Robin

Robin is an omakase place with a choose-your-price gimmick that ranges from $120 to $220 per person, incrementing by $10 as you see fit. We went with something in the middle. It was a good quantity of food. We paired it with a shared sake tasting, which was fun. The fish quality is obviously high, and many of the bites were delicious, but I left feeling like I wouldn't go back unless I was on a corporate card.

The meal was a mixed bag of hits and misses. There was one plate in particular that was 3 hits, no misses — perfectly executed. But then there were plates that went one or two for three, and a few dishes where Robin seemed to be trying too hard. Two dishes stood out as overreach failures: a raw scallop dish with citrus that included almonds that were heavy and almost chewy, completely detracting from the texture. Just give me simple scallop and citrus — it's always excellent. Another dish had nice elements like fried shallots and a good cut of fish, but then threw in pistachios that suffered from the same unnecessary, texture-ruining fate.

The highlights were actually the simplest preparations. An extremely simple plate of rainbow trout with a kumquat jam topping was delicious. A slightly torched king salmon and lean cut of tuna with black garlic sauce were tasty. But when you spend over $300 just on the sushi elements for two people and don't leave thinking 'this is a meal to remember,' that's a problem. At the end of the day, omakase is really about having really good fish. That doesn't only happen at $150 to $200 per person settings. Sometimes you get really good fish at simple places for a third the price, for example, at AJI KIJI. I've had omakase places that have wowed me. Robin wasn't one of them.