Sour Aji

Reservations: The hype has started to die down, so getting a reservation on Resy shouldn’t be too difficult.

Experience: Sour Aji flies in the face of the quiet, intimate, classic omakase experience. The first thirty minutes or so feels typical (although slightly rushed). After the 14ish course set concludes, the party starts. The music gets louder and the unlimited drinks start to rack up. Compared to avoiding eye contact before the set starts, the waitresses and chefs suddenly become talkative and offer to take shots with you. If you are looking for omakase before a night out, this is your place.

Food: The nigiri here is solid - good quality fish with typical touches of things like yuzu and speciality salt. The set price comes with a small selection of unlimited sake, beer, or tea (hot or iced). Once the set is over you are told that you can now order unlimited extra pieces, to be selected from a short list of options (mine were lean tuna, fatty tuna, and Wagyu). You can order as much as you want, but you can only order once, and are asked to order your next set before you can finish your first. For example, before we could finish our first extra set of lean tuna we were being asked how many fatty tuna pieces we wanted. Add that to the sudden friendliness and over pours of the waitresses and you are basically set up to get tipsy, over order, and not finish. And guess what - if you don’t finish the extra pieces, you pay for them. This is even worse if you are at the tables rather than the counter - I saw one couple get all of their extra pieces at the same time (something like 50 pieces) and watched them struggle miserably to finish.

Who to Bring: Unlike other omakase places I think the pool of people appropriate to bring is much wider here. The party environment makes this your best bet for a group omakase experience, although I still recommend sitting at the counter. I would not take parents or a client here, as it gets pretty loud and the seats are very close together.

What to Wear: Omakase rules are out the window here, so wear whatever you want.