Thanks to Experienced Seafood Chef Cody Auger, Takibi’s Fish Dishes Shine, but Much of the Land-Based Fare Falls Short

by Michael C. Zusman

Takibi is Japanese for bonfire. In its Northwest Portland iteration, it is usually a cross-marketing maven’s fantasy come to fruition: an expensive Japanese-ish restaurant that serves as a gross sales platform for even pricier tenting gear.

As initially conceived, Takibi was a joint effort by “out of doors way of life creator” Snow Peak USA and Joshua McFadden’s Submarine Hospitality, which oversees a number of, disparate Portland restaurant ideas. If this feels like a system for dismal, dispassionate fare, that will be a strong conclusion. Fortuitously, Submarine scuttled off someday after final spring’s opening, and although govt cooks have come and gone, Takibi is now anchored by Cody Auger, whose deft contact with seafood is peerless in Portland, and Jim Meehan, an acclaimed mixologist.

Takibi occupies the east half of the bigger, rectangular Snow Peak house dealing with Northwest twenty third Avenue. The retailer and restaurant are joined by two brief hallways. Attempt wandering into the shop a couple of minutes earlier than your reservation time and take a look at the $2,000 tent and $700 iron grill desk, amongst an array of hearth tchotchkes you didn’t know you wanted. Take notice that many objects ($45 bamboo-and-titanium collapsible chopsticks and $10 titanium sporks in rainbow colours) will seem in your desk subsequent door. Good.

City laggards can park their vehicles in a small lot off Flanders and stroll instantly into the restaurant. Oddly, the dominant aroma inside shouldn’t be meals, however slightly one thing just like the showroom of a Les Schwab tire retailer. Perplexing, however you get used to it.

The eating room is fairly, all gussied up in blond wooden and white upholstery. On one facet is the open kitchen and bar. The opposite finish options cubicles that curve across the perimeter of the room. Be forewarned that the temperature on the eating room facet hovers towards the underside of the thermometer. Costume accordingly, or purchase the $200 flame-resistant Takibi blanket—sure, that’s actually the identify—subsequent door.

The menu is damaged into a number of sections. For finest outcomes, concentrate on fish. Auger’s lengthy expertise sourcing and serving sashimi at Hokusei after which Nimblefish just about ensures high-quality. Delicate pink slices of trout ($17) and Hokkaido octopus ($18) divided into parts of thin-sliced suction cup and evenly cooked leg meat had been glorious.

Additionally on provide: tai ($19), referred to as sea bream or snapper, and saba, slices of cured Norwegian mackerel ($9). Sashimi is served with a small floor mound of floral, sharp Oregon wasabi root. Talking of mackerel, when you love this boldly flavored fish as a lot as I do, saba shioyaki ($11), salt grilled and generously portioned, is nearly as good a price on this menu as you’ll get.

As you progress away from the water, Takibi turns into a extra perilous proposition. Blended pickled greens, tsukemono ($6), epitomizes the issue. Of the 4 objects on the plate, two—soy-cured daikon and pinkish-orange radish quarters with a sweet-tart remedy—had been a delight. Watermelon radish slices and carrot sticks, alternatively, tasted as uncooked and uninteresting as a Safeway crudité tray.

Takibi has bought Japanese fried hen, karaage ($11), for the reason that outset. It’s an izakaya customary. At its finest, the hen arrives blistering scorching, extravagantly salted and spurting juice with each bliss-inducing chunk. Takibi’s take is from the other universe: tepid, timid and desiccated.

On one early go to, the braised pork stomach referred to as kakuni ($17), served with gentle cooked egg and a sprinkle of numbing sansho pepper powder, was nearly totally unappetizing hunks of fats. Extra just lately, fats and meat had been in good equipoise, the spotlight of the non-seafaring sections of the menu.

An upward development, maybe? Nope. A lamb chop ($17) on my closing go to was one other fatty-cut phobic’s nightmare. And a latest menu addition of cured salmon roe atop a blini of types ($15) rimmed with a ribbon of liver mousse was even worse. After one chunk, two of us shook our heads in unison, aghast at what tasted like fish egg shortcake. If I might untaste this in some way, I’d.

Meehan’s libations are additionally a blended bag. One eating companion, a longtime trade insider, swears by the top-shelf bottles and constant creativity of the drinks menu. A second designated drinker, additionally within the trade, was much less effusive in regards to the rum-forward, citrus-heavy Shochu the Magic ($17), a riff on a Singapore sling. The sexy-sounding matsutake-washed cherry brandy on this drink was a dud, the piney mushroom indiscernible. On the brief non-alcohol slate, the Queen Backyard Swizzle ($19), anchored by Seedlip Backyard, tasted broadly botanical, however that was about it. Give me membership soda and bitters for 1 / 4 of the value.

Nice eating places are usually fired by ardour. Takibi emerged from a advertising plan. It could have its excessive factors, nevertheless it’s laborious to stroll away with out feeling burned.

EAT: Takibi, 2275 NW Flanders St., 971-888-5713, takibipdx.com. 5-9 pm day by day.