While I can't say I share the extreme level of Katsu servitude to which Gary professes, my ladylove and I did have a rather excellent meal at Katsu last weekend.
It was a rare evening out for us (we're on infant time), and coupled with the fact that we hadn't had a good raw fish gorging since visiting Tokyo in May, we decided to pretty much go whole hog and let Katsu et. al. take care of us.
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We started with the veal liver with garlic chives which, as previously noted, is really a great dish. Very mellow as liver goes, especially for such substantial hunks. Lightly seasoned, just a touch of sweetness... very nice. We then, with a certain degree of awkwardness (I think we weren't giving our server quite as much guidance as she would have liked), asked them to bring us a sampling of sushi and sashimi for two... whatever the chef felt was particularly delicious that evening. We ended up with a rather attractive array...
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...about a dozen assorted nigiri pieces, as well as an expanded version of the premium tuna and hamachi platter, which in this case also included some scallops and Tasmanian salmon. The uni and scallop were both absolutely dynamite. The uni was fresh and firm and some of the cleanest-tasting I've had, and the scallop was delightfully creamy without the harshness that I find sometimes accompanies lesser product. The unagi and amaebi were also particularly good. On the latter, I found it notable that Katsu's version of the head isn't the heavily battered and tempura-fried affair I generally see elsewhere. It seems to be lightly dusted with something, but it's largely naked. I was a little surprised to see a spider roll coming from the house plate of a rather traditional establishment, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, even though there wasn't much crisp to the crab.
Less impressive were the two elements that would ordinarily comprise the evening's premium sashimi plate. The Tsukiji-sourced yellowtail was quite good, but hardly transcendent, and the Boston bluefin was, frankly, disappointing. Sadly, there was no otoro available that night in non-roll form. Between the missing otoro and the glowing praise that many have applied to this dish, I have to wonder if we simply caught an off night.
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We went for round two, bringing back a few extra pieces of nigiri faves, as well as an otoro scallion roll that we'd somehow missed on the first pass. The chopped otoro in the roll was really wonderful, but mostly it left me longing for a full slab of the same. It wasn't to be.
The disappointment of the night's premium sashimi aside, we really only had one complaint (not the Katsu Cut, of which I'm actually quite fond), but it was a tough one to ignore. While Katsu is extremely good, and clearly a cut above the rest of the Chicago sushi scene, I thought the price performance really left something to be desired. I don't mean to draw a comparison between Mr. Matsuhisa's neo-Japanese and Katsu's largely traditional fare, but I've fed four at Nobu for what the two of us spent at Katsu. At that price, dinner should be
awesome, and while it was head and shoulders above the local competition, it wasn't the truly superlative experience that I expect at that level. I suspect we could do a better job by being a little more selective, but this is an unusually costly excursion no matter how you cut it.
I dunno. Maybe that's just the price we have to pay for good fish in Chicago.
Dominic Armato
Dining Critic
The Arizona Republic and
azcentral.com