| Authentic Japanese, Kaiseki, and sushi hidden in the Franklin Mall |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1012
Reviewed: 6/9/2006
Rating: 9
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We started off the night rocking to blues and rock by the DB Walker band at JJ's Blue's club in Santa Clara. If you ever get a chance to see DB Walker, I'd highly suggest checking them out, they're a tight group of talented musicians. We had a late dinner reservation at Hatcho near Santa Clara University. It's an odd location in the Franklin mall where most people wouldn't think a traditional Japanese restaurant would exist. Hatcho is known for their Kaiseki dinners and fine knifework with sushi.
With live shrimp and lobsters at the entrance and whiteboard at the sushi bar, things are looking promising. I talked to Linda (owner) for a bit and she convinced me on the premium sashimi dinner. Words of wisdom, always take the advice of the owner or chef, they will always go the extra mile to ensure a
better meal.
To keep things lively throughout the night, we ordered a pitcher of Kirin beer to sustain our happiness. One of the Tatami rooms (picture #4) was unoccupied and asked to migrate over. The people at Hatcho are one of the friendliest I've encountered. Very genuine and proper, service that can only be learned through years of experience.
We placed 3 orders of the premium sashimi dinners and a premium sushi plate. For appetizers, we started off with edamame, potato croquette, grilled squid, and deep fried tofu.
edamame - tasty soybean snacks, green little fuzzy things boiled in salt water, a perfect combo with any tall glass of cold beer. (picture #6)
potato croquette - lightly breaded deep fried potato. Very similar to a hash brown with a mashed potato texture inside, crispy on the outside and served with a tonkatsu sauce. Bonus points for no oil puddle. Very good and a definite repeat order.
squid - ginger, citrus, cabbage or cole slaw mixture, grilled. OMG, this is the definition of a perfectly grilled squid. A lot of places tend to overcook squid but this one was flawless. So fresh and flavorful, a highlight of the night. I'd give this a 10! (picture #9)
agedashi tofu - deep fried tofu, green onions, grated daikons in a soy sauce mixture. I only had a couple of bites of this but from what I had, it was great.
premium sushi was delivered on a small boat with grated daikons. (picture #11)
maguro - deep red color, just right temperature, nice cuts, broke apart easily in the mouth
hamachi - nearly the same as the maguro in respects to temperature and cut, didn't melt like butter but was still a fine slice of fish.
uni - we were told uni was not going to be part of the premium plate tonight which is fine by me, for 1, it's more expensive and an acquired taste. The chef surprised us with a couple of pieces. I've never been a big fan but appreciate the fine gesture of the chef. Semi-sweet but the flavor is hard to explain. It doesn't taste like anything but something that belongs in the sea, a unique taste, I like to call them Sea Ballz...haha.
ika - they were rolling out the big boys for the premium sashimi plate. Kinda slimey and creamy, another item I normally don't order. I like squid cooked but it did taste fresh.
o-toro - it looks like giant pieces of pork. bacon of the sea! it was scarey looking. it had thick white walls towards the end and a small section of the blood line. I knew the meat was going to melt but worried about the thick white walls. Placed it in my mouth, waited about 10 seconds, fish dissolved but was left with a fish type of chewy gristle. It was kinda gross and removed the uneatened portion from my mouth. I wondered why a highly regarded sushi chef would leave this type of cut on a premium plate? The fish was great but the cut was lackluster. I'd give this an 8...sigh.
odori ebi - if you've read in my profile, I've been working towards level 5 sushi eater, this is my 1st time eating alive food. call it morbid, grotesque, but the odori ebi, known as the dancing shrimp is pretty much a live shrimp taken from the aquarium, separate the head from the tail while it's still alive, place it on the plate, watch it move, and eat it. The legs would move, mouth, antenna, etc. I must have watched it for a couple of minutes before I plowed down the tail. Texture was kinda rubbery, very chilled and semi-sweet. The waitress would then take the uneaten heads and grill, steam, or deep fry them. We choose deep fried and it was the freshest shrimp I've ever had. Definitely one of the weirdest dishes I've had and I hear live lobster sashimi is even scarier...maybe another time.
