Umami Japanese Bistro
Raising Baton Rouge's expectations about Japanese cuisine
One of the most popular dishes at Umami Japanese Bistro isn’t actually all that Japanese. A small plate named the Tuna Crisp, it’s a fried corn tortilla layered with fresh yellowfin tuna, red onions, and avocado and topped with micro greens, cilantro, and feta cheese. Delicate, gorgeous to look at, and completely addictive, this crossover dish is an effective gateway drug to Chef Cong Nguyen’s surprising Japanese cuisine.
Nguyen and his wife Thom opened Umami in January, occupying the space formerly held by Hello Sushi, the reliably tasty sushi spot popular with LSU’s student crowd. Hello Sushi’s many fans mustn’t despair, though, because before buying and reopening the restaurant as Umami, Chef Cong worked at Hello Sushi for eight years, where his was a familiar face behind the sushi bar. But as an employee, Nguyen yearned to expand his offerings beyond the nigiri/sashimi/rolls that formed the bread and butter of a student-centric sushi bar and spread his creative wings a bit. So, after buying the business and working a spare, elegant redesign on the restaurant’s interior, the Nguyens reopened under the Umami banner and got busy raising Baton Rouge’s expectations about Japanese cuisine.
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If Chef Nguyen’s Tuna Crisp is the gateway drug, the rest of his menu is a recipe for addiction. It bristles with dishes that, while Japanese in presentation and execution, incorporate elements of Mexican and Mediterranean cuisine as well. A tataki of seared filet mignon or fresh tuna topped with ponzu sauce, sriracha, and fried shallots would pair nicely with the colorful carpaccio of paper-thin salmon, tuna, and yellowtail in a truffle oil vinaigrette. Fresh oyster shooters are served with a piquant Tabasco vinaigrette. Ankimo is a delicate pâté of monkfish served with spicy ponzu sauce, masago, and roasted sesame seeds; and there’s a simple dish of flash-fried Brussels sprouts with sweet chili sauce that makes lifelong sprouts haters change their tune. On a recent lunchtime, Nguyen also recommended saba, lightly cured slivers of imported Japanese mackerel. Soups include a seafood udon brimming with salmon, whitefish, and shrimp in a spiced dashi broth; and the Hangover Bowl is a luxurious ramen bowl piled high with marinated pork, seaweed, soft boiled egg, and vegetables in a spiced miso broth so irresistible you’ll be glad it comes from a culture in which it’s okay to drink from the bowl. Entrées extend from airily light, crisp tempura to delicate grilled freshwater eel served with eel sauce, masago, and pickled daikon radish. For dessert, Thom Nguyen’s green tea crêpe cake is a thing of wonder: a twelve-layer strata of slender crêpes filled with a lightly sweetened green-tea mousse and dusted with matcha tea. Working with a cuisine already known for its elegance, Chef Nguyen applies this multicultural approach with a deft touch. “I wanted to do things that were a little different, to do things that are one step ahead,” he said.
Of course, the end-all, be-all of any Japanese restaurant remains the quality of its fish, and Chef Nguyen has an edge here, too. Before ever setting foot in a restaurant kitchen, Nguyen crewed on a commercial tuna boat his parents operated out of Venice, Louisiana, chasing the big Gulf yellowfin prized by recreational game fishermen and commercial long liners. Nguyen maintains those dock contacts for superlative quality line-caught Gulf tuna and escolar and enjoys strong fish-supply relationships that enable him to offer imported specialties like that Japanese mackerel. With these raw materials at hand, Umami diners have an extensive menu of high-quality nigiri, sushi, and sashimi offerings to explore.
Now that sushi is a known quantity, available in every grocery store, there’s more room for a creative chef to spread his wings. Among the restaurant’s “signature sushi” offerings: an Umami roll pairing tempura shrimp and spicy tuna with seared tenderloin as well as un-Japanese jalapeños and feta cheese. A Geisha roll of fresh tuna, salmon, and whitefish, rolled with masago and avocado in soy paper and topped with paper-thin lemon slices is almost too beautiful to eat. “Others are making money off of simple sushi,” Nguyen said, noting that around thirty percent of his menu is different from that on offer anywhere else in town. Still, there’s plenty for the purists. Nigiri and sashimi are a study in spare elegance—nothing to distract from the quality of the fish. “I don’t want you to see it so much as to taste it,” Nguyen said, pointing out that his goal is always to offer dishes so fresh, so clean, that no soy sauce is required to enjoy them.
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It’s a sea of options, at price points ranging between $5–$15 for small plates and $16–$30 for entrées. But if you want to really put Chef Nguyen’s creativity to the test, spring for his “omakase,” an eight-to-twelve course freestyle feast of chef-selected dishes that preserves the element of surprise and allows Nguyen to put the spotlight on his best products and presentations. At $80–$130 per person, it’s not cheap. But for a comprehensive introduction to the breadth of Japanese fusion cuisine, there are worse ways to spend an evening.
Umami Japanese Bistro
3930 Burbank Drive
(225) 768-8808