Ozumo Restaurant in Oakland has announced the introduction of a “Robata Experience” five-course prix fixe dinner menu that includes a glass of wine or sake and is priced at $49.00 per person.
The special menu is served only at the restaurant’s robata grill counter and is prepared by Executive Chef Yo Matsuzaki who custom designs the dining experience in consultation with each guest. Robata grills are a traditional way of preparing Japanese cuisine and Chef Matsuzaki is a master at this. Reservations are recommended but not required.
Chef Matsuzaki is a graduate of the Peter Kump Culinary School and began his culinary career at Montrachet and then moved to Nobu Restaurant, both in New York City. His first job in California was at Rubicon in San Francisco. He has subsequently also worked at Farallon, Cityscape, and Sutra. Most recently, Matsuzaki was the Executive Chef at Ozumo San Francisco.
Ozumo Oakland was opened last December by Jeremy Umland, Ozumo founder, managing partner and long time Japanese resident/professional baseball player turned entrepreneur. Umland is the culinary pioneer who opened Ozumo San Francisco in 2001 and, in doing so, introduced contemporary Japanese cuisine to the Unites States, bringing together under one roof a sushi bar, sake lounge and robata grill.
The engaging décor at Ozumo Oakland, with an underling theme of water, air and earth, is the work of AGE Design of Japan, headed up by Ichiro Sato, one of Japan’s top interior designers. At the entrance to the restaurant is an oversized solid George Nakashima-style wood door with wood sidelites and a “live” edge. Highlights of the main dining room (seats 78) include earth tone slate floor tiles which extend up the walls and columns, custom oak wood tables and chairs and banquettes covered with traditional Japanese fabrics. Subdued lighting illuminates a second washi art work running the entire length of the west wall. The charcoal fired robata grill (seats 12), with a sunken kitchen area, is notable for its sustainably harvested ramon hard wood counter top.
The adjacent Kotatsu Room (seats 24), available for nightly or private function dining, is walled off on two sides by clear glass panels with glass shelves lined with sake bottles. A 20’ tall Japanese paper lantern creates a dramatic interior backdrop and acts as a beacon to outside passersby. The centerpiece of this shoes-off, uniquely Japanese room is a 12' solid oak wood table surrounded by elevated bench seats.
The Ozumo Oakland sake list, with over 90 brands, is one of, if not the most extensive in this country. The full bar serves signature cocktails such as the Giddy Geisha and Sumo-kaze, plus top wines from around the world and Sapporo and Kirin beer on tap. The bar is decorated with blackened metal and rich wood accents and a large waterfall with stylized leaping fish. A hand-troweled concrete floor embedded with a leaf motif is complemented by an expansive Japanese washi work of art, titled “Surge,” along the back wall. The cozy lounge has tatami mat bench seating with overstuffed pillows.
The restaurant’s intimate sushi bar, topped with salt and pepper granite, also has a sunken kitchen area, allowing the standing chefs and seated diners to see eye to eye, separated by clear glass display cases filled with fresh sushi and sashimi selections, and illuminated by a ribbon of light coming from fixtures housed in a lower soffit.
The Oakland location also has a private dining room, complete with sliding shoji screen doors, which seats up to 50 people, making it one of the foremost such non-hotel venues in the East Bay. The room has oak wood floors and soffits and is decorated with a washi art piece, “Blue Moon,” framed in by traditional Japanese textured stucco. Full-restaurant private lunches and off-site catering are specialties of the house.