Date Night @ Soto (Pre-Valentine's Dinner)

I could not wait for the moment to go to Soto. I heard for all uni (sea urchin) lovers, as myself, this is must visit the Japanese restaurant. The restaurant website has been "under construction" for some time, so I referenced NY Magazine's website for a sense of what is on the menu. I'm not sure how often the menu changes, but there were items that we ordered that are not on the New York Magazine website.

We started with the Uni Cocktail, which has fresh uni over a soy sauce-wasabi sauce and bits of seaweed on the top. It was a delicious and perfect start.

 Uni Cocktail

Next came the Miso Soup, which was a uni and lobster broth with some lobster meat and garnished with thinly sliced ginger shoots and chives. The soup was delicious and incredibly flavorful. It tasted as though there was a hint of truffle in the soup.

Miso Soup 

Next was a small dish of white shrimp in a shiitake mushroom and ginger broth and topped with two types of caviar with a slice of toro in between. This was very unique and had a great shiitake mushroom flavor. The broth was a bit on the salty side, but it was still very delicious.

White Shrimp with Caviar and Toro

 Marcos loved the next dish - Hokki Nuta. This was composed of thinly sliced surf clam with thinly sliced myoga ginger shoots marinated in a sweet miso mustard sauce. This dish was served over a partially cut out lime. The presentation was interesting along with the taste of the citrus lime flavor combined with the surf clam, mustard sauce and myoga ginger shoots.

Hokki Nuta 

The next dish was one of my favorites - Uni Ika Sugomori Zukuri. From the picture it is hard to tell what is in this dish. The inside is fresh uni wrapped in thinly sliced yari squid and shiso. It is served with a quail egg and tosa soy reduction and garnished with seaweed to make it look like a bird's nest. Quail egg is my favorite to top over specific sushi's such as wasabi tobiko, and I absolutely loved it within the mixture of the uni and squid.

Uni Ika Sugomori Zukuri 

The next dish was also one of my favorites - Broiled Langoustine. I love langoustines and this was done extremely well. My love for langoustine's began from when I went to Italy a few years ago. In this one region of Italy by the ocean, they often encrust the langoustine in sea salt and bake the langoustine. This technique really brings out the flavor of the langoustine and I loved it! So ever since, I always try to order langoustines when it is on the menu. This dish was a lightly broiled New Zealand langoustine topped with a creamy shiitake mushroom sauce. Everything about this dish was perfect!

 Broiled Langoustine

In addition to dishes from the sushi bar and kitchen, we ordered two rolls of sushi with uni, of course. The first was uni with white shrimp.

The other roll (which looks the same in the picture) was uni with squid.

I have to admit that by the end we were kind of uni'd out, but I still love uni and will definitely return for more uni!

Lastly, we got dessert! Homemade Mochi Ice Cream! Perfect and delightful! Mochi is made from rice flour and an incredibly soft texture. The combination of the mochi and ice cream has been a favorite of mine.

Homemade Mochi Ice Cream

(flavors - mango, red bean. strawberry, mango and green tea)

Inside of red bean mochi

Overall, we loved our dinner and it was amazing! The place is a bit small and we were seated in between couples (which we hate), but for the most part it was a quiet dinner and we enjoyed ourselves! Happy Pre-Valentine's Day!