Umami for JoJo

January 28, 2009

Turns out that we're bad friends, because we missed JoJo's birthday in December. So, to make up for that social snafu, the ladies went out for a belated dinner celebration for JoJo. We went to Umami on Webster & Union (Cow Hollow/Marina?), which also happened to be participating in the annual Dine About Town program. Sweet!

Umami is a trendy-ish and spendy-ish restaurant featuring Japanese cuisine and some pretty fantastic styling in the dining areas. The Dine About Town program goes for two weeks every January (January 15-30 this year), and the dinner features 3-courses for $34.95.

Umami actually had a lot of choices on the Dine About menu, which was nice. We also ordered one extra starter, the KOBE BEEF “BBQ” SKEWERS (robata-style wagyu beef marinated in korean “bulgogi” sauce with scallions), which were yum:
To start, we tried the EDAMAME HUMMUS (shichimi-dusted grilled house-made flat bread) and the THREE SAMURAI maki roll (ahi tuna, wild salmon, yellowtail & avocado/tobiko).


The portions were generous (5 rolls per order), which was a nice surprise. For dinner, most of chose one of two entrees, though there were four choices.

MISO-GLAZED BLACK COD (green tea-miso broth, crispy rice “furikake” & sesame spinach with shaved bonito). Delicious, melt in your mouth fish.

BI BIM BAP KOREAN HOT POT (braised niman ranch pork, snow peas, water chestnuts, maitake mushrooms & quail egg). Surprisingly spicy but tasty. It was too much food!

There were some pretty interesting desserts on the menu, and seeing as how we were each allowed to ordered one, we tried them all! Ah, gotta love girls night...


Hands down winner: Maki of ice cream wrapped in cookie dough ("sushi roll"-style) served with chocolate sauce and ginger caramel. To...die...for...

Vietnamese black coffee pot de creme with almond brittle and ginger snaps. Very good as well.
Sake pineapple tapioca with vanilla bean ice cream.
Cheesecake "egg rolls" with lemon curd.

Their desserts were HUGE, there was no way to finish any of them. I was generally impressed with the food at Umami, but thankful that I wasn't paying the regular a-la-carte prices. I would even recommend just coming here for a couple rolls and the desserts!

Happy belated birthday JoJo!