neuralgraffiti

The other day, Sean mentioned to me that his favorite sushi place in SF, Kabuto was closing soon and “we had to go.” Now, I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to hear something like that and, you know, not go.

So, last night, Sean, MJ, and I hit Kabuto in its last week of business. It was awesome.

Now, although I like sushi quite a bit, I’m not much of a connoisseur, so I let the others do the ordering. Unfortunately, that also means that I don’t remember exactly what we had. However, highlights for me included:

• the King Salmon - full of fatty deliciousness, also responsible for yet another extended diatribe[1] from yours truly about the roasted salmon I had at Chez Panisse not too long ago
• “The Valentine” (foie gras with rice and a chocolate sauce) - was very interesting and pretty good, although I preferred the straight up foie gras nigiri
• Speaking of duck, the roasted duck with spicy mustard nigiri was wonderful, great balance of sweet rice, savory duck, and spicy mustard, much better than I anticipated from reading the menu
• Scallops, perhaps my favorite things that live in the water, also made a fantastic showing. A simple presentation of very fresh butterflied scallops as nigiri was delightful, but the dish that really shined for me was the scallops baked in egg custard. It was more like scallops baked in a rich blend of butter and egg and it was as savory as a steak. It was practically screaming for some bread to soak up the bits that were left over (or a bowl of rice for that matter).

Everything else we had was good too. I also learned that I do in fact like sake and I was wrong when I thought it all tasted like paint thinner. Who knew?

The only downside of the meal was that it was, well, slightly outside my $12/day I’m-a-poor-student food budget. Like $85 outside it. But hey, you only get one chance to eat at Kabuto before it closes, and I’ll just eat rice, eggs, and high fiber bread for the next week.

So basically, the meal was fantastic, and you’ll never get to go. Sucks for you.

Update (01/27/2006): The Chronicle reviews Kabuto under new management. Sadly, seems that it’s not as good. Still sucks for you.

[1]I believe I used the phrase: “heaven made incarnate in fish.”