Himitsu

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When your waiter tells you that the menu is essentially designed so that a table of four can eat the whole thing, you oblige. 

Last Saturday night, three friends and I finally made it to Himitsu. The lack of reservations kept me away for the first few years, but I am happy to report it is worth the wait and will keep me away no longer. Similar to Rose's Luxury, you need to be in line at Himitsu when it opens, but you don't need to eat at 5pm. I arrived at 5:30pm and was offered an immediate seat, but instead I put my name in for approximately 9pm. Suspecting that it wouldn't actually be that late, I met my friends for a drink at Petworth Citizen at 7:30pm, and we were seated around 8pm.

Since we decided to order the entire menu, we spent little time studying the options. This made the experience into a Japanese-inspired tasting menu - we had to consult the menu to learn what was in each dish! Personally, I loved the surprise and anticipation with which we waited for each dish.   

As soon as our first dish arrived, I knew this was going to be awesome. The first of several crudos was hamachi (aka yellowtail), seasoned with a perfect balance of orange segments, fish sauce vinaigrette, and citrus-y yuzu sauce. Although Himitsu isn't traditional or even straight-up Japanese, this glistening gem of sashimi took me right back to my Sushi Ya experience in Tokyo last year. 

Although it didn't hit me as hard as the hamachi, this second crudo dish was also perfectly balanced. Big eyed tuna toped with a perfect blend of spicy and sweet honeydew, serrano chiles, and cilantro. 

After the sashimi, we moved onto the cooked dishes. One of my favorites of the night was a panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) fried oyster topped with smoked and pickled onions and trout roe (caviar) and served in a Gruyere cheese sauce.  

Cheese you say? I was shocked to find so much cheese in Japan on my trip last year. As odd as it sounds, the creamy, melty Gruyere was a perfect accompaniment to the briny oyster and acidic onions. Balanced AF. 



One of my least favorite Japanese items is bonito flakes - cured, dried fish shavings. Gross, amirite? So needless to say, I was shocked at how much I liked this shrimp toast which is LOADED with bonito flakes on top. Unlike the bonito I had in Japan, these flakes were super mild in flavor, and added just a little punch of umami to the crunchy shrimp toast. Bonito FTW. 

Veering to the very non-traditional side of the menu were these roasted carrots served "elote" style - aka like Mexican street corn with mayonnaise and cheese. I love me some Mexican street corn, so I am not going to complain, but I honestly did not understand how these fit in with the rest of the menu. Then again, no one promised the meal would be conventional. In any event, they were quite tasty.

My least favorite dish of the night was agadashi tofu, which is breaded and fried and floating in a dashi broth. If you are not familiar with dashi, it's effectively the sourdough starter of all Japanese food. That said, it is usually made into a ramen or other dish, not served on its own. I really don't love tofu in any form, so this dish did not do much for me. 

Continuing down the vegetable trail, next up we had grilled eggplant served in a chili-lime vinaigrette and topped with pumpkin seeds and scallions. I am a huge fan of eggplant and find it particularly hard to cook well myself, so I am always excited to eat it at restaurants. These were both sweet and bitter - once again achieving a perfect balance of flavor profiles. 

One of the lesser memorable dishes were the seared scallops. I am having trouble remembering whether I liked these, so I guess that pretty much sums it up. They were served with scallions, pea shoots, and bok choy. 

Can't.Touch.This. No really, can you top a perfectly grilled octopus? I think not. This beauty was topped with peanuts, pickled onions, garlic, and herbs, served over a fermented black bean mole. Although the mole sounds strange, Asian food frequently contains fermented beans, so I thought it really worked here and kept up with the theme. One of these days I am going to work up the nerve to cook octopus myself - until then, this will do just fine. 

As you can tell by this picture, behind the kitchen is a legit grill master. It's not that easy to nail a perfect medium-rare all night long, so color me impressed. Oh yea, and it was waygu, and it was topped with a "scallion confit" and nestled on a perfect bed of sticky sushi rice. It was the bomb.com.

While not always advisable to save the heaviest item for last, we did not complain when our waiter brought out this perfect karaage - aka Japanese fried chicken. I am not one to wax poetic about any type of fried food, but something about karaage always gets me. Thankfully, I've found a number of places in DC that serve it and do it really well (recall our reviews of Donburi and Chaplin both included karaage)! Himitsu's karaage was similarly on point -- possibly better. It was topped with pickled onions - the brininess of which perfectly cut through the richness of the chicken, and the dish overall was brightened up by a charred gem lettuce salad.  

Overall, I was most impressed by the balance of each plate at Himitsu. Each was perfectly composed, but not in a pretentious 3-star kind of way. Rather their focus remained on flavor. I cannot wait for the seasons to change again so I can justify a trip back. 

...and we're BACK! Fancy Radish - a plant-based meal to remember

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Two and a half years later, we're back! We sincerely apologize for dropping our blog like a hot potato, but we are excited to return with restaurant reviews from the constantly evolving DC food scene, recaps of our travel, tiny dinner party menus, and new recipes. 

As we make our way back, we will be asking ourselves (and you), are blogs still relevant? We're not entirely sure, but for about four years this was a wonderful creative outlet for us, and we are thrilled that our lives have once again allowed us both the time and energy for this little corner of the Internet. We hope you'll share your reactions and thoughts with us too.  To former readers, welcome back. To new readers, we hope you enjoy :)  Also- check us out on Instagram (we so 2018).  

