240 Castro St
Mountain View, CA
(650) 964-6990
| Description: Kappo Nami Nami is a Japanese, Sushi, and Asian restaurant where most Menuism users came for a family meal, paid between $25 and $50, and tipped between 15% to 18%. | Tags: | |
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June 7, 2007
If price were no object, Kappo NamiNami would definitely be one of the best restaurants around. Its an entirely fresh take on Japanese for Californians raised on Japanese-as-sushi-rolls The Kyoto-style small plates pack a potent punch of flavor that shocks and awes the taste buds and provides perfected culinary creations in small packages. The beef tongue stew ($18) everyone raves about is definitely as good as I heard and a must try dish. The stringy and soft meat makes for one of the most enjoyable meat dishes I’ve had of late and is rather hearty. The tiny eel soup ($8 I think, but I forgot the name) is very interesting, has a wonderful broth, and the translucent whole baby eels are fascinating, but you get only about two ounces of it. It only lets you down when you finish it in short order. The cabbage beef rolls were surprisingly lacking in flavor, but the seabass with monk fish liver and ponzu sauce was certainly not want for it. The liver might be a little strong for some, but the semi-sweet ponzu sauce was one of the best sauces I’ve tried and compelled me to lick small dish it came on clean. The waitress brought us tofu instead of black cod in miso sauce, and the tofu was just OK. With a beer and a large sake the total was $90 and we were hungry enough for ice cream afterwards. Still, I think I’ll be compelled to pay too much for a small meal here again.
UPDATE 06/03/2007:
I’ve been back twice since my first review, and am a little less awed. I’ve discovered some great new dishes, but also had a few too many disappointing ones. The beef tongue continues to astound, but a few of the white fishes have been a little too bland and leave me saying “hmm, interesting”, more than “mmm, terrific”. The mogwort tofu was an interesting green with a strange gooey texture, but also somewhat bland. The duck mango was very tasty, with a great sweet sauce and really tasty, though not tremendous duck. The green tea chicken was also tasty, though the chicken breast was a little dry and the green tea bread crumb crust was good, but not better than one might expect for a crust like this. The cod and daikon was very very good though. It was soft, fatty, and slightly sweet. Much better than some of the other white fishes.
I think if I can really nail down what I do/will like and not get many more “hmm” dishes, then Kappo NamiNami can be worth going back to for the price. But its disappointing that it might take a bunch more ho-hum dishes to get there.
The green tea chicken was tasty, though the chicken breast was a little dry and the green tea bread crumb crust was good, but not better than one might expect for a crust like this. This dish might have had more appeal somewhere else.
The cod and daikon was very very good. It was soft, fatty, and slightly sweet. Much better than some of the other white fishes which were too often slightly bland.
The tiny “eel soup” is very interesting, has a wonderful broth, and the translucent whole baby eels are fascinating, but you get only about two ounces of it. It only lets you down when you finish it in short order. Both the meat and the broth were very tasty.
The cabbage beef rolls were surprisingly lacking in flavor. They were ground feed wrapped in a soggy cabbage and had little to offer.
The seabass with monk fish liver and ponzu sauce was very interesting with flavors I loved and flavors I disliked. The liver might be a little strong for some, but the semi-sweet ponzu sauce was one of the best sauces I’ve tried and compelled me to lick small dish it came on clean.
A soft and slightly chewy green tofu dish. It has a nice subtle flavor, but isn’t that great and is very small for the price. I’d skip tofu in general here since I’ve found it lackluster.
The duck mango was very tasty, with a great sweet sauce and really tasty, though the duck meat was not tremendous. Its larger than you’d expect from Kappo NamiNami, which is nice.
March 1, 2007
Nami Nami is a new restaurant on Castro, although you may miss it because there isn’t a big sign on the front.
During lunch time, they have bento sets. But these aren’t your typical chickent teriyaki/tempura bentos. They’ve got unique items that are presented so well!
Prices for lunch are typical for Japanese food, but you get a good amount. Each set comes with rice, salad, miso soup, and a cold dish of the day.
I’ve also come here for dinner. The menu is different, and it is izakaya style. The variety isn’t as varied as Gochi, but still they’ve got unique dishes that are still presented beautifully. Not only are they pretty to look at, but good too.
It’s new, so there are still some rough edges for them to work out. My lunch took awhile to arrive, and during dinner an order of sushi took way too long to arrive. The dessert came out before it! But they held onto the dessert and made sure we got our sushi after that.
I’d recommend making reservations for dinner. We came on a Saturday right when it opened, so there were tables. But after that, people got wait time of 1.5 hours since there were several reservations.
The ambience is casual, but very modern. And a good place to bring groups!
It also came with ponzu sauce, but I could’ve used more taste. Presentation though was splendid.
April 15, 2007
Japanese kappo cuisine is typically suppose to have the customers sitting facing the chef. One benefit is to see the food being prepared and having the dish immediately served to you.
At NamiNami, the only area you can see a chef is at the small sushi bar (seating for maybe 4 people) when you walk in. The entire kitchen is closed off and the rest of the seating are at tables.
The decor is nice and spacious. They had smooth jazz playing the entire time I was there (a little odd at a “traditional” japanese restaurant).
The service was a little off, with multiple waitresses asking for drink orders, and only 1 or 2 empty dishes getting cleared off periodically.
The food was decent and portions were okay, but definitely not for the price we paid.
4 servings of thinly cut beef rolled up in cabbage
Salmon sashimi and salmon roe topped on white rice. Too much rice, not enough sashimi
Had tuna, squid, and hamachi. The hamachi was excellent.
Udon in a broth with a semi cooked quail egg. Nothing special with the udon. Try something else
Mugwart tofu…interesting texture
Vanilla ice cream topped with raspberries.
These are dishes contributed by Menuism users, either entered directly, as part of a restaurant review, or as part of an image upload.
Mountain View, CA
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