Fans of chef Nobuo Fukuda and his sophisticated contemporary Japanese cooking were treated to an all-you-can-eat splurge this past weekend, with a two-night cocktail party-style dinner at Sea Saw. It was the restaurant's final hurrah before Fukuda goes indie (visit his website, www.nobuofukuda.com, to keep up with him while he's working on his new Phoenix restaurant).
Friends who attended Thursday night's get-together tell me that the place was mobbed, and that they ate an insane amount of food. The festivities went on until about 1 in the morning. I stopped by last night, a little later on, and the vibe was more mellow -- vibrant but not chaotic.
The kitchen kept cranking out dish after delicious dish, and guests pounced on all of them: tomato with octopus, mozzarella, and olive oil; tuna tataki with beet puree; a hot pot of clams, Chinese cabbage, and smoky bacon; steamed buns with pork belly; fried soft shell crab on foccacia; a scrumptious mushroom medley steamed in parchment; spoonfuls of hamachi sashimi with truffle oil; squash blossoms; gravlax; wonderful fried whole shrimp; seared shishito peppers (yum!); fried chicken feet; sliced duck breast, and more.
So much good food, so many memories of Sea Saw. This place won't soon be forgotten.
