Kuriya Japanese Kitchen - Albany, CA

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

My sister and I tried Kuriya Japanese Kitchen last night, which took over the space that was Pearl House - as reported by @ernie_in_berkeley.
https://www.hungryonion.org/t/regional-chinese-roundup-3-0-sf-bay-area/4640/634

Reviewing the menu (pictures on the web, no website as yet), it featured a little bit of everything - which always worries me. But the reviews were good, and particularly raved about the sushi. They weren’t wrong.

But almost the star of the show for me was an appetizer “potato tartare” with minced (they called it “ground,” which I think is an unappetizing description) toro and tobiko - super crispy, thin layers of potato topped with the toro. More like mille-feuille than a tartare, except for the toro, of course, which is i think what they were referring to. Fantastic flavor and textures, and it will be hard not to order this every time.

We also split hamachi toro and kampachi nigiri, and kurudai sashimi. Amazingly pristine, fresh, with creamy and silky textures.

there was a lemony/sweet taste to this, absolutely lovely.

Also, delicately flavored chawanmushi with real crab…

And a bowl of ridiculously rich tonkotsu ramen that had us both moaning. The pork was incredibly tender, the broth so creamy, and came with a perfect honsen egg. You could add more of anything, and I might get another egg next time.

Finally, though we didn’t need it, deep fried scallops with a mae ploy-type sauce.

Perfectly fried, very light, but really did need the sauce, as they weren’t seasoned on their own. I think they actually forgot this, as we ordered it late, and it took a really long time to arrive, but they were also busy by then.

This is a small, unfussy, family owned restaurant, and it already seems to be a neighborhood favorite among locals, even though it just opened in October. And actually quite reasonably priced. Beer, wine, and sake is on offer too. Looking forward to trying more of the menu.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

All of this looks positively glorious. Plz take me next time I visit

[Lethe2020 (Jeane)]

Thanks so much for the extensive write-up! We have gone past that restaurant - my family lives in the area, so we are there regularly - and we’ll definitely try it. Spouse loves good sashimi.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

you’re welcome! Note that I forgot to say that the sashimi/sushi were on the specials board over the sushi bar - not on the regular menu.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

and correcting to say there IS sushi/sashimi on the regular menu too, including rolls. just not what we ordered, that was on the Specials board.

[digga]

Wow! They do both sushi and ramen well?! That’s one kick-ass kitchen staff.

[Lethe2020 (Jeane)]

It’s actually not uncommon for Japanese restaurants in the US to include a little bit of everything, these days. Specialty restaurants here don’t do as well unless it’s fast/casual.

Interestingly, when I was growing up in Chicago’s fairly sizable Japanese/American community, the only Japanese restaurant food any JA families would go out for was tempura. Being able to make excellent tempura was a prized ability for a JA homemaker.

Sashimi was always very expensive (frozen foods often cost more than fresh, in the early days of cold storage technology) but one could easily get bluefin tuna from the Japanese grocery marts. Maybe a little albacore, but seldom any salmon. Flying fish roe and salmon roe were also available.

Sushi was a home product. Nobody ever went out for sushi or would even dream of doing so. It was a casual, picnic food item, classed with hot dogs and burger patties. Nigiri doesn’t take any real skill, just the right few pieces of equipment.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

so interesting about the sushi! i believe i knew that people didn’t eat sushi out much but i didn’t know that was because it was something they made at home! My sister is actually quite good with cutting fish for sashimi, so we have a sashimi platter a couple times of year - blocks i get from Tokyo Fish in Berkeley. She makes the vinegared rice and we make little “wraps” for ourselves with seaweed, tobiko, salmon roe, the sashimi, wasabi, etc.

and that is good to know about multiple types of food being common in Japanese restaurants. We are going to Japan for our first time in Oct.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

Second visit last night:

Three of us this time, we started off with hamachi carpaccio with a homemade pickle radish.

