Sushi Alert: Kitsho in Cupertino

Had some pretty darned good sushi at Kitsho tonight. I would rank it a solid 8.5 on the sushi scale. It loses points for the sushi rice but the fish was amazingly fresh and there was a very good imported selection.

We had:
Kinmedai: very fresh and rich. They gave us 2 different cuts. The cut near the belly was excellent. My first sighting here in the bayarea.

Shimaaji: this was amazing. Richer and silkier than the kinmedai.

Aji: softer and oilier than the shimaaji but not as refined. As far as aji goes, it was excellent quality

Toro: they called it o-toro but it was probably only chu-toro quality, much more red, and not enough white.

Copper River Salmon: dark orange, pretty good, but I'm not a fan of salmon for nigiri.

Japanese Aji: also very delicious and silky.

The quality and selection of the fish was the best I've had up here so far. My only beef is that the rice is only average and the use of paste wasabe.

[JacksonB]

Oh yeah, this place is *the* place. We first got sushi from Howard at Ikenohana. Then he opened Kitsho and every sushi-head in the South Bay abandoned Ikenohana to follow Howard to Kitsho (don't tell him that--he's touchy about it, and didn't mean to put them out of business, but that's what happened). We know people who went to Japan on sushi vacations, came back, and said the food was almost as good as Howard's. We never order anything anymore--we just plunk down at the counter and Howard takes care of us. He knows what we like. By the way, he has premium sakes, some very rare and hard to get. Is Kitsho expensive? You bet it is, but it's worth it.

[wolfe]

Place link not in place in 2006.

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Kitsho
19541 Richwood Dr, Cupertino, CA 95014

[Cary]

Welcome to the cult.

[Karen_Schaffer]

We just went to Kitsho tonight. We got there at 6:00 and were the only ones at the sushi bar for quite a while. We ate what Howard fed us, and it was wonderful. The tilefish, in particular, was delicious, with an almost a buttery richness to it. Yum!

[yuko]

FYI - I just read in the Japanese blog that the chef at Anzu is leaving at the end of this month.

[K K]

Porthos, Cary, and Kitsho fans. Better hurry there today if you can. Hokkaido uni sashimi straight off the shell (and served on top of the spikey shell). If you want to see what a bafun uni looks like, today or this week is good so long as they don't sell out of whole uni. Canadian blue fin maguro and toro that's steps above their regular blue fin offering (especially if you've been disappointed with toro). And a Japanese fish that I think was pronounced klohm mutsu (the final u is silent) that looks and tastes very very close to kinmedai and is a member of the tai family, and also very excellent. I'm sure there are other goodies, but my stomach space ran out.

Is this place expensive? how much pp?

Kitsho
19541 Richwood Dr
Cupertino, CA 95014-3316

It was around $5-$6/order (2 pieces) for the ones I ordered. The regular stuff may be slightly less expensive. The cuts are generous...actually a little too big (throws off the balance), but I'm probably one of the few that'll complain about that.

Kinmedai: $5.50
"0-Tor"o: $10.00
Shimaaji: $5.50
Copper River Salmon: $8.00

And that's all I remember, sorry.

If you do omakase, it really depends on how hungry you are. I remember I was really hungry, and even Howard went, "Whoa, you eat a lot," and he ran out of ideas of what to give me. It was $90 before tip, with no alcohol. So you can consider that the ceiling for omakase, unless you ask him for five helpings of chutoro and otoro.

Can't believe I haven't made it there yet.

Have you tried Howard's cooked dishes? I've heard that his cooking and sake selection are particularly strong.

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

I haven't tried any of his cooked small dishes at the bar yet. He has lots of sake selections off the menu, so usually you just ask him to recommend one, and he'll go something like, "Let me bring you my favorite!"

good review. Can you provide an address please?

I wanted to like Kitsho, but the dealbreaker for me was the sushi-meshi. The lumps of rice Howard forms are a bit too small and too bland for my tastes. I don't like giant clumps of rice with my nigiri, but I like something at least pink-eraser sized with a little bit of that sweet-vinegar-y bite. Even though Howard serves larger sized neta than a lot of sushi bars, I still found the sushi to be lacking substance (mouth feel and taste-wise) without the proper rice. I might return for sashimi, though. And as KK has said his tamago is superb.

There's a regular who goes there with his wife, and I think he's still on some Atkins diet.

Basically Howard gives him the omakase at the bar, and he gets everything minus rice (not sashimi style cuts or cubes/chunks, but basically nigiri style sliced fish minus the rice). If you want you can certainly request that too but I don't know if it ends up being cheaper minus the sumeshi or if he charges the same.

I'm so glad you made it down there. I've held off writing a 10 page review on it combining multiple visits, as I never had the time and lost all my mental notes. I would agree that the sumeshi could use some improvement, but the experience is great overall.

Omakase there is mind blowing, once the chef knows your tastes and can open up your eyes (and mouth) to new things. There are always surprises (sushi neta or preparations) that you don't necessarily see behind that Hoshizaki fish counter.

Past the entrance door is a white board with cooked food specials (and sometimes sushi fish selections of the day), sometimes those specials are true hidden gems.

One of Howard's strengths (and he takes pride in) are soy bean product dishes, like home made tofu (try the 3 bean appetizer, cold tofu made with green, black, and soy beans), miso (as a special miso soup or as a seasoning in cooked fish appetizer...the miso soup is so good that it is better than the miso broth used for ramen at the top ramen shops), and his natto is the best (try a natto toro maki, or steal a receipe from Sushi Yoshi as reported by SG, and try to ask for the nagaimo mekabu natto gunkan which I'm sure Howard can replicate).

Oooooch Copper River Salmon! I must go, thanks for that report,...as I had sushi that I would say is better than Kitsho at Kisaku, Seattle just this past Monday night (see my review on the Pacific NW board) and CRS was out of this world there (they get the better cuts before anything else gets imported out of state).

Howard has the best selection of shiromi I've ever seen. I've had "grouper" there (or garoupa/garouper?) which was smooth and sweet. Moi...some Hawaiian fish, very delicate and wodnerful. He's the only guy I know of that has done hirame no konbu jime (kelp marinated hirame) which was fab. Kisaku in Seattle did a nice hotate no konbu jime, but not quite the same. Tairagai (pen shell clam) is nice there too.

I like Howard's maguro zuke. Not as flavorful or has the same depth as Ino Sushi's version, but very decent for the south bay. Tamgo Yaki I would say comes 2nd to Sawa Sushi's. Ask for the fresh batch for the juiciest cut. Might be too sweet for some but I love the dashi flavor in it.

Do you have a personal Bay Area sushi ranking?

I will defer my personal rankings until after I try Anzu in a couple of weeks. But Kitsho ranks up there. Extra points for the kinmedai and shimaaji, agree with all that the rice is low on vinegar and flavor.

I look forward to your in depth Anzu review which I think is overdue for some of us doubters (and with very limited descriptions/past reviews). I'd also be interested if Kaz-san (if that is the name of the head itamae) works during lunch times (probably not from the little I've read).

Going back to Kitsho, if you (anyone I mean) are a huge fan of anago you would be very disappointed there. Anago is as weak, if not weaker, than the sumeshi. Ankimo is not a strength as well (but not a weakness), perhaps it is better as an appetizer rather than a gunkan or nigiri for sushi. Of course Ino-san @ Ino Sushi SF is ankimo king hands down.