Believe the Hype! Dining at O Ya... Oh Yeah!

I will readily admit that I am a big hater. I am skeptical about the "new best thing," from new fangled high-tech gadgetry to the latest trend in plaids, I'm rarely sold on a trend just because people are saying it's awesome. This extends to new restaurants and I'm even more skeptical of places that get lavished with praise and fanfare. I just flat out disagree with many places deserving the praise they receive and am always so disappointed when a place that has been really built up ends up being nothing but a let down. Hype in Boston becomes a living, breathing creature that takes on weight and gains undue credibility with each new critic and Yelp reviewer showering love on mediocre cuisine.

In the case of O Ya, I held out for as long as I could. I was morbidly curious and knew for a restaurant like this (heavy on sushi, very pricey and very small) to accumulate this much praise, it was probably worthy of the attention it was getting but you still never know. Even when a place is good, if you have to drop a ton of dough, you always wonder when gripping your emaciated wallet afterwards - was it that good?

There are few places in Boston where I feel the exorbitant cost is worthy of the meal. No. 9 Park is one of those places where you never feel bad about dropping a lot of cash for example because the food is always fabulous and the attention and care that goes into creating it makes the price tag seem worthy. Well, O Ya really is all that and a bag of homemade la ratte chips and I'd gladly remortgage my condo for a meal there anytime.

This Might Be a Fried Kumamoto Oyster

This weekend was my birthday so we finally caved and now I wish we had done it sooner because it really was worth every penny and if we had been paying with pennies, we would have needed a wheelbarrow to get them all inside.

We had the chef's menu which amounts to about 15 courses, each roughly two bites. But man... what bites they are. The menu blends nigiri, sashimi (some things cooked or seared, some things raw) with a wide selection of kurobuta pork, wagyu beef, poulet rouge chicken, egg and vegetable dishes.

The chef's menu was heavy on the sushi and I will go back to try more of the pork, truffle and chicken dishes that we didn't get to sample but the combination of flavors at work is something entirely different from anything I have ever experienced. O Ya is proof of unami with a dish of GRILLED SASHIMI OF CHANTERELLE & SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS - rosemary garlic oil, sesame froth, homemade soy. I could have eaten this all night but then I would have missed all the other great stuff.

Our meal began with a glass of Poochi Poochi sparkling sake that I quickly became addicted to and was followed by the first of many courses, a simple but elegant KUMAMOTO OYSTER - watermelon pearls, cucumber mignonette. Just that little bit of melon with the tart, sour mignonette was a delight. The courses came slowly at first, then picked up speed.

SHIMA AJI & SEA URCHIN - ceviche vinaigrette, cilantro

HOMEMADE LA RATTE POTATO CHIP - perigord black truffle


SALMON - o ya mayonette, wasabi tobiko, shiso

SEARED PETIT STRIP LOIN - tiny smoked potato, grilled onion, fresh wasabi

Dana with SCOTTISH SALMON BELLY - cilantro, ginger, hot sesame oil drizzle - I think?

FOIE GRAS - balsamic chocolate kabayaki, raisin cocoa pulp, sip of aged sake

AFUMAGATTO - raw coconut almond gelato, warm espresso bubbles

More Hanahato Aged Sake for Dessert

The seared foie gras was the last dish to be brought out. It's served with a sip of aged Hanahato sake that drinks like a tawny port and is caramely and delicious. I had to get a full glass with dessert because my taste buds were aching for more. The beef dish was decadent and creamy, and tasted like butter itself. The tiny smoked potato was full of campfire flavor and smelled like autumn.

The pleasure of this meal was the care that you knew went into it. Not just in the creation of the dishes for our gastronomical delight, but the act of thinking up these combinations. That so much time and thought went into the development of such a special menu. The HAMACHI - spicy banana pepper mousse for example - a simple nigiri full of unexpected flavor. The WILD BLUEFIN TUNA TATAKI - smoky pickled onion, truffle oil - deep and complex with the fresh boldness of the tuna coming through at the beginning and end and dancing daintily with a savory, smoky tang in the middle.

Even the dessert which our lovely waiter put a candle in after he overheard us saying it was my birthday, was a pleasant surprise with raw coconut and almond bursting through a smooth gelato. All in all it was an unbelievably memorable meal and one that we will think back on longingly for many months to come. Granted, we could have made a condo payment, bought his and her raw denim jeans at Barney's or spent two nights at a mid range hotel for what the meal cost but I have no regrets. It was worth it... and you don't turn 23 everyday.