Was scheduled to be in the South End Wednesday night, so decided to give the No Relations “Special” Omakase a try. No Relations is the premium omakase tasting that is located within Shore Leave in the South End. Once you wind your way down to the basement, you go past the first little sushi bar, and are escorted past the hallway with the restrooms and to a private room with a nicer (aka, less kitschy) sushi counter. The interior is designed nicely and more refined, with no vestiges of the tiki theme anywhere.
The basic tasting is 15 courses, with an option for supplements. On the back of the tasting list, was a list of 5 special ‘extra’ bites that you an order after the progression of the tasting. We were told the 5 specials rotate. You can choose different sake, wine or non-alcoholic pairings. You can also bring in any drink you had ordered at Shore Leave of course.
All in all, the tasting was good and comes at a slightly more palatable price point than perhaps others in the area (admittedly for a few less courses). Most of the dish is straight forward sushi, and the tasting is designed to progress from the lightest of fish to oilier fish and finally the richest fish (tuna). I like that they enjoyed straying from traditional Japanese ingredients and flavors and brought a little fun into their offerings. On a different forum, someone noted that they rely on the torch too much on their sushi, and I agree. On a few of the dishes, the char added a nice element to the fish, but more often then not, it didn’t taste noticeably charred. They should let the sushi fish stand as is.
Their offering of tuna tartare is fun, if slightly confusing. They provide little strips of nori for you to make small bites or mini handrolls, but everyone needed a little practice with that (the shape of the spoon was not helpful). I also opted for the ikura supplement, and it was a fairly generous portion of ikura.
The two dishes I felt fell a little flat was the artic char sunomono and the chawanmushi at the end. The cold cucumber wrap of the sunomono hid most of the taste of the fresh fish, so I think they need to provide more fish. I also wanted a bigger punch of the vinegar/acid, but either the sauce was too light and they didn’t provide much of it on the plate.
The chawanmushi didn’t have as much crab flavor as it could have. In its absence, I would have liked a little bit more savoriness at minimu, and it tasted like it needed more dashi to the mix. The texture however was lovely.
They did offer wagyu in their specials. I’ve heard the ‘steak and eggs’ is heavenly, but I have to be in the right mood for wagyu, as I find it often too rich and fatty tasting. The dish is a slice of torched A5 wagyu with caviar on top, and then a dollop of their uni, and looked great when my neighbor ordered it. I had the hamachi toro which was beautiful.
A few omakase special cocktails were offered too, but I had a mocktail from the bar and didn’t try any of their drink offerings. I do appreciate the model of omakase and admin fee (yes, that is a thing for some of the omakases) is paid for up front - and in this case, no tips. For the evening, you just pay for any drinks and supplements you ordered along the way.
If the other omakases might be a bit too pricey, I think this is a good alternative.
