Hime

For the last few months, Hime has been the media's darling. From the San Francisco Chronicle to 7x7 to Northside San Francisco to DailyCandy, everyone has had Hime on the tip of their tines. San Francisco Magazine finally reviewed them this month, and the Johnny come lately review was surprisingly lukewarm.  Sour grapes for not having got there first? That's one theory.

After my visit, another theory might be that it's hit or miss. I was ready to love Hime, I swear; I didn't walk in with a heavy slice of maguro on my shoulder. In fact, I liked what I saw: lots of sexy red accents and low lighting, dark wood tables and bamboo poles along the windows, an open kitchen with gleaming blue sake bottles on display. The drink list included interesting cocktails (with an ever rarer full bar) as well as plenty of sake and beer, and a smattering of wines. Service was timed nicely, though our server was clearly out of her league talking about wine, and when asked about the house specialty, she pointed us to the maguro tuna sashimi. Hmm. That's a dish you can get at nearly every sushi restaurant on Earth, and even if it's good, it's not much of a show stopper. More importantly, there was no mention of the Japanese Garden kaiseki dish that Hime's website says is a chef favorite and that most of the reviews favored. (And which I only noticed this morning, as I was researching the menu. Dammit.)

We started with edamame, served in an iron tea kettle but otherwise unremarkable. Next it was just-seared albacore tuna in a ginger-ponzu sauce with rings of crispy fried renkon (lotus root) chips and slivers of scallion on top. The flavor was good and clean, and I liked the contrast of flavor, temperature and texture. A well wrought dish, though not necessarily something I'd dream about. Next we had the Kobe-style beef lettuce cups. Not something I particularly wanted to order, but I am not a complete despot so I let Mr. Food Musings have his way. Kobe-style beef my ass. It wasn't tough but it didn't melt in my mouth, and its flavor was masked (for better or worse, who can say) by the overly sweet sauce. It might as well have been chicken. I kept picking through the brown bits in search of beef, only to find most of them were mushrooms. Hmm...filler? I don't know. The carrots were also cut rather large for my taste and they weren't quite tender enough. Now if I served this dish, I'd tell you to quit bitching about the size of my dice, but this is a Japanese restaurant, people. It is manned by professional chefs with knife skills. Bad on us for ordering the dish in the first place, but truthfully they ought to take it off the menu. I took one bite before I set down my sheaf of iceberg lettuce.

The next dish finally got me sitting up in my seat, feet dancing beneath the table. Spicy scallop is one of my favorite dishes when done well. At Hime, it arrives as a thick coin of fried rice, similar in flavor and texture to arroncini,  topped with a scallop so fresh it was positively quivering. The scallop was artfully smeared with spicy-sweet sauce and crowned with a sliver of jalapeno. Beautifully presented, beautifully conceived and beautifully executed. I gobbled up two of them and figured the night was starting to look up.

As I'd hoped, our next course -- thick dominoes of wild blue fin tuna toro and wild maguro tuna sashimi -- arrived on a bed of ice lit neon blue from underneath. It's a visual trick that catches the eye, and makes you feel like what you're eating is something special. If only.... The toro, which cost $38 for 5 pieces (fair market value, if it's good) was only average on our visit. The texture was a touch mealy, just a touch, and the flavor was not as clean and fresh as it ought to have been. I have had better toro three other times, and though this wasn't awful, neither was it exemplary -- or, therefore, worth the money. (sigh) The maguro however was lovely: bright gleaming red, sturdy without being chewy. But not necessarily remarkable.

We ended with a spider roll, which was fine. The list of rolls seemed, to me, uninspired. There were the usual suspects, and many of their unique rolls were merely California rolls with something added to it. Maybe they're killer -- we didn't order any -- but they  seemed like an afterthought more than an attempt to showcase the kitchen's imagination.

Sometimes being lauded can hurt a restaurant because it raises diners' expectations to unreachable heights. Though I'm no pro, I do eat out a lot, and I eat sushi at least once or twice a week. I also try really hard to separate my own prejudices -- fatigue or a jaded palate, for example -- from coloring my opinion. (Though I don't think we can ever truly be 100% objective when we judge with the pleasure principle of our brains.) In this case, the food we ate simply wasn't first rate. Perhaps it was when most of the professional critics ate there. It's happened before, in reverse; when Yuzu opened, I went in with friends and had some of the best sushi of my life. Unfortunately, it was an experience I was never to even remotely come close to there again (nor was anyone I sent there...gulp). Things change. Sources dry up. Fish doesn't get eaten and is served less and less fresh a day or two later. The chef takes a night off. Who knows what happened? All I can tell you is that our meal at Hime was totally sub-par, and our bellies grumbled at us unhappily all night long.

Next up? Sebo. Been hearing good things...

Comments

[sam]

I had a look at their site. It looks so un-San Francisco. I actually had to click on "Location" to doublecheck it wasn't actually situated in a Vegas Hotel.

And its funny you mentioned Yuzu, because I was thinking of it throughout your article before that point anyway.

I wish I culd get fred to be more sushiventurous.

But I guess I should just thank my lucky stars that he actually craves moshi moshi once a week.

xx

[NS]

For whatever it's worth, I went to Yuzu shortly after reading your initial rave review, and I actually had a number of fantastic meals there over the ensuing several months. When I went back recently after a long hiatus, I was saddened to find out that things had gone completely off the rails. I'm still not sure what happened.

[Catherine]

Sam - maybe you'd like to try Sebo with me?

NS - that's right, I remember that you had good luck, too. I know that they let their chef go (or he left, either way) and the one visit I made a few months later, explicitly to sample their desserts for the Northside's Best Food issue, was a complete and utter letdown from start to finish. Bummer.

[Sean]

Good luck at Sebo -- I absolutely adored it. And if you get the chance, check out Eiji, in the diminutive space where Izumi used to be, on Sanchez at 16th, behind Tangerine. (NOT Daimaru, catercorner.) I've just been the once, but really enjoyed it.

[Catherine]

Sean - ooh, we loves us a good sushi tip around these parts! Thank you! Also on our list is Deep Sushi, North Beach Sushi, and Sushi Sam's in San Mateo (Burlingame? Shoot. Can't recall.)

[sam]

maybe i would indeedy. or perbacco or should it be called perbacwow!