Maboroshi - Half Moon Bay

Dec 1 2018 Not Open though it says they are Open... Call the Number, they said not open for at least 2 weeks? Strange!

This place is really good. It's not marketed anywhere and basically a word of mouth place. The chef is the previous chef of Yume, and most of his customers here are ones that used to go there before it closed. The only way to reserve is to message him or the business on Facebook as there isn't a phone to call and no website. Kind of hard to find, because it's inside of another restaurant. Look for Impressions and walk upstairs and it is literally a bar counter. A little strange to be sure, but that doesn't really matter you're here for the fish (and the view), not the ambiance. Look, you may be hesitant to spend the $100 on a restaurant with no reviews and seemingly no way to make a reservation. And I wouldn't blame you. But this is a place that could get a star and Tsuyoshi really loves his craft. Ask him how he even got this place as it's an impressive story. Seriously, this is Japan level quality.

I have been searching for Andrew for a long time since my favorite Yume Sushi in Alameda has closed. Here he is in Half Moon Bay!!! You will be never disappointed by the quality of food and the experience here. Unlike those high end fancy places in SF where you pay more for its atmosphere, interior decor, locations, etc, here you are paying for the quality of the ingredient and the excellence of the chef. The sushi master Andrew is like a walking encyclopedia of sushi, fish, Japanese food culture, etc. We're here for 7:30 session, it was already dark, but I can imagine how beautiful it is sitting against the Marina. So if you like the ocean view, book the 5:00pm session for the sunset. Highly recommend it!!!

I never got to try Yume in Alameda, but then I got the secret tip about Maboroshi from a friend. I would have never thought to go out to Half Moon Bay for sushi. I guess Yume had to close due to some unfortunate non business related circumstances, but chef Tsuyoshi came out to Half Moon Bay for this new venture. The sushi bar is 8 seats on the 2nd floor of this large building with 3 restaurant concepts in it (sushi bar, regular Japanese food, and French food? We were lucky to be the only ones at the sushi bar on a random weeknight, so it was a private dining experience. The chef is knowledgeable and was able to tell us interesting things about the various types of fish we had. Starting with sake, everything was hand picked by the chef. For example, the sparkling sake is fermented naturally and not just carbonated sake. We had two half bottles that he recommended, and prices were very reasonable $16.50 19.50 for 300 350 ml bottles. Sushi: 1. Maguro: big eye tuna from the Marshall Islands beautiful color 2. Albacore belly: from British Columbia, with soy marinated garlic and scallions 3. Mature yellow tail: buri a rare find in the US! Straight from Japan. It was more buttery and tender than regular hamachi 4. Hotate: from Hokkaido, marinated in kelp, with a squeeze of lemon the scallops were super sweet 5. Scottish salmon: torched, topped with, lemon juice, scallion, and spicy daikon. I don't usually like salmon, but the torched flavor with everything else went well 6. Amber jack 7. Black Sea bream: torched, with a Japanese yuzu/citrus powder and scallion 8. Canadian spot prawn: I usually find ama ebi too slimy, but this spot prawn was very fresh and sweet. That said, I'm just not a big fan of raw ebi. 9. Shima aji: from Japan, topped with scallion 10. Uni: from Hokkaido; served with nori 11. Katsuo: lightly cured, topped with soy marinated garlic, shredded shiso, ginger, and a ponzu vinaigrette this was like a flavor bomb 12. Otoro: torched toro belly from Spain very buttery, melts in your mouth The katsuo and albacore belly were my favorite pieces. It was also cool to try buri, since it's not a common fish in the US. It was $90 for 12 pieces, but each of the pieces was like 2.5x the size you get at most places in SF, so if left us quite full. We did do an extra add on a Saba that wasn't on the menu. Shockingly, the a la carte was only around $5 a piece, which is a steal compared to other sushi places. Dining with chef Tsuyoshi was educational and fun. The sushi itself was generous in portion size and was fresh. It wasn't quite as refined as some of the omakase places in SF, but it was a great value and was still a good sushi experience in an unconventional space, without having to go to SF. Currently, reservations are via Facebook messenger with the chef. Definitely make a reservation.

I've bookmarked Yume in Alameda for a while but never got a chance to go and heard that they closed. I found this place from the old Yume Yelp and I'm so glad I tried it out. This place is located inside of the Impressions restaurant, 2nd floor. I made reservation through their Facebook page. Plenty of parking and the view is gorgeous! Usually when you do omakase, they will serve you with some soups and light appetizer plus dessert. Here, it's strictly nigiri. You get 12pcs of nigiri for $90 and you can order extra supplements if you'd like. The nigiri is pretty big so we were full after the 12 pcs and only ordered extra toro. Love all the fish we tried and love all the background story about where the fish is from and some history on why he opened this place. I wish they give some dessert in the end, but other than that, we're satisfied with our meal!