Two years ago, chef-owner John Hong earned a Michelin recommendation for his Convoy District restaurant Hidden Fish, which was San Diego’s first timed omakase-only restaurant when it opened in 2018.
So named because it’s tucked behind a taco shop on Convoy Street, Hidden Fish Omakase Sushi Bar serves an 18-piece nigiri-only menu to just 12 guests in a precise 90 minutes for $135 — a feat of balletic sushi chef-ery that earned the restaurant a rave review in the New York Times in 2019.
Then came COVID-19, and Hong spent his pandemic downtime musing on opening a second restaurant — one that would serve the kind of food he likes to eat in the fun and casual atmosphere he prefers. The result is Hitokuchi, which means “one sip, one bite” in Japanese. All of the elements that make up the flavor sensation of umami (savoriness) can be found in a single bite of everything on the restaurant’s menu.
Chef-owner John Hong in his restaurant Hitokuchi on Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa.
(Courtesy of Arlene Ibarra)
Open since January right next door to Hidden Fish, Hitokuchi is a sake lounge that serves a tapas-style menu of dishes that are Japanese, but with influences of other cuisines that Hong has absorbed from his own Korean heritage and his 19-year culinary career.
Where Hidden Fish is brightly lit, with a chalkboard fresh fish menu, concrete floor and lightly polished pine wood décor, Hitokuchi is sleek and mood-lit, with black tables, slate-gray floors and walls and pleasant club music playing in the background. Diners in the 42-seat Hitokuchi can choose to sit at four-top tables or at a sushi bar facing the kitchen.
Hitokuchi’s regular menu is a la carte with all dishes designed to be served as shareable plates. And beginning Oct. 7, Hong will also introduce a 150-minute, timed omakase (chef’s choice) meal for $260 that will be served to 10 guests only on the first weekend of every month.
Compared to the all-raw seafood menu at Hidden Fish, Hitokuchi mixes things up with both raw and hot bites, as well as a selection of “toasts,” which are tartares, poke and cooked and chilled seafood served on crispy toast squares. Seventy percent of the menu ingredients come from Japan, either from Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market or Japan’s certified A5 Wagyu beef farms. California-grown produce is also celebrated in the garnish and accents on the dishes.
Sea urchin with salmon and flying fish roe, sturgeon caviar and micro greens at Hitokuchi restaurant on Convoy Street.
(Courtesy of Arlene Ibarra)
Hong found his calling at age 17 working in the kitchen at an L.A. sushi restaurant. Later, he trained under sushi master Yukio Sakai and landed his first head sushi chef position at age 21 at Yamato Restaurant in Westwood. For a year he owned his own L.A.-based food truck, Bap Pul, which served Asian street food. He moved to San Diego in 2012 to join the sushi team at Bang Bang in the Gaslamp Quarter, where he was promoted to head chef a year later. Then, after a year at Sushi Ota in Pacific Beach, he opened Hidden Fish in September 2018.
Longtime followers of Hong’s career in San Diego will recognize a few dishes from his culinary past on the Hitokuchi menu, like the uni caviar with soy-marinated salmon and flying fish roe or the popular creamy lobster basil dish, which he created at Bang Bang.
A selection of dishes from the menu of Hitokuchi on Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa.
(Courtesy of Arlene Ibarra)
Hong said he enjoys working in the kitchen at Hitokuchi, making sure each plate that goes out follows the promise of umami in every bite. Although it’s a tapas-style menu, he likes to create a progression for diners’ meals so they begin with lighter raw dishes and finish up with the hot and heavier dishes for a full meal experience.
One of his favorite starters is the raw dish scallops on the half-shell, with yuzu onion, ponzu pearls, wasabi crème fraiche and micro cilantro, which he says best encapsulates his idea of the perfect umami bite.
Another is the showpiece steak tartare, where all of the elements of the dish — raw steak, quail egg yolk, pickled scallion, shallots, fresh garlic and grated pear — arrive in a wood bowl that’s topped table-side by a pour-over of honey-soy sauce, then stirred together by the server. Diners can then create their own toasts with toasted bread and spoonfuls of warm marrow from a side dish of roasted beef bones.
Elements to be assembled tableside for the steak tartare dish at Hitokuchi restaurant on Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa.
(Courtesy of Arlene Ibarra)
Hong also loves the gently cooked miso-sake Chilean seabass, served with butter-dashi spinach, pickled tomatoes and soy-fish sauce. And the certified A5 Wagyu beef, a luxury dish with a $100+ price tag, was most recently served with pureed potatoes, garlic green beans and a Korean galbi sauce.
Hitokuchi offers 10 varieties of sake (Japanese rice wine) that run the full range from sweet to dry in flavor and were hand-selected by Hong to pair best with the dishes on the menu. There’s also Sapporo beer on draft, served in a patented dispenser that Hong said guarantees the perfect pour and head of foam.
While he enjoys the freedom from rigidity of his Asian-influenced a la carte Hitokuchi menu, Hong said it has taken some time to educate first-time diners who come in expecting miso soup and sushi. He hopes the new omakase meal service will appeal to people who prefer a planned, coursed-out menu.
The 18-course omakase dinner service kicks off Oct. 7-8 at the 10-seat sushi bar in Hitokuchi. It will be presented the first weekend of every month. The first weekend is already sold out, with more than 100 people on the waiting list. November reservations have yet to open.
“This 150-minute format is something I used to experiment with at Hidden Fish for the regulars,” Hong said. “I’m excited to reintroduce and elevate this idea at Hitokuchi with new ingredients and preparations.”
The omakase menu will change every month, but some of the autumn specialties are abalone with liver sauce, aged bluefin tuna, toro tartare toast with sturgeon caviar and more. Courses will include nigiri and one-bite plates of dishes like spiny lobster, soy-braised shiitake mushrooms and sea bream carpaccio.
“I’m here to make people happy with my food,” said Hong. “Foodgasms and umami are all I care about for my clientele.”
Hitokuchi
Hours: 5 to 11:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays
Where: 4764 Convoy St., Suite B, San Diego
Phone: (858) 371-9584
Online: hitokuchisd.com
A table at Hitokuchi restaurant on Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa.
(Courtesy of Arlene Ibarra)