It’s ethereally light but also rich, a fabulous riff on a Japanese classic. If you love egg dishes, ask for chawanmushi, a savory custard which Hashino fortifies with edamame, yakitori-style jidori chicken (charred and juicy), dashi (umami-laden broth) and strained foie gras.
Slurping up the equally smoky liquor at the bottom of the shells is half the fun. Hashino smokes them in the shell, the hay imparting grassy sweetness to the oysters’ buttery undertone. Sometimes Hashino uses plump Pacific oysters from Washington, sometimes pricier Kumamotos, prized for their sweet, fruity notes. It’s your party.īut you will want at least six of his hay-smoked oysters that I can guarantee. Hashino is down for whatever, as long as you explain ahead of time what the parameters should be in terms of portions and number of courses. But it’s also possible to be far more circumspect – ordering, say, two oysters instead of six – and still create a memorable experience that won’t max out your credit card. Suffice to say, it’s not hard to spend $400 (including tip) on elegant sake and eight courses that will put you and a companion into blissful food and drink comas. He speaks to his supplier every day to determine the freshest and best product to buy. Hashino requires at least five days’ notice to order the seafood (much of it coming from Tokyo) and plan the menu. Still, the best adventure is his off-the-menu omakase – loosely translated as something like “I’m in your hands.” It’s a multi-course dinner created with luxurious and sometimes hard-to-come-by ingredients the chef selects just for you. The everyday menu offers its fair share of thrills, including Hashino’s famously decadent bamboo-wrapped beef tongue, braised for eight hours with scallions and miso and finished on a tableside hibachi, each captivating bite caramelized and bubbling. But the dishes you’ll remember days, even months, after dining here will surely be elegant sashimi combos or Japanese charcoal-grilled meat and seafood selections redolent with smoke or char – ephemeral, dream-like dishes you won’t necessarily find on the regular Yasu menu.ĭon’t get me wrong. There’s sushi, to be sure nigiri mostly, elevated by Hashino’s deft touches and his incredibly good sushi rice. These days, cozy YSB seems even more like a modern-day, Tokyo-style izakaya pub than ever before, offering Japanese beer, shōchū and artisanal sakes – all made by small producers, some impossible to find anywhere else in Arizona – to complement small plates that dazzle with ingenuity. Though his erect posture, laser focus and samurai-like discipline are still very much intact, Hashino has moved away from the mainstream, recently taking sushi rolls off the menu entirely in a symbolic gesture that speaks volumes about his intent. Having worked his way up the ladder at Sushi on Shea (in its heyday under Fred Yamada) and highly regarded Shimogamo, the chef was undoubtedly steeped in sushi culture when he founded Yasu. Hashino’s emphasis has shifted over the years, to the extent that the words “sushi bistro” no longer seem apt. Ten years later, this humble guy has quietly distinguished himself as one of Phoenix’s premier Japanese chefs – an innovator who, much like Shinji Kurita (late of ShinBay) and Nobuo Fukuda (Nobuo at Teeter House), hews to Japanese culinary tradition while enriching and expanding its scope.īut that’s not news. When Yasu Hashino opened Yasu Sushi Bistro in a nondescript North Phoenix strip mall in 2006, a new and exciting chapter in the annals of Phoenix restaurant history was about to be written.
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