Where to Eat - Nojo

Andrew and I recently tried dinner after several successful brunches at this Hayes Valley gem. Full disclosure - my brother works in the kitchen; however, I really don't think I let that skew my perception of the food.  After a handful of solid meals I decided it wouldn't be fair to not review it just because Chris works there - It shouldn't count for or against them right?

We started with the above salad from the kitchen. It consisted of thinly Fuyu persimmons, daikon, and Chantenay carrots. It was tossed simply together with I believe some sort of rice wine. The combination of carrots and persimmons was new for me but I greatly enjoyed it.

We were really excited to try the skewers since it is what the place is known for and because Chris was working the grill station. The first we tried was the Japanese Eggplant with Aka miso. They were super tasty and I was happy to have something veggie as I knew we would be getting a lot of chicken during the meal.

I was really happy with the gyouza. The dumplings were delicious and served with Tokyo turnips, ginger, mizuna (a type of Japanese greens), and a chile shoyu (soy) sauce. The sauce had the perfect amount of heat and salt to compliment the meat dumplings. I think they were pork, but am not sure.

The above Chawanmushi, a Japanese savory egg custard dish, was one of my favorite things we ate. Since Andrew doesn't like uni I was able to have the entire piece on top - awesome. The main components were Dungeness crab, chicken and Shitake mushrooms. It was one of the best things I've ever had.

We've had the above fried potato dish during brunch and Andrew insisted we order it because it's so crazy good. They are topped with Tonkatsu sauce (the sweet sauce they use on their breaded pork cutlet sandwich at lunch), Negi (onion), Nori (seaweed), Mayonnaise and Katsuo Bushi (shaved dried bonito flakes). These are like the best homefries you can imagine. The bonito acts like bacon and all the sauce have a creamy cheese effect. I could eat these everyday all day but I would grow very fat.

When dining with Andrew it is always necessary to have one dish with bacon. We had the above Bacon Wrapped Mochi & Tare. It basically was a bacon wrapped rice ball drizzled with a tare (flavored soy) sauce. I tried one for novelty but knew I wouldn't be into it. Andrew however guzzled them up.

The above was my favorite chicken skewer we tasted. It was the Bonjiri (basically chicken butt) served with lemon and sea salt. The cut is super tender but not too fatty.

The above was the chicken thigh oyster with sansho (a Japanese pepper-like spice) and tare. Everyone I know goes crazy for this part of the chicken. It's located on the two legs of the chicken and shaped like oysters. It is really tender but I liked the above skewer more. Maybe for it's simple preparation (less sauce). That being said it was still delicious.

The above mussels were my second favorite dish of the night. When we arrived and my brother said hello he immediately told us that there were only a couple orders left and we should order them if we wanted to try them, which he also said we definitely did. He was beyond right. The mussels were prepared with new potatoes and pea sprouts in a sake-garlic butter broth. I would cover my life in this sauce if I could.

The kitchen also sent us out the above tempura of tree oyster mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and meyer lemon served in a daikon oroshi (a grated daikon flavored soy) sauce. The veggies were lightly fried without an excessive amount of panko - always nice. The sauce was especially good - salty, sweet, and the daikon gave it a lightness I really enjoyed.

The above is part of a skewer sent out from the kitchen. I think it was one of the breasts (either the tare or the tare and umeboshi - plum sauce). I just had a bite of this one because I was very full, but it was great.

Overall we had a great dinner and it was awesome to see my bro. I definitely recommend trying it.