|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Omakase restaurants along the Peninsula have doubled since 2024. Much of that increase is spearheaded by Sunny Noah, who’s opened three omakase spots in just a year and a half.
His latest? Ren Omakase in Menlo Park.
“I was lucky to have met so many great omakase chefs,” he said, referring to a style of dining where the chef chooses the menu. “Each one of them have their own dream to pursue and have their own restaurant to conduct their curated menu.”
In early 2024, Noah opened Iki Omakase in Palo Alto, highlighting the modern flavors of chef Jiabo Li. Later that year, Noah partnered with chef Tomonori Nagai to open traditional Nagai Edomae Sushi in Redwood City. And on June 17, Noah will be hosting the grand opening of his newest omakase restaurant highlighting the vision of chef Wen Zhao, who he and Li agree is one of the most well-rounded omakase chefs in the area.
Zhao, who focuses on classic edomae techniques with modern twists, is not only skilled in sushi making, Noah said, but also with ostumami, or izakaya-style appetizers, as well as desserts, such as miso ice cream.
“Not a lot of sushi chefs have the background of doing washoku, or the kitchen culinary experience,” Noah said. “From the start to the end, even the dessert, everything is handmade and homemade here by him.”
Zhao said he loves to work with shellfish and that about half the courses at Ren Omakase will likely contain some form of shellfish. One of Zhao’s signature dishes is his four-hour sake-steamed abalone served with an abalone liver sauce. His “quad treasure” appetizer features shrimp, sea urchin, tuna tartare and caviar. Other unique shellfish dishes that may be on the menu feature tsubugai (Japanese sea snail), horsehair crab (kegani) and geoduck.
In addition to shellfish, Zhao focuses on rich and oily silver-skinned fishes like mackerel, gizzard shad, Japanese thornyhead and Pacific saury, marinated in traditional edomae style with kombu and vinegar. Preparing these types of fish requires considerable skill, Noah said, as a slight off-balance in the marination process will result in an unpleasant flavor.
“Many chefs are shy from using them because of the difficulty,” Noah wrote in an email.
Another specialty of Zhao is his ability to pair different types of sea urchin (uni) together, including white, red and purple uni. His uni sauce is a standout, said Noah, and is more “elegant and delicate” than Li’s “rich and flavorful” rendition.
Ren Omakase offers two seatings of eight diners a night, one at 5:30 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m. Expect 18-21 courses that include miso soup, at least five appetizers, at least 10 pieces of sushi and dessert. The restaurant cannot accommodate vegetarians or those who are gluten-free; however, Zhao said he can accommodate those with shellfish allergies, although the variety of fish will be limited.
A selection of exclusive and rare sake is available by the bottle ($299-$3,999) or glass ($47-$1,400), as well as green tea ($8) and Japanese beer ($16). A corkage fee of $65-$95 applies for outside alcohol, depending on the size of the bottle. A mocktail menu will be developed later on, according to general manager Tora Mak.
Ren Omakase costs $198 per person plus a 20% mandatory operational support fee. Compared to other Peninsula omakase spots, it’s slightly more expensive than nearby Robin, Sushi Ai in Redwood City and Noah’s two other omakase spots, but considerably less expensive than Sushi Shin and Sushi Yoshizumi (which costs $325 plus a 22% mandatory service charge).
Humble beginnings
Zhao grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, dropping out of high school at 17 years old and taking a job at Popeye’s.
“I realized I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life, and I decided to learn something for my future living to make my life better,” he said.
At age 19, he took a job at Live Sushi Bar in San Francisco, the first restaurant of what would later become the Omakase Restaurant Group. In 2015, he transferred to new restaurant Omakase, which would go on to hold a Michelin star for many years. Zhao trained in the kitchen for six years before starting to work at the sushi bar in 2020.
“The training time is pretty hard,” he said. “So you got to work like 14, 16 hours a day. You got to do dishwashing. You got to do all the dirty work. You can’t really touch fish. All you can do is just watch.”
Zhao’s years of hard work inspired the name of his new omakase restaurant, which means “lotus” in Mandarin and symbolizes resilience. The phrase “from the mud, the lotus flower blooms” resonates with Zhao because he feels like after all the years in the mud, he’s finally bloomed by opening his own omakase restaurant.
“This place is my dream place,” he said.
Zhao also developed the sushi program at Drunken Monk, located just one mile away from Ren Omakase. Ren’s general manager Mak is one of the four owners of Drunken Monk, and also previously worked as a server at Okane, a sister restaurant to Omakase.
Ren Omakase is located in the former dessert shop Sweet Orchid. The walls, covered in wood, feature handcrafted, detailed woodwork out of Japanese-imported cypress, and the ceiling is covered with beige floral-patterned wallpaper. The sushi counter is also made of pure Japanese cypress (hinoki) and can fit up to 12 people comfortably, although seating is limited to eight.
When asked what he aims to achieve with Ren Omakase, Zhao said, “I just want guests to be happy.”
As for Noah, he said he isn’t planning on opening any more omakase restaurants along the Peninsula, but he isn’t opposed to opening more elsewhere or opening a more casual restaurant concept.
Other upcoming Menlo Park restaurant openings include Yeobo, Darling, opening Friday, and Cafe Vivant, expected to open late July.
Ren Omakase, 403 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, 650-213-7338; Instagram: @ren.omakase. Open Wednesday to Sunday with the first seating at 5:30 p.m. and the second at 8 p.m.
Dig into food news. Follow the Peninsula Foodist on Instagram and subscribe to the newsletter to get insights on the latest openings and closings, learn what the Foodist is excited about eating, read exclusive interviews and keep up on the trends affecting local restaurants.
