Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
DavId Utterback: Omakase series
Listen, time is of the essence. We don’t have long.
There’s a man who lives in Omaha (like…Nebraska). His name is David “Yoshitomo” Utterback, and he is the chef/owner of a sushi restaurant called Yoshitomo. It is, by all accounts, fantastic.
Dave and our hometown hero, Nick Bognar (Nippon Tei, iNDO), became BFFs awhile back, as sushi boys do, which lead to a series of dinners here in St. Louis. I posted about them on social, which honestly seemed a little rude—they were done. Completed. Finito. All you could do was double tap and move on with your life.
GOOD NEWS. Chef Utterback is returning to St. Louis to do an omakase takeover at iNDO on July 22nd. There are two seatings—5pm and 8pm. Tickets can be purchased here through Tock. GO NOW. If, somehow, it’s already sold out, I highly recommend commenting below, demanding that Nick kidnap Dave and force him to stay until this city is satisfied.
I was incredibly sick when he was here last, but I am a champ, so I still went, took photos, and ate my food alone in the back of the restaurant before continuing my impersonation of a dying Spencer. That dinner is below and, honestly, it was so good that it’s made me consider going to Omaha just to experience Yoshitomo’s omakase again (especially his super secret foie gras rice—I don’t know what he did, but holy moly). I mean, I haven’t, but I’ve really strongly considered it. I used to go to Omaha for work, and it’s honestly kind of cool. We should all go together sometime.
Crudo
kiwi, leche de tigre
Foie Gras rice
Yoshitomo’s secret recipe
Hirame
shiso, ume, lime, shiro nikiri
Isaki
buri
Akamutsu
Shima Aji
Akami
Chutoro
Otoro
Saba
King Salmon
Iwashi
Yaki Gindara
Hotate
Wagyu
Tamago
Nudo House
Hey people who don’t live in the county:
Wah, Nudo House is far away from you. I don’t care. You guys get to live right next to places like Grace, Loafers, Vista Ramen, and so on. I feel no pity for you. Let the county have some nice things too, you goons.
Mai Lee’s Qui Tran made the genius move to open Nudo in Creve Coeur—home to iconic restaurants like Chipotle, Jimmy John’s, and Potbelly’s. We needed him desperately.
Tran and executive chef, Marie-Anne Velasco, didn’t set out to specifically make a ramen shop; it’s a noodle (Nudo…get it?) house, offering a few ramen variations, Mai Lee’s classic pho, plus spring rolls, crab rangoon, banh mi, and more.
“But it’s hot out now! I don’t want ramen or pho!”
Once again, stop whining. Do you have any idea how hot it gets in Japan in the summer? Do you think Vietnam has a chilly winter? No. They eat ramen and pho year round because it’s delicious and they’re not babies. Hamburgers are also hot, but I don’t see you avoiding those.
All of Nudo’s ramen bases are solid—at this point, easily the best in St. Louis in my mind. The Classic Nudo and O’Miso Spicy both use the delicious, fatty pork tonkotsu broth, while the Hebrew Hammer uses a schmaltz-laden chicken broth. The biggest surprise on the whole menu is the Shroomed Out vegetarian ramen. Somehow, someway, they’ve created a vegetarian dish that almost tastes meatier than the actual meat stocks. Since you can customize anything, I typically do the Shroomed Out, make it spicy, add extra egg and pork. YOLO.
Specials change daily (so follow them on social media), but range from classics like Japanese curry to cheffy stoner food, like a ramen scotch egg or hot braised chicken with scallion waffles. Nudo also sells booze and, more importantly, two soft-serve ice creams. The flavors are always changing, but my god, they are good. If you skip out on the soft-serve, we’re not friends.
