During a barbecue this summer – grilled tuna and beer – we met a nice couple, punk music fans. We get along talking about our favorite topic: cuisine and restaurants. At the end of the night, they asked us if we wanted to join us in September for their monthly night in a famous restaurant of Boston: O-Ya.
O-Ya and the chef Tim A Tuesday night, at 6.30, we met in a small street close to the Financial District and Chinatown, in front of a firemen station. We couldn’t really see the place from the outside, we had to come in from a hidden side. The place was pretty cosy, in a slightly Japanese style – but not too much; the music wasn’t too loud, everything felt very friendly. Good. The Chef, Tim Cushman, is from Boston. His story is a new demonstration of the American Dream: at first he was a musician, then he started working as a prep in a LA restaurant. He loved cooking and began to travel in Thailand, Mexico, Italy, Japan to search for his own style. Back in Boston, he knew what he wanted to do: “Californian-Japanese” and opened O-Ya. Soon after, a famous critic came to eat there, loved it and wrote a great article to promote it. Tim stayed cool anyway: there are still 10 tables on his restaurant, a bar, some regular consumers – like our friends who know well Tim now and assured us that eating here is still as good as it was on the first day. Because we are with friends of the chef, we had some sushis on the house…
And how is the food? We listened to the recommendations of our friends, we ordered sushis from the simple to the more complex ones. We started with a shiitake sushi. We thought we knew the taste of this mushroom but it was way better than ever, thanks to a slight sauce, an herb, a spice. Plates kept coming and each time it was a true delight – even if the experience is short, only one intense bite!
Original association: potato and truffle.
This piece of cod seems to be very simple, but it’s not: it was perfectly cooked and it melted in the mouth. The flesh is exquisite.
A salmon sashimi slightly steamed. A success…
We drank White Ale – next time we’ll trust Nancy, the sake sommelie
Try it! We hated to Oishii a few weeks ago – a so-called trendy Japanese restaurant in South End, we loved O-Ya – which doesn’t pretend, nothing annoyingly sophisticated. Everything is accurate and simply good. Don’t be surprised by the check, each pair of sushis cost between 12 and 20 $. If you come to Boston, book a table now at O-Ya.
