Yakitori Omakase Experience

“Omakase” is a chef-curated dinner in a Japanese restaurant. “Yakitori” is a Japanese skewer of meat, typically grilled over charcoal fire. “Shokunin” is an authentic Japanese restaurant in Calgary, which offers a Yakitori Omakase Experience. Last Friday, we booked it, and our seating was at 5:30 pm (the other group eats at 7:30), best seats in the house, right in front of the yakitori grill, so we could watch the magic happen. And magic it was.

First course: cold shuck scallop (flown here from Japan), cut and arranged beautifully on a shell, in cilantro stem salsa. Perfection of flavours and textures.

Second course: handcone - sushi-grade sashimi, cucumber, nitsume sauce, with furikake seasoning, wrapped in a special, gourmet seaweed, definitely more tasty and more crunchy than the usual nori.

Third course: five skewers – shitake mushrooms, oyster, chicken wings, duck tsukune meatball, and… ass! That’s what the menu said. I was intrigued. “Is that a typo?” Turns out that it was not. Shokunin butchers 25-30 chickens a day and offers on skewers both the usual parts and the rare bits, one of them being the “chicken ass”, a bit fatty but very tasty morsel many customers line up for. And yes, it is THAT part of the chicken. This course was served with grilled kimchi, eggplant, potato salad, rice, and yummy dipping sauce with a raw egg yolk.

Then comes… oh yes, wagyu beef – short rib marinated in pastrami brine, sous vide, then grilled. Out of this world. I knew wagyu beef would be tender and melt in your mouth, but this was something else.

Followed by: chicken bone broth with black truffle infused chicken oil and fresh chives, served in a beautiful little bowl. Very flavourful.

Finale: sake tiramisu. I am a big fan of both sake and tiramisu, so this was a double pleasure. The texture and the flavour of hoji-cha cream were truly exceptional. Hojicha is a special Japanese green tea which is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal, which gives it a mild, nutty, toasty, sweet flavour. The sake caramel even pleased Robert’s palate.

Overall, it was one of the best meals we’ve had. Now we are planning another trip to Shokunin, to taste their ramen. Stay tuned.