Since I was flying solo this weekend (update: I got married last month!), Liz invited me to join her, her boyfriend (Adam), and his visiting sister (Rachel) at the new-ish H Street vegan fine-dining restaurant, Fancy Radish. Guys, vegan?? I was skeptical, but after talking to a co-worker who recently had been, she assured me I would love it. I joked that I was going to eat a pre-dinner, but she warned me not to. I am so glad I listened to her advice! 

From the minute we walked into the restaurant, we were very impressed. After checking in with the host, we were immediately taken to a table at the back of the restaurant near the open kitchen. It's like they knew the way to our hearts.  We also appreciated that they honored the reservation time -- too many restaurants seem to treat that as a rough suggestion without regard for the diner's plans.  

We sat down and quickly perused the innovative and adventurous cocktail menu. We quickly realized we had no idea what half the cocktail ingredients were! After some quick Googling and discussion with the waitress, Adam ordered what was essentially an old fashioned - that was served in the world's cutest tea cup, and Liz opted for a mezcal cocktail that the waitress compared to a negroni. I went for a safe choice, wine (rose - duh) as none of the cocktails appealed to my palette (give me all the vodka cocktails). 

After dying over the fact that Adam's drink was served in a tea cup, we all took our first sips. Adam's drink was as promised, but Liz's cocktail was extremley bitter, much more than a negroni. The drink wasn't a hit at first --cringing form the bitters -- but it got better as the ice melted and it watered down a bit.

Next we talked food with the server. Liz and I are very particular about tapas-style meals, and Liz asked the server if she would be able to pace the meal for us. After a sarcastic comment about 'having done this a few times before' I caught on that she was kidding. And she didn't lie - the meal was timed perfectly, like clock-work. Light to heavy, with just enough time between plates to breathe and be excited for the next dish coming our way. 

 
We started with the "fondue" - which was actually a puree of rutabega (a root vegetable) and served with pickled veggies and bread. The fondue was made with nutritional yeast and miso; and if you hadn't told me it wasn't cheese, I would have never guessed! It had both the texture and umami notes of melty cheddar cheese.  I coudn't believe it was totally plant based.  The bread was similar to a pretzel and made for the perfect dipping vehicle to enjoy the fondue. The pickled veggies were delightful as an acidic off-set to the rich fondue; I only wish there were more.

Next up was undoubtedly my favorite dish of the night. A BLT. I wish I could send each of our lovely readers this dish. The bread was perfectly crunchy, topped with a basil spread and a thick-cut heirloom tomato. The most impressive part of this dish was the "bacon" made from shiitake mushrooms. Again, if you had blind-folded me and told me I was eating mushrooms, I would have laughed. The amount of flavor packed in such a simple dish was impressive. I am still dreaming of it today.

The stuffed avocado and Peruvian potatoes made an appearance next. The avocado was served with cauliflower rice, a crispy rice chip, and a romesco sauce. The group felt this was the least favorite dish of the night. It turns out we are avocado-purists.  There was nothing wrong with it, the other dishes were just that good. The Peruvian roasted potatoes were cooked to a perfect crisp and paired nicely with the zesty sauce - similar to the sauce that would top Peruvian roasted chicken.

The trumpet mushrooms were one of Liz's favorite dishes of the night. Shaved paper thin, the mushrooms took on the texture of pasta. They swam in a savory broth of olive oil, roasted tomatoes, and basil - which we all were scraping off the bottom of the bowl with our spoons.  It only could have used bread to dip in that broth! 

Adam picked the summer squash, but wasn't overly impressed with it. I enjoyed zhoug, which is a middle eastern version of chimmichurri - and the pistachios it was accompanied by - you all know I love a good sauce!

The final two courses were Rachel and Liz's choice. The dan-dan noodles and the ramen. Liz has a thing for dan-dan (typically made with ground pork and chili oil), and has (unsuccessfully) searched high and low in DC for an acceptable version. While the vegan appropriation wasn't quite as good as the real thing (sometimes you just need meat), Liz still loved this dish, as did the rest of us. The texture was enjoyable and the spicy sichuan pepper lended as good variety to the earlier, cooler dishes.

The ramen noodles were also quite good, but the title of the dish was a little misleading. Though the noodles were ramen style, this dish was far from ramen in my mind. The carbonara sauce (minus the egg) was spot-on and gave diners a clue what they were in for.

Well before the end of the meal, all of our beverages were nearing the bottom of their respective glasses. Though overall the service was impeccable, I did find it odd that the waitress never offered to refresh our drinks.  In fact, our server cleared my glass before I was been able to finish my final sip - a huge pet peeve.

Drink-less, we moved on to dessert. I'm a sucker for s'mores and quickly landed on that option. It did not disappoint, though Liz complained that the texture was a bit too gummy for her. I think this is an inherent quality of s'mores and was impressed at the deconstructed version of the dessert. The graham cracker ice cream was a high note for me.

We also tried the carrot cake cup. I am not a huge fan of carrot cake (fruits and vegetables do not belong as part of dessert IMO), but this take on the classic cake was well done. I did have to sort of dig my spoon in to be able to enjoy all the layers as part of one bite though. 

Overall, I was highly impressed with Fancy Radish. The service was spot-on, the food was creative and incredibly flavorful, and the ambiance was enjoyable. I can't wait to go back and in the meantime, I am telling everyone I know to get there ASAP.