Alternating between small dishes and sushi, an evening at Takumi Sushi Owana flows with a rhythm. As his trademark, Oana uses two kinds of rice, selecting between red rice and white rice for each topping. Enjoy following his skillful finger strokes as he prepares each dish in front of your eyes.

The omakase menu is a classic Edomae-style sushi. Passing on the craft he internalized during his apprenticeship at Sushi Sho, Oana shapes the sushi into delicate morsels with the rice gently tucked under the fish. The knife work is a work of craftsmanship with every slit designed specifically for the day’s fish. The nikiri, or brush-on sweet soy sauce, is mild and gentle in flavor.

The small dishes are simple in concept but carefully prepared and beautifully presented. The plates bring out the colors and flavors of the season. “I create dishes that I would want to eat myself,” he says as he prepares his art-like dishes.

The evening begins with a clear shijimi clam soup to open up your taste buds, followed by a plate of white shrimp that looks like a French appetizer at a glance. The kombu-infused shrimp meat is sliced and mounted into a small bundle and drizzled with rich egg yolk soy sauce.

Marinated mackerel is flavored with perfect sourness. The sweetness of the fat is enhanced by the freshness of myoga, green onions and needle-thin ginger. Horse mackerel is lightly cured with salt for just 5-6 minutes before it’s shaped with beautiful pleats and mounted on top of white sushi rice.

The otoro fatty tuna looks too delicious to eat with the strokes of marbled fat on the glistening pink flesh. Today’s catch comes from a 110-kg fish caught off Shiogama. Sujiko is served in a sake glass with a heap of juicy roe covering the rice.

To bring out the greatest flavor, gizzard shad is marinated twice with red vinegar and white vinegar. The deep criss-crossed slits add a wonderful texture.

INGREDIENTS
The fish is sourced daily, mainly from the Toyosu fish market. The chef likes to procure seasonal ingredients like crab, shrimp, and monkfish liver directly from producers in Hokkaido. He likes to make sure he checks the quality of the produce with his own eyes.

The high quality tuna are sourced from Toyosu’s top retailer Yamayuki. Of their catches, he prefers the flavor of fish that are slightly smaller that weigh less than 150 kg. For the sushi rice, he uses specially selected sushi-grade rice produced in Miyagi called Gin-bozu Ichizoku. Wasabi comes from Utsurogi in rural Shizuoka Prefecture, known as the birthplace of wasabi.