[Warning- long post!]
Celebrated a family birthday with a meal at Kamikura last night, all opted for the cha-kaiseki meal, which is 8 courses from their menu that evening. We had a few appetizers on top of the kaiseki meal too.
Started with an order of roasted shishito peppers, a carpaccio bouquet (so beautifully plated!), and a tofu and uni dish. Shishitos were good, but these are everywhere these days, so not going to elaborate. Carpaccio was fish sliced thinly -nearly translucent- and plated with a vinaigrette and edible flower petals. It really took after its name and was very tasty. The tofu and uni was super creamy and nice balance of soft, fresh tofu with pops of roe and savory uni.
There was an amuse bouche of cucumber/yuzu panna cotta before we started the kaiseki. The dishes in order were:
trio of clam in a aka dashi miso soup + bite of rice with mushroom+ raw oyster with a dashi sauce with a yamamomo (mountain berry) – all excellent; one of the best oyster bites I’ve had
crab shinjo fishcake – fishcake nugget with crab meat on top and a shoyu-dashi, topped with a lotus root chip and peppers - loved the broth and the anything with crab is a win. we all wanted a giant bowl of the lotus root chips and we think we have the next million dollar idea (no stealing!)
Strobe ranch wagyu (my DCs all upgraded to A5 wagyu, but I didn’t) with daikon and dashi butter – what’s not to like?
unagi chawanmushi – excellent balance of dashi with the egg and the sweet/salty of the unagi
salmon tartar with hijiki and mountain yam – not too overwhelming with sesame oil and hijiki. i’ve usually had mountain grated into the slimy pulp, and this was diced into little crunchy bits. loved that texture!
tempura fig in a creamy sesame and hamachi “pastrami” – the fig and sesame, we all wanted a 100 more. the sesame sauce we all scraped every last bit off the plate.
crunchy onigiri with ikura and wasabi dashi broth – rice stayed crunchy even with the broth. The broth was soo good. Simple but we all loved, loved this.
traditional flower shaped wagashi and matcha tea with candy “jewels” (not on the menu) – perhaps the only miss for me is that I don’t like traditional whipped matcha tea, but i appreciated the authenticity of ending the meal with this. the wagashi was fine, and i enjoyed the slightly crunchy and chewy jewels. another pretty dish!
We got comped a matcha tiramisu because of the birthday and that was good too 
We found everything well flavored, and beautifully presented. It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into how everything was plated - simplicity and delicate in design. We were finishing the last drops of broth, dashi and sauce on the plates and bowls with every serving. I can nitpick a few things on a few of the dishes, but I had a great time, and there is nothing like this in Boston that I’m aware of (the closest being an omakase at O-ya perhaps). It’s costly, but I would highly recommend it to those who don’t mind the splurge to give it a try.
The space is comfortable and cozy, but a bit tight given the narrow-ish and square building. Has a modern, wood themed feel, so not going for the traditional Japanese restaurant ambience. Service was great; attentive and not intrusive and the staff took their time to explain each dish. Drinks were top notch, and I had a fabulous non-alcoholic drink that might be my new favorite. Bathrooms require a trip up and down via elevator, which wasn’t a problem for a quiet, rainy Tuesday night. I can see this getting hairy if it’s busy. I have pictures, but can’t post now. Can try to get photos up maybe this weekend if you’re curious.