After another pitcher of beer and finishing the night off with green tea and red beans, the entire dinner was a top-notch experience. Service was one of the finest, appetizers were stellar, sashimi was great but the toro left me somewhat disappointed. Oh yeah, and some idiot had their warning sound from a low battery beeping throughout the night...grrrrrrrr. Other than that, dinner was a success. The bill came out to $240 for 4 people and I think we all agreed, it was worth every penny. Thanks to Hatcho for a well deserved 9.
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 173
Reviewed: 3/23/2006
Rating: 9.5
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Summary: Felt like one of the guest judges on Iron Chef. Quick, courteous, genuine service. Fresh seasonal ingredients without the added preservatives for taste. Everything is home made by the chef from the heart. There was only one small nit pick keeping this review from being a perfect 10.
Inconspicuous Japanese restaurant. Very unassuming restaurant within the Franklin mall, which mainly consist of a sports bar, a liquor store, a dry cleaning store, and several non restaurant stores. There is no parking lot within the mall, but several paring spaces around the mall and neighboring streets.
Upon entering the restaurant, it felt as if we journeyed to Japan. Our appetizer was prepared and served as we arrived. Hatcho is not glamorous. Reservations are not required if you do not plan to order the Kaiseki dinner. The chef at Hatcho is licensed in Japan to serve Kaiseki as you can only be licensed in Japan so the quality and authenticity of the meal is guaranteed.
Reservations are necessary if you want to eat the kaiseki dinner. The idea behind kaiseki is to eat among friends, relax, and eat interesting and seasonal dishes created “from the heart” by the licensed kaiseki chef.
The kaiseki meal consists of several courses, each served in a particular order and each is plated and designed to have a certain spiritual meaning. The inventiveness lies in how the chef decides to create the dish. Our hostess was very friendly and attentive to us. She explained each dish on our table, such as the main ingredient as well as explained the characteristics behind each main course she brought out. Although the appetizers remain the same for our dinner, the main courses could differ day to day depending how the chef feels. Differences could be how the food is prepared or the type of sauce used to produce the best effect.
Kaiseki dinners at Hatcho start at $65.00 per person up to $100.00. The differences are the type of dishes served with more complexity and better ingredients and the number of dishes within the prix fixe. The best experience is knowing that there are more dishes arriving, yet its a surprise as you think it cant get any better than what you already have.
The hostess is very friendly and geniwnly nice. My friend asked about the origins of Kaiseki and she gave us a summary as well as explain its served differently throughout Japan. She explained some parts within Japan serve even smaller plates but provide more dishes to awaken the senses and taste buds by exploring variety of ingredients.
It is actually a great deal for $65 per person as most prix fixe dinners either cost more or do not provide as many plates as we had at Hatcho.
Our dinner consisted of five appetizers, three main dishes, two types of soups, steamed rice and tea. I was a bit disappointed the meal did not include dessert, as it would have been a great treat to end the meal.
We had so many dishes its difficult to recall everything. I will try to list the ones that are obvious or stood out.
Appetizer:
Sashimi: 2 pieces of yellowtail, 4 pieces of salmon, 4 pieces or maguro, and 3 pieces of halibut. Everything melted in my mouth and tasted fresh.
A covered dish with water chestnuts, braised daikon, and shark fin. Was a bit too salty for my taste.
Two tiny hard boiled eggs on a stick with small bits of rice cake pieces around the eggs.
A large piece of lightly fried tofu with sauce and sea mushrooms. The tofu was so tender and sea mushrooms were cooked perfectly. The sauce added the flavor.
Main Courses:
Tender grilled sliced beef topped with jullianed celery tempura and a teriyaki like sauce.
Jumbo grilled shrimp with some special yellow mayonnaise sauce.
Steamed oyster (was steamed a bit too long) with egg topping served with potato salad topped with two cherries.
Grilled halibut with a light teriyaki sauce. Halibut was tender and had similar texture to a sea bass.
Soups:
Mackeral soup (two filet pieces), with mochi, clear soup, poached egg. The soup was tasty and clear. The flavor was from all the combined ingredients.
Another type of soup in a smaller bowl.
