As an avid sushi eater and a lover of all things food, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” was in my Netflix queue for quite some time. And, like most watchers of the film, fell in love with sushi all over again and could only hope to ever attend Jiro’s restaurant.
While Japan isn’t on the immediate travel list (it is there though!), Sushi Nakazawa was one that was just down the street. And, since I was moving to Hawaii that week it was now or never. Well, not never. Just several months from now until I get to visit home again. And so, my friend Victor started the journey towards of eating at Sushi Nakazawa.
We were able to score reservations in the Dining Room, but after doing much more research we realized that in order to get the “full-experience” we should have gotten reservations at the Sushi Bar. Which, after a week’s worth of e-mailing, calling, etc. we were to no avail, UNTIL my friend showed to the restaurant about an hour earlier than our reservation and we were able to score 2 last minute cancelled seats to the restaurant. A special thank you to the person that cancelled that evening – you have made an impact in my life that I can never return.
And so, on January 28th the Sushi Nakazawa journey began. The hostess’ were very polite and the overall experience was truly once in a lifetime (or several times in a lifetime if you’re lucky). Each course contributed to the overall symphony that was happening in your mouth (imagine that scene from Ratatouille when Remy introduces Emile to pairing cheese and grapes for the first time).
Favorite pieces of the evening? Definitely the egg, scallop, fatty tuna, and dungeness crab. The prawn was prepared fresh (they were still squirming around before they were skewered!) and my friend and I got excited every time the Chef Nakazawa took out the blow torch.
Even before the meal started, Chef Nakazawa let my friend and I take a sniff of the freshly prepared wasabi – which he was hand-grating with shark fins! Oh also, not sure if the cancelled reservation was for someone’s birthday, but I lucked out and still got to try some lychee sorbet!My birthday was pretty soon, so it was very nice appropriate.
Overall, an incredible experience that I still think about to this day. And one that I HIGHLY recommend.
jessicaannsamson 
I absolutely love sushi! this post looks so good 🙂 I’m new to your blog and it would mean so much if you checked out my site too.
http://www.meekio.com/
Thanks! Your the Spanish Tapas look delish!
The sushi in the featured image doesn’t look like sushi, I really thought it was a pastry bar of some sort haha… They sure make sushi pretty there, I don’t think I’ve seen sushi prepared that way from where I come from.
If you check out the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Chef Nakazawa is actually one of Jiro’s apprentices! The featured image is the egg custard – kind of like the finale dessert during the omakase. One of the hardest to master (well, according to the documentary anyway), but you should check it out if you get the chance! Thanks for commenting =)