Japanese beef & beer pair up
At least 10 Japanese restaurants serving fixed-price menus have opened in the last two years, but Hitachino Beer and Wagyu is markedly different. I also accepted, by my third visit, that Hitachino was one of the most confusing restaurants I’ve reviewed.
Instead of sushi, Hitachino celebrates a head-to-tail approach to wagyu beef on its nine-course menu ($78). And unlike other places where the sushi bar is prime seating, Hitachino serves its progression of dishes at tables. So far, so good. Then it gets more complicated: A small bar in the front of the restaurant offers a separate menu where every dish is cooked in a clear glass sake cup and sealed with a metal cap. A few weeks ago, chef-owner Noriyuki Sugie added an a la carte option in the dining room. That’s a lot of options for a restaurant that seats 25 at tables and 12 in the bar.
I felt like I was playing a board game as we passed back and forth the various menus and beverage list attached to rectangular wood boards, trying to figure out whether we wanted to go all in for the tasting menu, or mix and match between the a la carte and the bar menu. The waiters were pleasant but offered little help. (They were efficient once the food started to arrive.)
Even if you take the “easy” way out and go with the set menu, you’ll be asked if you want supplements of foie gras and uni for $30 extra. Most people would assume those would be additional courses but these ingredients are added to dishes already on the menu.
Before you start the menu shuffle, you need to get a seat. Reservations are parsed out on Reserve, and I had to check many dates to find available time slots. Even two weeks out on a Tuesday I couldn’t book a table, so we simply showed up at 6 p.m. The place was empty except for two people at the bar. We were given a table, but even as we were leaving at 7:30 there were vacant seats.
Not only is the reservation system frustrating but the restaurant didn’t have a telephone so we could check in about a table. If you email hitachino@gmail.com you get an automatic reply that says: “Due to the high volume of emails, we may not be able to respond to your request.”
When I called Sugie to factcheck, he said that at first the restaurant did not have a telephone because the staff is so slim there was no one to answer it. However, so many people complained that they have since added one. Despite all this — or maybe because of it — Sugie and his partners seem to be masters at creating a buzz.
Hitachino is the first U.S. restaurant from Kiuchi Brewery in Japan, a company that has been making sake for nearly 200 years. The company got into the beer business in 1994 and quickly gained cult status in the U.S. and around the world.
Sugie, who is from the same region as the brewery, says he has had a long relationship with the company, which came on as a branding partner. Together they came up with the idea for the restaurant.
When Hitachino opened quietly in March, reservations were given out by lottery, which heightened expectations and created a lot of word of mouth.
The beverages produced by Kiuchi are at the center of the experience. The eight beers featured (all $10) include smallbatch production such as White Ale with coriander, nutmeg and orange peel; espresso stout; and Anbai, a wheat ale made with sour green plums (ume) and finished with sea salt. There are always three seasonal brews; other specialties might not be listed. The menu advises: “Ask your server for details.”
The brewery also provides six sakes, including one made with red rice and another slowly aged in cedar barrels. The three wines — Ume, Yuzu and red — are also made by the company.
The restaurant is housed in what at one time was China Moon Cafe, a groundbreaking restaurant that closed in 1997. It’s been several other places since, and has been totally reconfigured with a smaller bar replacing the diner-like counter. The kitchen is sequestered behind a wall. Booths line the exposed brick wall set opposite the floor-to-ceiling shelves.
Reservations are strongly suggested for the dining room, but walk-ins are accepted at the bar, where diners choose from 10 items all cooked and served in sake cups, including meatballs ($8.50) with shisho and ponzu. The ground-meat balls are browned, bottled with the sauce and cooked. The clear jar is opened in front of the diner and poured into a bowl. There’s also an excellent octopus ($8.50) with tomato, cucumber, radish and a hit of wasabi.
The fixed-price and a la carte menus are served only at the tables. The a la carte menu includes some dishes from the other menus, plus other items such as thin slices of wagyu ($29) arranged over garlic rice and a slow-poached egg; beef stew served with rice and purple cabbage ( $10/$16); and a 1 pound U.S. wagyu steak ($95).
The nine-course menu starts with an avocado mousse topped with caviar, lardo, pieces of flank steak and Asian pear. Different cuts of wagyu beef appear in most dishes, although many times there are so many competing elements that the meat is easy to miss.
The next course was slices of seared waygu tri-tip cured in kombu and presented on garlic rice with eggplant that melts on the tongue like custard. It’s topped with a gelee of tosazu, a smoky blend of mirin, soy and rice wine vinegar, that gives the dish a needed flavor boost.
Next the efficient waiter brought burrata cheese mixed with sun-dried tomatoes, edamame and red shiso leaves in a dashi broth flavored with more tomatoes. This dish features thin slices of waygu center-cut sirloin, but I wouldn’t have missed it if it weren’t there.
My favorite course was the skewer of tongue, carefully cut into squares and sauteed to create a thin glass-like exterior and a creamy, melting interior.
The most interesting dish came in the sake cup — a mixture of slowly cooked oxtail and daikon. When the waiter popped the top table side it reminded me of Alpo. Fortunately, it tasted much better than it smelled, and the side garnishes of scallions and beer mustard brought it to life.
The jars are a concept that Sugie came up with two years ago. It allows him to expand his menu because these are prepared ahead. He says at night he handles all three menus with only one other chef to help.
The next course on the tasting menu mimicked sushi: a well-marbled slice of beef, pink and veined with fat, draped over garlic rice. It was good but awkward to eat. It’s too big for a single bite, but when I tried to cut it in two the beef went one way and the rice the other.
The most substantial dish was ramen with spicy sesame broth topped with ground beef and flakes of fresh coconut. If you choose the pairing options ($30), you get half glasses of beers with each course; but when the ramen appears diners are allowed to choose anything from the list. The espresso stout is tailor-made for the dish. There’s also a specialty beer made with sansho pepper that becomes fuller bodied with the spicy broth.
I liked much of what I had at Hitachino, but getting to the point of enjoyment was a challenge. Next time I’ll probably head to the bar for the sake cups and beer. It’s the path of least resistance.