Casa de Kei is a popup from chef Keisuke Akabori. I’ve been to a couple of his popups on Wednesday nights in Millay, which is a cool wine and sake shop and bar in Duboce Triangle, SF.
This Wednesday’s menu:
ICHINOKURA, MIYAGI PREFECTURE
‘MUKANSA EXTRA DRY’ HONJOZO ($10/4oz)
I had a glass of sake from Millay to start. It was nice and dry as per the name.
There has been a chirashi dish every time on the menu. Tonights had yellowfin tuna, wild Coho salmon, and local albacore zuke which is a marinated albacore.
Delicious! There was an assortment of fish, along with ikura and tobiko, cubes of tamagoyaki / omelet, and also some crunchy green beans, cucumber, and microgreens, atop a bed of seasoned sushi rice. It came with a little bottle of shoyu to apply, and also a stack of toasted nori with which I made some hand rolls. Beautiful presentation, and also quite reasonably priced at $27.
DAR RICHI ‘HELEM’ 2023 CHARDONNAY
BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON ($16)
A glass of a nice slightly tannic skin contact Lebanese wine from Millay.
I was also gifted some of the anchovy toasts after the chirashi. The rye bread was rustic and toothsome, and there was a dollop of a rich pesto aioli, some pluots for a sweet note, and some fat pickled anchovies on top. Also delicious!
There’s also been a soup dish on the menu. On Wednesday this was a Matsutake Mushroom Nabe ($20). This had a lot of sweet little shell-on head-on coonstripe shrimp, tofu, thinly sliced mushrooms, spinach, and glass noodles, all in a very nice subtle dashi.
Some pics from previous visits where I didn’t take too many notes. Everything looks a bit red due to the moody lighting at Millay 
This chirashi ($25) had cured local albacore with sweet Jimmy Nardello peppers, oroshi ponzu, and tobiko.
This was a pulpo bravas tostada ($16) that had braised octopus, baby potatoes, and gochujang bravas aioli on a blue corn tostada from La Palma. It was great! The octopus had a very nice texture - tender but not too soft, and went great with the little waxy potatoes and the spicy sweet aioli.
There were some very sweet figs and stonefruit for a little dessert.
Another chirashi ($27), with bluefin tuna zuke, sweet figs, sunomono, English peas, and ikura.
Anchovy Pan con Tomate w/ dashi cherry tomato, basil pesto aioli & pluots all over Josey Baker mountain rye bread ($15).
Cherries and stonefruit for dessert.
Great food all around, and also a wide selection of natural wines and sakes from Millay. One can find up where chef Kei will be cooking next at his Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/casadekei/
