MichelleMunches

For my 25th birthday this past year, my boyfriend took me to Nara-Ya with a couple friends to celebrate! Definitely a spot that I would plan to go to for a special occasion as it is a bit pricey to do the omakase. At the time, we were still doing our vegetarian diet, so we opted to do the “chefs 5 course vegan omakase” ($85pp) set and our friends did the regular “chefs 5 course omakase” ($95pp).

Views

This was my first time ever at the Wharf and wow – the views are stunning. I can’t believe I have never spent time here before! It’s very modern and trendy. La Vie, Nara-Ya and Mi Vida all share a building, so it was a little confusing to find the entrance. However, before you pass Mi Vida, you will take a right and it’s directly behind the open patio (note: La Vie and Nara-Ya share an entrance door). Once entering there, it splits into La Vie and Nara-Ya doors. Nara-Ya being on the right, you’re taken through a beautiful room with amazing decor, then up the elevator to the dining floor!

Cheers

First off, they give you complimentary champagne for your birthday! I personally don’t think I’m a champagne gal, but I really did enjoy the beautiful drink I ordered! I asked for something sweet and our waitress suggested the Rhythm of the River which came out looking like a dream. I mean those colors are 100% my aesthetic and I may or may not have gotten it because it’s pink…

Small Plates

We started the meal with our small plates: edamame hummus was first up! This may not look like much, but wow…this might have been my favorite thing we ate. It was so flavorful with so many different textures from the crispiness of the rice cracker to the smoothness of the hummus. I wish we could’ve gotten a whole plate of this because it was so good.

Next came the seaweed salad which is definitely the prettiest plate of “seaweed salad” I’ve ever had. Also, probably the boujee-est seaweed salad, I’ve ever had. Definitely not the kind you get at the regular sushi spots. This was elegant and elevated. The salad was so colorful and beautiful; I almost didn’t want to eat it. But, I did! It was incredibly refreshing as you can imagine from the crisp radish to the tart strawberries, to the yuzu-sesame dressing. It was *chefs kiss*.

Composed Plates

Green. Tea. Soba. Noodles. This was an experience in itself! They bring out the dish, then pour the hot broth at the table for you. It was so fun and our server even put on a little show for us while doing this. The soba is really light and earthy with the shiitake mushrooms and green tea soba. I really liked this dish, but my boyfriend and I both found it to be a little salty. Otherwise, it would’ve been a home run hit.

Wow. I am still amazed at how beautiful this tofu platter is. It’s plated so beautifully and it tasted even better. For someone like my boyfriend who is not a mushroom lover, you may not like this course. I, on the other hand, really love mushrooms and ended up eating his portion as well. The tofu is cold, although I think one of them was warm, but overall cold paired with wasabi green salad. I found the tofu to be alright, but my favorite was the closest piece with the purple flower (lemongrass miso glazed) because it was slightly sweet and had the best flavor.

Sushi Roll

Coming towards an end, came the sushi roll: Garden roll. By this time, we were already starting to feel really full from all the previous courses. We powered through though. The garden roll was not particularly my favorite and definitely not a crowd pleasure with the boyfriend. There isn’t anything particular wrong with it, it was tasty don’t get me wrong. But, it was definitely lacking in some flavor. It was obviously just a bunch of veggies and I found it to be an interesting pairing with the red bell pepper since that’s not typically in traditional sushi. It was just okay. I did love the quinoa on top though, it added a nice crunch.

Dessert

Finally, we finish with the best course, obvi…dessert! The vegan option came with the vegan chocolate ganache cake and the regular omakase had the choice to choose their dessert. Our friends ordered the Nara-Ya famous green tea matcha-misu and the Sakura garden. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the vegan chocolate ganache cake was, it was obviously rich, but also light and fluffy. It was incredibly tasty and now I am craving it again! Paired with the tart raspberry puree, it was heavenly.

This is from the entrance!

Overall, as my first omakase experience, I definitely enjoyed it and had fun. Would I do the vegan omakase set again as a carnivore? Probably not since I didn’t love every course. However, since I can order each item a la carte, I would definitely come back to get them separately. Next time, I would be interested in trying the regular omakase set! Hope you enjoyed reading about my vegan omakase experience at Nara-Ya and if you try it out, definitely let me know!