Mābo is an yakitori omakase restaurant under the direction of the former chef of Teppo, Masayuki Otaka that opened a little over a year ago.  He offers 2  seatings (5:30 and 8:30) for 8 guests of a 14-course tasting menu.   At Teppo, Chef Otaka was known as “the Yakitori King of Dallas” so this place serves more meat than seafood.  Yakitori in Japan means grilled chicken and while five chicken parts are on the tasting menu even more are offered on a supplemental menu.  This supplemental menu includes options for other meats, fish and vegetables.  The basic tasting is $200 per person, with tax, tip and drinks in addition but the chicken supplements we had were just $8 per skewer (I did find it annoying that the supplemental menu had no prices).   The small, minimal space has few decorations but it is serene and tasteful.  We took the early seating and found the door did not get unlocked until precisely 5:30.  After being shown to a comfortable seat at the counter, which has screens blocking you view into the kitchen, we ordered some sake and water and chatted with neighbors until the screen rises 10 minutes later.  Chef Otaka was the only one ever in the kitchen but a sweet server helped with information and serving.  The vent fan runs constantly, because the charcoal is going, but it does make some noise for counter conversations and in addition there is music in the background.  It was great to see Otaka back in action but I don’t think I’ll be a regular here because there’s too much non-yakitori.  The non-yakitori foods were good but didn’t get into great territory.  On the other side though, if you want a yakitori fix this would be the first place I’d direct you to.

Set-up

Food

A warmed packaged hand wipe was passed out while we waited for the first course.  Chicken liver Pâté with Lotus root chips, Monaka, and black truffle.  Monaka is a Japanese sweet sandwiched between two this crisp wafers and these chicken shaped crackers were thin and crisp.   In between was delicious liver pâté topped with truffle shreds and something else that was crisp.  You were to put the sides together and eat it like a sandwich.  It was excellent, whitty and tasted great.

 

Rapini cream soup was mildly flavored and nicely warm.  You drank from the bowl and is was fine.

 

Kanpachi crudo with miso-mascarpone and radish was divided into 3 bite sized poritons.  The mild fish was dwarfed by the strong radish but it was a pretty plate.

 

Sashimi included (left to right)Honmaguro Akami (bluefin tuna), O-toro (tuna belly), Ishidai (striped beakfish), Hokkaido sake (salmon), Madai (sea bream), and Hirame (white fish) around uni.  I thought I heard the server call one snapper but not sure about that now but in the front of the box of iced fish was a bowl of soy sauce and shiso and a dab of fresh wasabi was the green on the lower right corner.   All were lovely.

 

Anago-Japanese sea eel was tempura style Cinnamon apple French toast with some truffle salt on the plate.  This was fried in another area and brought outside for chef to plate.  It had a mild crispness with mild flavor inside.  The salt helped spark it.

 

The Yakitori section started with giving each of us 2 seasonings for our tray.  The left one was called pepper but I tasted more lemon in it with some tongue numbing ingredient.  The darker one was called 7 spice and had a nice kick of spice to it.  There were containers of each by your place if you wanted more.

 

Yakitori was grilled in front of us and was a number of skewers with options to get extras toward the end. First was Hatsu or heart.  It was juicy, chewy and very good.

 

Negima (First wing with Tokyo Negi) is tradtionally chicken thighs with scallions so I’m thinking there was wing on one side and thigh on the other side of the scallion, but I’m not really sure.  Chef called it shoulder.  Either way it was grilly tasting  with great flavor and good texture.

 

Kashiwa or thigh is generally a seasoned chicken and this one was excellent.  Very juicy and good.

 

Texas okra were cut perfectly so no slime in the mix.  They were grilled just enough to make them easily chewable.  It was nice.

 

Tebasaki or wing was another excellent cut.  Lots of flavor and texture.

 

Tsukune or meatball came with a raw quail egg in a bowl.  You were to scramble the egg with your chopsticks and then dip the ball in as you eat it.   The meatball was moist and flavorful but I really loved adding a little of the dark powder to it too.

 

We added Hatsumoto or arteries.  They were the servers favorite and they were very chewy and nicely grilled.

 

Soriresu or chicken oyster were tender and wonderful – maybe my favorite so far.  Such a fun piece of the  bird and cooked perfectly.

 

Chigimo or liver was in 2 bigger and 2 smaller pieces.   All kept nicely moist, or maybe say barely cooked.  I love liver but this was almost too much ‘liver’ for me.

 

Bonjiri or tail was not on the list but we asked if they had it and they did.  It is basically a fat mass that grills to a crisp edge and has a fabulous flavor, if you can get over just eating a hunk of fat.  We split all the extra skewers so it wasn’t that much, just enought for a small bite of delicious.  If you go be sure to ask for it.

 

Tsuyahime Hokkaido sake and Ikura Gohan was grilled salmon with rice and salmon eggs topped with micro greens.   You were to mix it up before eating.  I found the salmon flavor to be too strong and the fish dry.  This was not so good to me.

 

The tasting finished was Hokkaido milk gelato drizzled with white truffle honey and sitting on chocolate soil.  It came with some green tea.  The tea had a buckwheat bit of flavor but was otherwise mild.  The gelato was incredibly smooth and lightly drizzled with the honey.  The ‘soil’  was like soft cookie crumbles and mixed well with the sweet gelato.  It was a lovely light and nicely sweet ending for the meal.

 

With our bill came a bag of treats with tea bags to make more at home and a couple hot cakes from the oven.  The little brown cakes were lightly sweet but without defined flavor, but a nice gesture.