Nothing says romance like a trip-for-two to a faraway place — the flavors of an authentic cuisine punctuating each memory. If that’s not in the cards this season-of-love, consider the next best thing: A seat in Alexandria’s most destination-worthy dining room.
Photo by Whitney Pipkin
A Night Out at Nasime
The highlight of the meal on a wintry night is a steaming hot pot, teeming with noodles, assorted mushrooms and mussels.
Photo by Whitney Pipkin
Sashimi at Nasime in Alexandria
A tidy dish of assorted sashimi — complete with tiny leaves of purple-hued kale and shiso — awakens the palate before the richer courses to follow.
Photo by Whitney Pipkin
Entrance to Nasime
Winter’s slower dining season makes it a little easier to snag a spot in this 20-seat sliver of a restaurant tucked behind a nondescript door on King Street.
Nasime opened in 2017 to a flurry of positive press for its true-to-form tributes to Japanese cuisine and has been garnering steady praise ever since. Winter’s slower dining season makes it a little easier to snag a spot in this 20-seat sliver of a restaurant tucked behind a nondescript door and a black curtain on King Street — but don’t wait too long to make reservations.
The eatery’s five-course tasting menu changes nightly and walks through a dizzying array of Japanese dishes for just $48. Chef and owner Yuh Shimomura aims to serve upscale Japanese cuisine at a casual price point in an interior that feels something like an intimate spa.
The restaurant’s only other employee (besides a dishwasher), Vara Wachrathit, takes reservations via email, manages the dining room and cheerfully serves each table, making Japanophiles and sushi virgins alike feel at home with an ever-changing menu.
A recent dinner started with Chilean sea bass and a matsutake mushroom agedashi, a marriage of fermentation and funk that’s a fitting preview to the flavorful meal ahead.
A tidy dish of assorted sashimi — complete with tiny leaves of purple-hued kale and shiso — awakens the palate before the richer courses to follow.
Charbroiled duck breast is served “hooba-yaki” style on a bed of unctuous miso sauce and a hooba leaf. It takes sheer willpower not to eschew the chopsticks, with which I am feverishly shoveling miso into my mouth, in favor of licking the leaf dry.
But the highlight of the meal on a wintry night is a steaming hot pot teeming with noodles, assorted mushrooms and mussels. It arrives bubbling, with warnings from our hostess about its temperature and instructions for the best approach to eating it (spoon into bowl, wait a bit).
My dining companion and I chopstick and spoon and slurp, losing any sense of compunction as the miso-saturated steam fogs our glasses and thoroughly thaws us from the cold. It is as filling as it is delicious, chasing away any thoughts that the “tasting menu” might leave us hungry, as many others have.
That sense of satiety doesn’t stop me from slurping every last drop of the broth, and wondering if I could replicate it at home.
And then I remember the under-$50 price point for this departure from reality. Is a week later too soon for a return flight?
NasimeRestaurant.com; 1209 King Street; open Tuesday through Sunday.
