Kaito Sushi in Encinitas: The Exciting Conclusion

Kirk and Cathy eat sushi too, but today ed (from Yuma) is going to be eating sushi right in front of your eyes.

In the first installment of this report, I mentioned the spare interior of the Kaito Sushi. In fact, aside from two beautiful and subtle pieces of Japanese calligraphy on the walls, there seemed to be no other decoration. Originally, I thought the place didn't even serve alcohol, because no advertising on the walls was coaxing me to try this beer or that sake. After I realized my misapprehension, we ordered a couple of bottles of Yebisu, a full malt Japanese beer, and a glass of good cold sake.

The only somewhat odd note to the atmosphere at the sushi bar was the background music, late 60s Beatles tunes. Although the music was certainly pleasant and in no way offensive, it struck me as an odd choice for such a focused restaurant.

The next fish to show up in front of us was kohada, also known as gizzard shad. I remember that this fish was conventionally listed on those plasticized placemats from the 80s and 90s that pictured various nigiri sushi and usually advertised some Japanese beer. If I had ever actually eaten this fish before, it was so long ago that I have lost any memory of it. I was impressed that it was available at Kaito, and so I had to try it:

To be honest, however, I was underwhelmed by the fish. It is not that it was unpleasant or past its prime, but I found the flavor to be basically fishy and to my palate undistinguished. Perhaps that is why I have rarely, if ever, encountered it before.

On the other hand, the next seafood served was outstanding. The Kumamoto oysters were fresh, delicately flavored, and simply outstanding. Two of them were lightly touched with ponzu sauce:

Two others were topped with some fermented fish guts -- no doubt because I had mentioned my love of shiokara to the itamae:

 While certainly unusual, I actually preferred the simpler Ponzu preparation, the fish innards striking me as salty and to some extent overpowering.

After asking us if we liked hand rolls, Morita-san gave Tina and I each a small hand roll filled with diced fatty tuna of some kind:

This was an outstanding item, Tina's favorite from the entire evening. The richness of the tuna was truly outstanding, but I was also impressed by the flavor of the nori, the seaweed wrapper. Normally the wrapper in a hand roll does not draw any of my interest unless it is exceptionally tough and hard to bite through. In this case, however, the flavor of the seaweed actually contributed to the overall taste of the roll. It was another mark of the restaurant's quality.

The food had been so good that I was looking for more, and I mentioned both octopus and sea eel. The chef suggested that the eel would make a better conclusion for the meal, so tako was next:

 I can recall only one other piece of octopus (from Sakura) that was as good as this one. Morita-san explained that this piece of cephalopod had never been frozen, and therefore, was not rubbery. Indeed he was correct. The edges of the piece had a slight crunch, but the interior was all about a nice soft chew. Excellent textures and tastes.

Also part of the flavor of this mollusk was the touch of wasabi that exploded in my mouth. And it needs to be pointed out that the wasabi at Kaito is based on actual wasabi root, not horseradish powder with food coloring. Although Morita-san does not grind his own, since he finds the quality of the cultivated wasabi from Oregon to be inconsistent, the flavor of the wasabi paste that he uses is full of the real thing. Between dishes, I kept dipping my hashi into the little mound of wasabi, just because it was soooo good.

The last dish we tried was the anago, sea eel. Much like kohada, this is an item that I have seen much more on placemats than in sushi cases. Touched with a bit of the sauce that would be used on regular eel, unagi, this fish provided a slightly sweet finish to the meal:

In taste, this sea eel, anago,  was more subtle and basic than unagi. I understand now why it is less common in sushi bars since it lacks the mouth filling richness of freshwater eel.

For dessert, we munched on deep-fried eel spine. The piece was originally longer than it is in the photograph because I started eating before I began shooting:

I am certainly not qualified to say whether Kaito is the best sushi bar in the San Diego area; but it is certainly very, very good. Morita-san, also called Kazu or Kaz, is a skillful chef. He can access some excellent fish. He is also friendly, modest, personable, funny, kind, and warm. Although I was a new customer, I was treated like a regular. He showed the same kindness and consideration to those eating exotic sushi as he did for the  people ordering rainbow rolls, California rolls, and shrimp tempura rolls. In fact, some of those rolls looked damn fine.

In addition to Tina and I from Arizona, there were people from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley, as well as Encinitas, in the restaurant. Throughout our meal, locals kept coming in for various dishes to go. Clearly, this man of the sea (the meaning of Kaito) casts a wide net for customers. At the risk of changing metaphors in mid ocean, I must say that I am hooked.

Kaito Sushi  * 130-A N. El Camino Real   *   Encinitas, CA 92024   *   (760) 634-2746

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Comments

[Carol]

Excellent finish to a very nice meal!

[Kirk]

Hey Ed - Looks great. Too bad about the Kohada, though. It does have a bit of a milky flavor to me, but I really like the texture of it.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Thanks Carol. Yeah, it was a good meal.

Maybe the kohada was not of the best; I have no frame of reference. It is interesting to me that the items that I liked the least (kohada & anago) were requests by me. The things the chef recommended were all first rate. It makes me think that an omakase here might be quite excellent. Plus, those shrimp tempura rolls . . .

[foodhoe]

Hey Ed, I haven't seen fried eel bones in a long time! Sounds like a great restaurant.

[Anand]

How much does a meal like this cost? I've been dying to go here for a really long time, but since I'm a student I've been afraid of the price.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Thanks, fh. A lotta folks (particularly in north County) really like the place.

Anand, the total cost (before tip) was just over $140 for two people. Almost all the sushi was served as 4 pieces, two for Tina and two for me. We also had two Yebisus (pretty spendy for a Japanese beer) and a glass of Otokoyama, a good sake from Hokkaido.

There are a couple of ways for a poor student to enjoy good sushi. I'm sure that you could sit at the bar at Kaito and tell Morita-san that you're a poor student and would like some sashimi or sushi and one or two cooked dishes, but that the cost had to be less than $? (before the tip). That way, he could create a meal for you within your price range. You could also be more specific about what you wanted - no fried foods or no red meat or whatever.

Another way is to have a chirashi. I failed to study the menu at Kaito, so I don't know if such is available there, but the chirashi at Sakura (which I posted about recently) includes some outstanding fish, a lot of sushi rice, and comes with soup for under $25, last time I checked. Save those pennies.