Koi Japanese Cuisine - Seal Beach, CA

This has been my 5th visit to Koi and I must say, thank goodness they are not around where I live because I would go broke real quick.

Chef Daigo on the right, making face as usual...

This time, I took slave girl with me and we asked for omakase. This is when you know it's going to be good when the chef asked us how much we wanted to spend on omakase vs. pre set priced pre set omakase.

Chef Daigo was the man! I actually had him everytime I went to Koi. He was very skilled with his knife and able to create beautiful and delicious plates at the same time. He was also very friendly with a great sense of humor and extremely knowledgeable with the fish he worked on. Just make sure to tell him what you don't like and you would be set for your meal.

We got about 15 different courses and each one of them was woah for us. What I really really love was how he served otoro to us. If you have followed my sushi posts, you would know I absolutely hate to find tendons in my fish. Daigo actually cut out all the tendons so the otoro was truly melting in my mouth. That sensation was beyond words and can be only experienced when you have it yourself.

My least favorite was the mushroom stuffed with krab. It was not really part of the omakase since I ordered it alone. I remembered the flavor being better and also real crab meat was used when I ordered during my prior vusits, but not the ones we got this time. I don't think I would order that again.

By the time our meal was finished, it was way past their closing time. We were not rushed and Daigo kept up with the spirit. I found it especially amazing when we started buying Daigo drinks. Oh man, what they said about the chef is the soul of the restaurant was true, he really made dinner fantastic. If you haven't been there yet, make sure you sit at the sushi bar served by Daigo. Too bad the sushi bar is first come first serve, prepare to wait.

Menu of the day

What we got for the night:

Sashimi plate

Giant Clam, Otoro, Blue Fin

Octopus, Albacore, Halibut

Halibut, Sweet Shrimp

Live Scallop, Sweet Shrimp

3 kinds of oysters

Chelsea oyster

Coromandel oyster

Kumomoto oyster

I think it's scallop leftover stewed

The other side of the scallop leftover stewed

Teriyaki salmon. Not bad.

Sweet shrimp head in miso

Duck meat with marinated peppercorn. One bite of perfection with peppercorn and duck meat together

Sushi plate

Bonito

Belt Fish

Kampachi

Flounder

Second sushi plate

Otoro

Seared Toro

Blue Fin

Oyster

Fried shrimp head

Uni

Then chef realized we love uni, so we got another sushi with lots of uni piled

We didn't like salmon, but Daigo wanted us to try it anyway. It was good, but just don't care for it.

Last sushi plate. Daigo called it: vanilla, raspberry and strawberry. He knows how to serve us dessert

Albacore

Blue Fin

Chutoro

Daigo and his knife work!