Tucked away on Bangs Avenue is the new Asbury Park Japanese hotspot, Hadaka. This little space offers big flavors with its sole dining option, the Omakase experience, meaning you eat what the chef gives you, and hope you like it. Thankfully that’s not a hard task here.
I always promise you my truthful opinion, and while I know many of you love a BYOB, I have to say I do not. I always feel slightly deflated when I find out a restaurant is BYOB. It puts the pressure on me to figure out what I’m going to drink before I even know what I’m going to eat, and for someone who loves wine and gets into it, that’s a task that I don’t want to handle outside of the restaurant.
Plus, I always like to try new wines when I go out and I like to see what the restaurant has decided to put on their menu. This gives me a glimpse into their taste and knowledge about wines. Also, I love having a little cocktail before dinner, which eliminates that option. However, I have found through my travels that Sushi restaurants tend not to have a great selection of wines overall so I figured choosing my own could be a benefit for this experience.
On our way out to dinner, we picked up a Bollinger Rose at my go-to “Total Wine” in Wall, but I was concerned because not a lot of places cool down champagne properly and this one definitely needed a good icing. My husband dropped me off because parking is always tricky in Asbury, and when I walked in, I was a little disappointed at the atmosphere.
I wasn’t feeling a vibe when I walked in. I felt overdressed and the room appeared quickly put together. The lighting was a little bright for my taste, and the furniture had a sort of economic vibe. I had to ask several times before an ice bucket was produced for the champagne, but I try not to be difficult knowing they are creating an experience and doing it repeatedly at different seatings. Eventually, they came over with the ice bucket, albeit a third full. But those are things that happen at a BYOB and you just have to roll with it.
We were greeted with a shot of room-temperature sake that everyone seemed to enjoy. The mood immediately brightened when the three chefs for the ten of us took center stage behind the counter, introducing themselves and welcoming us. Their energy was fantastic. We had Carmen as our chef, he was absolutely amazing, talented, and charismatic. The vibe in the room instantly changed, and it became an exciting night out.
The first few bites were simple, a little under-seasoned for my taste, but super fresh. All of the seafood at Hadaka is imported from Japan via Yama Seafood. The sushi rice also had a delicate flavor, a secret Carmen assured me he would tell me at a future event. The rhythm of the Omakase experience was created with a beat of alternating light and heavy bites and it worked. We had kama toro, branzino, king salmon from New Zealand, and then the flavors started popping with the Amberjack with oyster mushroom and white pepper albacore tuna hand rolled and handed to each of us by Chef Carmen.
That was the pop of flavor I was waiting for. Then came Carmen’s favorite bite, the delicate scallop with lemon and golden osteria caviar and that one drew me in. It was amazing. It was followed by a delicious prawn from British Columbia with uni, it was a burst of fresh seafood and so much flavor! This was the crescendo I was waiting for. It was then that I started to get excited about this place that had started off relatively mild, and maybe even a little underwhelming, but was now luring me into the Omakase experience with joy.
The apex for me however was the japanese oshinko with quail egg and barbecued eel, it was mind-blowing! With that creative little dish you start by drinking the egg yolk in the open egg shell like a shot. Brilliant. This is what people come for when they think “Omakase”. Rounding out the meal was the sea breen with truffle oil, and smoky spanish mackerel with ponzu, delicately smoked under glass in front of us, always a show stopping presentation. The toro hand roll with Japanese sweet radish or “oshinko”, was delicate and delicious, and the Japanese Shima with shisho pesto was a lovely garlicky bite.
The Threadfin Bream fish was a spicy mouthful with the perfect amount of pickled wasabi on top. You get twelve bites with the Omakase dinner and they rotate some offerings daily, and always change up the additional six bites you can add on to the twelve, based on what they get in fresh that morning. The experience was entertaining and satisfied my love of sushi. I learned about fish like the “night jaw” fish, a very dense bite, though a little chewy for my taste, but interesting nonetheless because after all, if you love sushi, you are a bit adventurous to begin with.
I hadn’t really had Golden Eye snapper either, it was smooth and tasty with a yummy, citrusy dressing. My palate was also intrigued by the monkfish liver Carmen called “ocean fois gras”. It was a super rich bite, the name was appropriate. All in all, I would definitely go back to this restaurant. Carmen was talking about cutting up an entire tuna one night in the future and serving all the different parts of it. I am all for that!
Hadaka, like the omakase experience itself, transformed from what started as a mild and somewhat bland beginning, to an entertaining, delicious experience that delighted my taste buds and definitely had me wanting more. I would recommend this restaurant to all of the adventurous sushi lovers out there.
I give this Restaurant 4.2 stars for the freshness of the seafood, the talent of the chefs, and the innovative bites they served. I also want to add that despite eating all of those unique foods, some of which I hadn’t tried before, I felt great the next day! That’s when you know you’re eating at a quality restaurant. Great experience!
Maria O’Donnell is a food and wine writer at the Jersey Shore and you can follow her @foodwritergirl on Instagram and @CookingwithMaria on Facebook
