HOUReview
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Katami
Included In
Katami is a damn good restaurant. The sushi is so great, we would come here even if it was served in a crumbling cardboard box. Thankfully, this minimalistic Montrose spot seems beamed in from an aspirational magazine spread where people who own Eames loungers snack on sashimi at a mountain health spa. But even if it didn't, we would traverse an obstacle course amidst hurricane-force winds just to eat the nigiri.
Katami took everything often reserved for pricey omakases and shook it out onto an a la carte menu. And while you can still have an omakase experience here—similar to its sister restaurant Kata Robata—shelling out $300 upfront isn’t necessary to order premium nigiri and sashimi. Everything here feels fresh, new, and somehow precious. Like the precisely plated luscious toro tar tar with a raw quail egg, tiny pickled enoki mushroom caps, and perfectly square little toasts. Or tiny sheafs of raw Japanese wagyu dotted in edible flowers paired with simmering shabu broth atop miniature konro grills.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Order a chef’s selection of sashimi and what arrives is a mountain of ice and glass dripping in flowers nestled around glistening cuts of silver-skinned gizzard shad, intense but sweet barracuda, and perfectly pink hamachi. Everything here is like a chic mullet: trim and precise up front, but packing a flavor supernova in the back.
With such a generous edible flower budget and detailed, luscious cuts of fish, we halfway expect someone to begin feeding us grapes between courses. And while they do pour sake-by-the-glass table side here, unfortunately, grape hedonism isn’t on the menu. You come here for an elegant meal with refined and simple details, that also happens to feel luxurious whether you spend $50 or $500. For anyone whose idea of fun is a well-folded napkin, dinner at Katami borders on the divine.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Sake Service
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Toro Tar Tar
Sashimi
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Corn And Mushroom Okonomiyaki
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Kagoshima Wagyu Shabu Style
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Foie PBJ Milk Bread
photo credit: Richard Casteel