Wonderful firm texture, super fresh, with a great tart bite in the middle of the rolls.

agadashitofu:

the tofu was fried so perfectly, the texture was amazing - so crispy outside, so incredibly creamy inside, and the bonito flakes did their dance… but, the dashi sauce it came with was very mildly flavored, and lacked a little oomph. we dipped into some soy and that helped.

salmon-wrapped asparagus:

Fantastic. Probably my favorite thing of the night - the asparagus is grilled so you get a bit of a charred, smoky flavor. I could get this whole thing for myself next time, along with the potato tartare from our first visit, and be very happy.

next, hirame sashimi, from the specials board - two of our servers’ favorite.

fabulously fresh!

we moved on to something warming…

fish katsu curry. very much comfort food, and I just loved the crispy-crunchiness of the fish. I meant to ask what kind - possible cod, but maybe not. I’d only ever had pork or chicken katsu before. Very good, the curry was a little less sweet than I expected, which we all really liked.

and lastly, the Kuriya roll:

i believe it’s the only specialty roll that doesn’t have any kind of sauce on it, which my sister doesn’t love. inside: salmon, toro, hamachi. outside: bluefin tuna toro and tobiko. outstanding.

This place continues to wow. We got there at 5:30 and the place was half full, and totally hopping by 6:00 on a Saturday night. You can make a rez via Google, and it calls the restaurant. However, this time they said that they couldn’t hear what the robo call said for some reason, so they didn’t have our rez. Luckily, they had a table for us when we walked in.

[TheLibrarian28]

I want some of everything!!!

[linguafood (Natascha)]

I swear I want to get on a plane just to eat all of this! Salmon and asparagus is such a great combination. One of my favorite nigiri at one of our regular sushi places in Berlin (not on this level by any means, but good) is one where the asparagus is blanched, and the salmon is torched & then sauced. Your dish is so much more delicate, of course!

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

it’s such a non-destination place except for the food - which of course is really all you need.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

And the company

[ricepad (Steve)]

@Lethe2020

Nigiri doesn’t take any real skill, just the right few pieces of equipment.

While I agree with most of what you said, I disagree with this. It’s no big deal to make a little ball of rice and top it with something, but to make nigiri well takes a lot of practice. A LOT.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

It’s ALL about the rice.

[ricepad (Steve)]

Rice is certainly a big part of it, and it’s where a lot of restaurants fail, but there’s more to good sushi than just the shari, too.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Yea. Fish comes to mind

[Lethe2020 (Jeane)]

In Japan restaurants specialize. They’re very perfectionist that way, part of the culture. In the US, that kind of specialization just doesn’t fly, except for certain types; and even then, only in some places where it will be supported.

When my sister and BIL went to live in Japan for several years, they deliberately chose a rural area that was famed for its tofu. They were vegetarians at the time and so they wanted to be where it was considered best and yet least expensive.

[BierMonk]

Rice is the base of any dish called “Sushi”.
It has to be sourced and prepared properly to have any chance of producing a great Product.
That definitely takes Knowledge, Experience and Skill to do.

[mariacarmen (maria ascarrunz)]

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop - we went yet again last night:

Green tea

Jasmine - nice and floral, as expected.

Shima-Aji Sashimi

May be my favorite so far - Surprisingly not at all mackerel-y (though I do love mackerel), pleasantly firm texture, a tad sweet, just lovely.

Miso ramen

It was almost as rich as the tonkotsu ramen we had on our first visit, and just as delicious. We got the extra egg so we each got a 1/2. I can’t wait to go to Japan to compare, because I really think Kuriya’s ramen is the best I’ve had (but i’m by far no expert.)

the Sandy Roll

While this was tasty, neither of us like the unagi sauce (except on unagi) as it tends to overpower everything. A lot of the rolls use it, but this one had that and the house sauce, which is just a spicy mayo. I think we’ll be asking for just spicy mayo or no sauce from now on. other ingredients: fried asparagus, real crabmeat, avocado, cucumber, topped with spicy tuna, house sauce, tobiko. (It didn’t even say unagi sauce!)

This was the perfect amount of food for the two of us. I’m already dying to do some repeats, but there’s still a lot of the menu to go through…