Gama calls itself a coastal Izakaya, which is a type of Japanese pub where small plates are served with alcoholic beverages.   They have a large sake list as well as beer.  The good sized space was divided into two rooms by a short light wood divider.  One side has the bar seating and the other has tables.  Music was in the background and lots of windows brought in even more light than the already bright house lights.  Service tried to be helpful but our server hadn’t worked there long enough to know a lot about the food.   I was surprised that they bill themselves as highlighting local products but only one locally caught fish was on the menu.  The pair that were behind the opening were seasoned restaurant people with a desire to bring Japanese flavors to the area.   I’m not sure if it was having a server new to the place without good experience to guide us or that Japanese cuisine is mild in flavor, but this felt like an off night.  I think the place has much more potential than what we saw.  

Set-Up

 

Food

Potato salad was made with Yellow Finn potatoes, soft egg, house aioli and aonori.  It was nice enough and the runny yolk mixed nicely with the rest of it

 

Komatsuna were locally grown greens mixed with goma ae and topped with chili threads.  These were the best part of the meal.  Well seasoned, the green leaves held more of the seasoning, both the stems and leaves were cooked to a tender state still leaving some chew intact.

 

Sukiyaki contained simmered Knight’s Valley Wagyu beef, Maitake mushrooms, and bok choy with an egg yolk in a separate bowl for dipping.  This dish had little flavor in the meat but some was in the mushrooms.  The broth was best with some rice.

 

Saikyoyaki was a miso marinated local black cod with Neto and shiso.  This is one of my favorite fish and they managed to make it strong and fishy flavored.  It was cooked nicely and most all the bones were removed.  It had a dollop of red something to season it, that tasted more like mashed squash.  My husband enjoyed this dish more than me.

 

Organic Koda Farms rice is ordered separately and was nice. It was probably my second favorite plate.  It worked well in combination with a number of the dishes.

 

Eringi was a skewer of 3 King Trumpet mushrooms.  They were tasty but had no grill or smoke essence so relied on lovely mushroom flavor to carry them. Sori Resu was a skewer of 3 chicken oysters. This is a wonderful part of the chicken but these were bland with little to make you want more.