I managed to finish my meal but my friend ended up taking some leftovers to go.
I would defiantly come back and probably even try the higher range dinners.
Dinners start at $65, and there are $75, $90, and $100.00 per person dinners.
**Update 3/24/2006 **
Ate at Hatcho for dinner tonight and everyone seemed to have remembered me from last night. We were offered to sit in their traditional area of seating where we would have been required to remove our shoes but my friends insisted we sit at a table instead.
Hatcho offers a variety of dishes on their menu not commonly found elsewhere. They do not offer the traditional bento box found at most Japanese restaurants. Instead, they offer unique dishes or bento box flares without the common bento box offerings.
My friend went with a beef with tofu mixed in a clay pot combo (Sukiyaki Dinner), which also includes rice, salad and soup ($15.00). I went with their teriyaki salmon, which includes two grilled salmon with tempura-grilled onions, homemade light teriyaki sauce, and a poached egg on top ($14.50). Another friend decided to go low budget and ordered the udon with seafood ($6.95).
Our dishes took some time to arrive but it was well worth it. While we waited, service was very attentive as our tea was consistently refilled even when our cups were not empty. They first served the udon. We all expected to see some udon with soup in an iron cast pot, but instead it was a huge dish with the udon lightly stir-fried with many various Japanese seafood items. Next, the beef dish arrived. A giant clay pot with beef, tofu, and veggies. I tried some of the beef within the pot. The beef was very tender and the tofu melted in my mouth, reminded me of the appetizer from the previous night. The beef had a light hint of sweetness.
My order was last to arrive but was how I imagined it to be. Loved the poached egg and grilled onions battered lightly with tempura flakes. The teriyaki sauce had a hint of sweetness but was very light and complimented the salmon, onions, and egg, not over power it like most teriyaki sauces. The salmon was grilled nicely on the outside but flakey and moist on the inside.
The salad was lacking of dressing as they used some type of clear dressing and the miso soup was very standard.
I also used the bathroom after dinner and the bathroom was very clean, decorated and smelled nice. There was even a sign that said “If you need the bathroom to be cleaned, please let us know immediately.” Everything in the bathroom was stocked.
Even without the Kaiseki dinner, I would rate this place a 9.5. You can order an affordable dinner and still receive large portions with the same great service.
There was parking but in the back of the cinder block mall strip. And there are other restaurants here. It is very unassuming on the outside but you feel like you are at home inside.
Hatcho is like being on iron chef, where you get a sample of every item the chef has created for you. Some dishes might not be as appealing to you as other dishes, but more dishes are appealing than not.
I was a little sick that night so I was only able to eat a little bit of my salmon. Our server stopped by and asked, “would you like some more rice?” WOW! How often is more rice offered at a Japanese restaurant? Most of the time I just assume I will only get one bowl of rice and I will need to conserve to make the best of it.
The next day I open up my take home box and again am surprised with out, they wrapped my food in plastic wrap. They must have poured everything from the dish onto plastic wrap and wrapped it up nicely before placing it in my Styrofoam box.
*** Update 7/6/2006 ***
I came back with a friend to try their $85 per person Kaiseki dinner. I do not want to elongate this review, as my original review was long enough, so I will list out the dishes we had this time around and give my opinions.
Typically, in Japan, the waiter would bring each dish out one by one to separate the appetizers from the main course as appetizers are out first, then main course, then the soup and salad. Our waiter explained that the chef at Hatcho wants to bring out all the dishes for us to marvel the beauty of the dishes as a whole.
When I called to make reservations for this dinner the day before I explained I had previously had the $65/person Kaiseki dinner and opted for something different. Linda explained to me previous meals are on record and the chef will try his best not to duplicate the meal.
This time around, they included a Kaiseki dinner menu with the items listed based on course. This helps as I could just use this menu to write my review after dinner. I felt there were less items served even though the dinner was $20 more per person. There were more seafood items such as fish and crab but the previous Kaiseki dinner had more items and variety with beef and fish. My friend and I left wanting more. After dinner, they served us fresh fruit but I also ordered two bowls of green tea ice cream with red bean paste. The owner told us the des | | |
