Blvd, Sunny Isles Beach, FL
(305) 947-6263

gleam wrote:She'd actually managed to scrounge up a meal ticket for me at the last minute, but wouldn't you know, she called just a few minutes after I'd made a reservation at Naoe,

And to think you could have had chicken breast and green beans. Oh well, looks like you managed.

Terrific looking and sounding meal, fun to watch the scallop video.

In case you hadn't already looked it up: kohada = gizzard shad

Youtube's got one of my favorite videos on how to filet a gizzard shad for nigiri.

Damn, that's a lovely dinner, and reasonably priced. What did it come to with all the nigiri?

The first two nigiri you got are my two faves: fatty salmon and aji, and they're on such an opposite spectrum of sushi tastes: salmon is clean, mild flavored and silky, and aji is more agressive, fishier.

Iron Chef did Kohada at least once -- it falls under the category of "fish too small for western palates" so far as I can tell.

Jay K: Yep, I'd looked it up. It was a really remarkably delicious fish.

Joel: Without drinks/tax/tip, it came to $80. Somewhere I have the breakdown of what each pair of nigiri cost, but you can work out an average per pair pretty easily.

I had kohada once - huh, nearly a decade ago now. I've tried unsuccessfully nearly every spring since to get it anywhere in Chicago and a few other places. Looks great!