Two Japanese Restaurants Worth a Detour : Getting Serious About Sashimi by the Sea

Kitayama, 101 Bayview Place, Newport Beach. (714) 725-0777. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner Monday through Saturday. Full bar. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $22-$100.

Orange County’s first serious Japanese restaurant is an extraordinary place. Built on a bluff in Newport Beach, Kitayama is owned by Kodaniya Inc., a subsidiary of Ewa Corp., which is one of Japan’s largest restaurant companies. (Kodaniya also owns Tokyo Kaikan in Little Tokyo.)

It’s clear that the company has spared no expense in reproducing an authentic Japanese environment: There are kimono-clad waitresses, exclusive private rooms complete with karaoke music boxes (at extra charge) and an elaborate menu written in Japanese.

There is one slight catch. While Japanese businessmen are made to feel right at home, the restaurant does not seem to be prepared for, or concerned about, an onslaught of Occidental foodies.

The young American servers here often don’t have a clue about the more intricate Japanese dishes available on the untranslated menu (which changes daily, according to what’s in season). And the English-language menu borders on the mundane. Maybe management figures we’ll all head to the sushi bar.

But sushi is not what you want to eat in this restaurant when there is so much more. The way to get to the good stuff is by ordering a kaiseki (multicourse) dinner, or at lunch, sho-ka-do , a large tray filled with delicacies equal to almost anything you can find in Tokyo (at a price that wouldn’t get you much more than a shot of scotch there).

The sho-ka-do I was served included a rolled galantine of chicken with Japanese herbs, a piece of glazed yellowtail, rectangles of tamamgoyaki (a sweetened egg cake), cubes of konyakku (a rubbery comestible made from yams), yuba (bean-curd skin) stuffed with shrimp forcemeat, mushroom age (a deep-fried, stuffed shiitake mushroom), sashimi of tuna and sweet shrimp, and a tender piece of stewed beef with a grated horseradish topping.

There are three kaiseki dinners: one with shabu-shabu (the one-pot Japanese winter dish), one with crab, and a third, omakase kaiseki , literally “chef’s choice.” This last one is what I most strongly recommend. It is the most expensive, and the most unforgettable.

My kaiseki began with a zenzai (appetizer course) composed of a faux wild chestnut made from egg batter and tiny yellow noodles (inside there was a real roasted chestnut), and a tiny shrimp in an endive boat filled with freshly made mayonnaise.

Dobinmushi (served in a dobin, or steaming pot) arrived next. It was made with matsutake , the rarest and most expensive of all Japanese mushrooms.

Superb sashimi followed. Then, for the yakimono (broiled or grilled course) I was served a gratin of whitefish. Agemono (the fried course) was an exquisite dish of shrimp balls in fish paste, which had been rolled in crisped seaweed. These were served with a spicy momiji-oroshi, a salmon-colored mound of grated carrot and ginger.

The stewed course, nimono , was the most unusual of the meal. Stewed meats and Japanese vegetables were served cold in a glorious aspic mold. It’s the kind of seasonal, eccentrically ethnic dish you just never expect to find outside of Japan . . . not unlike this restaurant.

Recommended: Omakase kaiseki, $50 per person.