Dragonfly Restaurants “Our Table” Blog Post General: Omakase
Posted on: 01.07.2016
What is Omakase?
Artful. Innovative. Fun. Omakase is all of these—and so much more. Literally translated, Omakase means “Trust the Chef,” and it’s a common at sushi restaurants and Izakayas from Japan to Brazil (and everywhere in between).
When you order Omakase style, you’re typically asked to share:
- Your dietary restrictions (including food allergies)
- Your mood or current state of mind (are you happy, introspective, excited)
- The type of flavors you love (umami, sweet, salty, spicy)
Armed with this knowledge, your chef (or bartender) will get right to work. They’ll take stock of the freshest ingredients on hand and balance that out with what they learned about you. Armed with these tools, they’ll let their creativity and years of training dance and create something special just for you—it’s like having a personal chef!
Why should I Omakase?
Beyond the getting freshest ingredients in the building, or being the first to trying the latest chef’s creations, ordering Omakase will provide you with an opportunity that you may not have expected when you stepped out to “grab a bite to eat.” Through Omakase, you can make meaningful connections and experience artful flavors.
Meaningful Connections
In trusting your chef or bartender to create for you, you’re sharing vulnerability with them. While it can be scary, it can also be both liberating and exciting. Through these emotions you’ll get more than just a meal or drink—you’ll have an experience.
Artful Flavors
Most of us like what we like and rarely venture out to try things that are unfamiliar (or in some cases scary) to us. Would you ever think to try:
- Crispy pork with cauliflower puree, pickled quail egg, cauliflower and Thai basil
- Robata grilled baby octopus with yuzu fennel, heirloom cherry tomato, cucumber, kaiware, wasabi greens and Japanese soy vinaigrette
- Iichiko shochu with yellow chartreuse, rosemary simple syrup and fresh grapefruit juice
When you take a chance with Omakase, you just might!
Omakase sounds scary, is it right for me?
The simplest answer…YES!
We think Omakase is absolutely something everyone should experience, but we understand that it can be intimidating. So, we’ve made it a little more approachable by selecting our Omakase ingredients seasonally. This change allows us to add the Omakase specials to our menu giving our guests a more transparency to what they’ll experience. Christina Thomas from GoEpicurista recently summed it up perfectly in her article Omakase for Everyone Dragonfly Orlando. Where she said:
“This is a great way to ease less adventurous diners into the Omakase concept since you know what the main ingredient of your drink or dish will be; you just don’t know the other components or the presentation.”
We love her article because it hints at our vision to take Japanese beyond sushi. We’re doing this by focusing each of our locations on one of the founding pillars of Japanese cuisine. For instance, at Dragonfly Sushi & Sake Company in Gainesville, we focus our menu creativity around sushi, while the menu focus at Dragonfly Robata Grill & Sushi in Orlando is on Japanese Robatayaki grilling. At our Doral Miami location Dragonfly Izakaya & Fish Market (slated to open this February), we’ll focus our menu around seafood and other Japanese comfort food favorites.
What are people saying about some of our past Omakase menu creations?
From Trip Advisor from Normal 123 – “Omakase, OMG”
From ThePrimlaniKitchen.com—“One bite was all it took to appreciate the high-quality ingredients and care Dragonfly imparts in its sushi. Kudos! The presentation too deserves a standing ovation.”
From CentralFloridaTop5.com—“The fish was perfectly crisped on the robata grill and the bonito flakes danced with the rising heat (no really – they flutter and dance! Dinner and a show!)”
From OrlandoConnections.com—“Next up was the Composed Nigiri with Loch Duart salmon, Big Eye tuna and yellowtail. Pretty traditional nigiri, but very fresh as I have come to expect at Dragonfly.”
From TasteCookSip.com—“We loved the savory sear on the sweet scallops, in contrast with the garlic-jalapeño sauce. Wonderful balance!”
Are you ready to Omakase yet? We hope to see you soon!
In Gainesville:
Click here to make an online reservation, or call us at (352) 371.3359 to reserve a table with our host.
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In Orlando:
Click here to make an online reservation, or call us at (407) 370.3359 to reserve a table with our host.
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Review us: Yelp, Google+, Trip Advisor, Zomato, Foursquare
In Doral:
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