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San Francisco Chronicle​

This Bay Area suburb's restaurant boom continues with a new omakase spot

A high-end omakase restaurant with courses of premium fish prepared by a pedigreed chef marks the latest notable opening in a sleepy Bay Area suburb. Ren Omakase recently opened at 403 El Camino Real in Menlo Park, which is in the midst of a flurry of restaurant openings. The eight-seat sushi restaurant, which replaced a small neighborhood ice cream shop near the border of Palo Alto, comes from a team of Bay Area sushi veterans. They include Wen Zhao, previously a chef for 10 years at the once Michelin-starred Omakase in San Francisco; Jiabo Li of Iki Omakase in Palo Alto; and Sunny Noah, who worked at Omakase and the Michelin-starred edomae spot Sushi Yoshizumi in San Mateo, and has since opened Iki Omakase, Nagai Edomae Sushi in Redwood City and Tancho in Castro Valley. Ren's $198 menu features 18 to 20 courses of edomae-style dishes, including sushi made with seafood from Tokyo's Toyosu Market and an array of appetizers like slow-poached abalone with an abalone liver sauce. Zhao has had to get creative with preparing the cooked dishes in a tiny kitchen with only an electric cooktop, Noah said. Zhao is constantly adjusting the shari, or seasoned sushi rice, based on temperature and grain absorption rate with a proprietary blend of red and white vinegar. He cuts each piece of fish precisely to its individual fat content and muscle structure. He cures silver-skinned fish such as kohada, aji, and iwashi using timed intervals for rest and oxidation control. He massages tako, or octopus, by hand for at least two hours for maximum tenderness, and finishes the fish with a light hammering from a daikon radish. Zhao's 'culinary philosophy is grounded in classical Japanese methods, but every aspect — fish curing, rice seasoning, otsumami preparation, and knife work — is approached with scientific rigor and deep respect for tradition,' Noah said. They transformed the former ice cream shop into a minimalist sushi bar built from warm hinoki wood. Ren offers two seatings, at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. This will likely be Noah's last omakase restaurant, but he plans to open other kinds of sushi businesses on the Peninsula. He's excited to see new energy in Menlo Park and surrounding Peninsula cities: 'As times change and more and more people and restaurateurs discover this amazing area, they are moving to open more great concepts,' he said. Reach Elena Kadvany: Bluesky: @