We went tonight and brought Chef a very nice bottle of bubbles that he will hopefully open after service. The food was amazing and maybe our best meal there. It was also so moving to see the Chef and his son focused on the guests, they could not even go to the Michelin ceremony because there are only two of them. It was slightly busier than usual with a lot of talk about the star - hopefully this translates into more business.
Back last night, probably the best meal we’ve had there. Was empty except the other party of 5 doing sushi omakase as well (so 7 people at the bar, one master sushi chef, that’s it…good luck getting that sort of attention at Shuko/O-ya/etc). Sounded like an anomoly though as he said they were full this weekend and have been very busy.
But, how’s this for awesome - what do most restaurants do when they get a star? Hike prices/lower quality/etc. Not at Cagen - they actually added courses to the sushi omakase, so it’s now 20 pieces (+dessert, amuse, soba) instead of 15. Just awesome. If you haven’t been, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I saw your instragram post. I go regularly and I agree the food is as good as ever and they are still very wine friendly. They also have a few decent champagnes because one of Skurniks has become a regular.
Amazing food, liberal corkage, family business - support this place!!!
Sounds like the house sparkling is now Raventos, and they currently have a few different Vilmart cuvees in the fridge, and plan on rotating the higher end stuff to see what people like. Totally fine with corkage ($30) as always though.
Cagen will be getting a higher percentage of my sushi meals due to a combination of their high quality and Shuko’s new corkage policy which limits a reservation to a max of two byob. Seems to be relatively strictly adhered to, which is fine if I’m dining by myself but isn’t ideal if I’m with a couple of others.
Just wish there was a bit more energy in Cagen’s dining room.
I was thinking more about taking over the sushi bar. There are 10 seats. Perfect size. I don’t think the experience would be the same without sitting at the bar. They are closed on Mondays…not sure if they would be able to get a delivery to do a private night.
Forgot they are closed on Monday. I am cool with the bar. My only thought on the back versus the bar is that in the back you basically can stay as long as you like and doing a wine dinner would be easier. At the bar we would probably have to be out in time for them to do a second seating. Just FYI I did a dinner in the back and service was a tad slower because the front was full but it was nice to have the whole room to ourselves and to have a separate table for all of the bottles. We should ask them what the arrangements would need to be to take over the whole Sushi bar.