Every week, Delage receives a “mystery box” filled with different fish delivered from Japan. Working diligently behind the front counter, sushi chef Jeremias Jimenez holds up a recent arrival. Seen up close, the black skin on a spotted knifejaw, or ishigakidai, is as beautifully patterned as a leopard’s. Jimenez sets the fish back down on the counter before slicing into another fish to craft the next roll. He wields the instruments of his trade confidently, the way a jeweler does. Both professions display the makers’ talents for adornments in miniature.
Chef Jimenez plates each elegant dish with the right amount of precision. A seaweed salad is made up of green and purple and white swirls of vegetal matter. A single geranium petal rests on top. In another person’s hands, that flash of orange could seem unnecessary, merely a decorative flourish. But at Delage, the petal looks like it’s been torn from the bud, still rough around the edges. The salad is slightly unkempt, imperfect and therefore approachable.
Jimenez is a longtime employee of Kyle Itani, the chef and restaurateur behind Yonsei Handrolls, Itani Ramen and Hopscotch Chicken. As the owner of several businesses, Itani now spends less time in the kitchen and more time as an administrator. He’s entrusting his kitchens to chefs like Jimenez, chefs with whom he’s built trusted relationships. When Itani talks about Jimenez’s talents, he sounds like an older brother who’s brimming with pride. He felt that Delage would provide Jimenez with an opportunity that was equal to his level of expertise.
Earlier this year, Chikara Ono, Delage’s founder, announced that he would hand his 10-year-old restaurant over to Itani, who said that, going forward, Ono’s particular vision for the omakase wouldn’t change. But he will also be reviving one of Delage’s original operational approaches. After several years of dinner-only service, Delage is, once again, open for lunch. Itani said he will also be launching a to-go program in the coming months.
Three lunch sets are now available as well as an à la carte sushi menu. All of the sets include the aforementioned seaweed salad and miso soup. The sublimest of soups contains those familiar squares of tofu and, less familiar, brown shimeji mushrooms cast adrift in the broth. The nigiri set ($34) includes seven pieces of sushi and sake hosomaki; the sashimi set ($29) is an eight-piece combo; and the maki set ($27) comes with tekka maki and spicy sake maki.
The variety of fish flesh on display in those sets conjures up a rainbow of the sea. Tuna, salmon, yellowtail, trout, amberjack, snapper, eel, char and sea bream. All of them glistening beneath the overhead lights. Jimenez and his sous-chef, Jairon, finish the sets with flowers, roe and caviar, or herbs. The portions are large enough to satisfy, if not a shark’s greedy appetite, then a homo sapien’s hungry belly.
Delage is located in Oakland’s Swan’s Market building but with its own quieter space adjacent to the food court. Entering the restaurant evokes the feeling of being inside a temple dedicated to restraint and minimalism. That might sound joyless but, in fact, it’s liberating to be in an oasis that doesn’t embrace excess. Stimulation is served up in an instrumental-only jazz soundtrack kept down low at a reasonable volume. Close proximity to fellow diners is unavoidable. It’s impossible not to overhear nearby conversations and a welcome chance to practice the ancient art of eavesdropping.
Before the meal even begins, diners are provided with a packaged towel wipe. And to further the cause of cleanliness, there’s also a towel tablet that could easily be mistaken for an edible capsule. Some hungry patrons will be tempted to eat it. Don’t. The servers will soon be by to pour water on it. Afterwards, the towel expands like an anemone on the prowl, unmoored from its rocky anchor.
Despite being an epicenter of all things pescatarian, the vegetarian options are plentiful. There’s a citrus salad ($14) and a healthy serving of sesame green beans ($10) polka-dotted with sesame seeds and drenched in a tart and tangy miso sesame dressing. The vegetarian nigiri option is inari, those golden tofu pouches stuffed with seasoned rice ($6 for two pieces). Under maki ($8 per roll), there’s either kanpyo, a sweet simmered gourd, or ume shiso, Japanese plum and shiso leaves—the more brightly flavored of the two.
The dessert course was a splendid surprise. The kitchen flooded a perfectly creamy panna cotta with diced strawberries and their sweet red syrupy jus. Our spoons quickly collided with the bottom of the ramekin. And a mango and pineapple sorbet tasted like the discovery of a new tropical flavor that still managed to pay homage to both ingredients. Topping it with candied almonds was a genius move. We ended that meal with such a satisfying crunch.
Delage, 536 9th St., Oakland, open Mon to Sat, lunch 11am–3pm and dinner 5–9pm; delagesushi.com.
