For about six years Japanese restaurateur Kota Tsubuki had a good run. The little Beatles-themed yakitori joint he started on Lingling Lu back in 2008 grew into a wildly popular three-store chain. It even inspired a .
But Kota's fortunes began to change late last year. I first learned about it with the opening of , whose management led us to believe that it was associated with Kota. As it turned out . Apparently Kota and his local partners were at odds. For unspecified reasons he had lost any control in the three restaurants that bore his name. Kota had basically gone into self-imposed exile down in Xiamen, where he started another yakitori joint with a new partner.
Shortly thereafter, the restaurant chain was Balkanized into three new brands: , and then, a few months later, , in which the owners simply swapped out a vowel in his name. Classic China.
What exactly happened between Kota and his partners is unclear. Each side has its own vague story. But from what I've seen, the parting has been less than amicable. In just the past few weeks we've even received disgruntled emails from some of Kota's former associates, asking us to scrub his name from their venue listings.
But Kota is back now, with a : same name, slightly re-engineered concept. Not only that, his new restaurant is only a stone's throw from .
Something tells me that this is not a coincidence. It appears that Kota might be brazenly giving the two-finger salute to his former colleagues up the street.
So what's different with the new restaurant? The core concept is still basically the same: yakitori with a penchant for the Fab Four. He's even added a tagline: "Get Back!" a not so subtle message to Kuta's down the street, perhaps? Unlike his previous ventures, however, it's not Beatles to the hilt. They don't decorate the place with Beatle's paraphernalia or play an endless loop of Yellow Submarine on a flat screen. Just expect to get a healthy helping of tracks like "Eight Days a Week" with palate cleansers like Louis Armstrong on the sound system.
He's set up shop in the space formerly occupied by and turned the faux Tuscan villa into something a bit more urbane. It's decked out in dark wood and partitions constructed of stacked wine bottles. Also, for better or for worse, he's also encased the patio in glass.
The core of the menu also remains basically the same. You'll still find yakitori staples like grilled smelts, pork belly, chicken skin, etc. He's still doing those to-die-for avocados, too, as well as this pyrotechnic spectacle.
Horse mackerel marinated in rice wine vinegar and then torched tableside. It's still worth ordering.
He's also made quite a few changes. Some are subtle tweaks in presentation, like the crudit茅 that starts every meal. Now they're already presented in the spicy dipping sauce and mayonnaise along with what looks like a miniature gardening spade. Random, but good.
A lot of the new menu items, however, are a mixed bag. Some of them are intriguing mixes of taste, scent and texture, like these pickled carrots and daikon, which Kota gives a dose of wood fire smoke and then tops with bonito flakes.
Other dishes, like this mince of daikon with vivid dollops of cod roe are worth a try if you have a more adventurous palate. The subtle notes of salinity match well with the natural funk of the radish. The weird mealy character of the fish eggs might be hard to wrap your brain around, but it's a taste worth acquiring.
Kota also still likes cooking with cheese. He's upped his game a little in this department with these gooey globs of mozzarella. He draws inspiration from the Mediterranean with drops of balsamic and sprigs of chicory.
Elsewhere he falls flat, though, like with this take on the meat and potatoes trope. It's just hard to get excited about tough chunks of beef over mashed potatoes. Kota, you can do better.
He's also making some bold choices that I'm not sure are paying off, like his stewed pig trotter. A good trotter is plump, rich and fatty and with deliciously unctuous collagen that coats the mouth. Kota's comes out to the table a mess of skin and bones. As unappetizing as it is unremarkable.
He's also going where no Kota's has gone before with meats like lamb. Again, it's hit or miss. This one, for instance, is not one of his better efforts...
Lamb wrapped around a chunk of eggplant. It seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it? But the dry sponginess of the eggplant just kills it. It's a promising idea, flawed in execution, but there is an easy fix. Just marinate the eggplant in something. Anything.
Still, in my two visits here, I've found more positives than I have negatives. I mean, foie gras and pineapple?
Give me a break. That's pretty hard to not like. And then there is this, easily my favorite new addition:
Niangao, or sticky rice cake, with code roe and perilla leaf rolled up in pork, amply seasoned and grilled. Definitely a must try.
Now if only Kota could get his service staff in line. The enthusiastic greeting that they bombard you with upon entry is about as hospitable as it gets. Servers tend to have tunnel vision. They always have somewhere else in the restaurant that they need to be, and it never seems to be your table. Hopefully, this problem will work itself out in the coming weeks. Until then, expect a little neglect on the service side of things.
For a listing of Kota's Kitchen click .
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