Nagaya
Nagaya at-a-glance
+Unique cuisine that seamlessly merges Japanese foods focus on purity of flavors and European style composed plates
-One or two uneven courses detracted from the overall experience
-More expensive than similar caliber restaurants in Germany
Verdict: Nagaya was an impressive meal. A few technical flaws aside, the food was very good and quite unique compared to most other Michelin stars in Germany, much less Dusseldorf. I am not sure I would run back, but that is more due to the price point than any problem with the experience. In addition to Nagaya, the same team runs Yoshi by Nagaya, a slightly cheaper restaurant (€118 omakase / €64 lunch menu) which also has a Michelin star. Given the quality of the food at Nagaya, I would be interested in trying it out to see if it achieves a similar level of excellence at a more wallet-friendly price.
Overall: 88.5/100
Cost: €89 for 6 course lunch / €198 for dinner tasting menu
Value: 12/20
Nagaya Background
Nagaya, run by head chef Yoshizumi Nagaya and his wife, is a one Michelin star Japanese restaurant in Düsseldorf, Germany. Prior to opening his eponymous restaurant in 2003, Yoshizumi worked in the kitchens of both Toshiro Kandagawa, known for his strict adherence to traditional Japanese techniques, and Takada Hasho who is known to feature a more progressive approach to Kaeski food. Nagaya’s food embraces this varied training, featuring very distinct Japanese flavors while providing composed plates that have a little more flair than minimalist rigidity you might find at a traditional kaiseki restaurant.
For dinner, Nagaya offers a long (€189) and short (€149) omakase, as well as an a la carte menu although it seems unlikely ordering a la carte will result in the meal being any cheaper unless you aim to leave the restaurant hungry. We were there for lunch where they offer a cheaper 6 course omakase for €89 which was a reasonable value but by no means cheap, especially if you compare it to the price of other one (or even two-star) restaurants in Germany.
What we ate at Nagaya
The meal started off with a small little greeting from the kitchen consisting of a Monkfish tartlet, green apple, celery puree. The tartlet could have been a little crisper but this was a nice way to start the meal with the apple adding some nice crisp brightness and waking up the taste buds.
This amuse was followed by the first proper course, king crab with grape blossom stem, shaved egg yolk and yuzu. A beautiful, light dish that highlighted the natural taste of the crab with well balanced and harmonious flavours. The sauce had a nice subtle use of wasabi, just enough to leave a bit of heat on the palate without dominating the dish. A good start from Yoshizumi Nagaya and the team in the kitchen.
The next course consisted of an Argentinian prawn wrapped in kataifi, deep-fried and served with vinegar cucumber, spicy lemon sauce, and some small blobs of avocado. The most striking part of this dish was the texture of the prawn which had the kind of crunch that made you do a double-take and wonder why all fried food was not this crispy. The downside of all that crunch was to achieve it, the shrimp had quite a thick coating which made it a bit dry. Luckily, the kitchen seemed to be aware of this as the spicy lemon and avocado provided a nice counterbalance to the shrimp. Happily, the kitchen was able to achieve this crunch without overcooking the shrimp - the prawn inside the shell had none of the rubberiness you get at your typical fried shrimp shop.
The description and plating of the next dish, lightly torched cod with a rich lobster caviar sauce, beetroot and fresh herbs, gave us high hopes but it ended up being a bit of a letdown. I usually enjoy cod quite a bit but here it seemed to be mistreated as the texture was a bit firm and chewy to the point of being off-putting. The problems with the fish were amplified by this being a pretty clean dish without much going on other than the fish and the sauce - there were beetroot and herbs but they did not add much beyond adding some color to the presentation. Thankfully while the fish part of the dish came up short, the sauce did not - the lobster caviar sauce was every bit good as the texture of the fish was bad. Indulgent and luxurious, it was more or less a lobster bisque with a helping of caviar. Had the fish been better prepared, this would have been a fine dish.
The sushi course was elaborately presented with a flourish of smoke coming from the dish but featured a rather unassuming selection of Salmon, Seabream, Tuna and Hamachi. The rice had extremely good texture but personally, I prefer more heavily vinegared shari. All of the fish was of excellent quality and featured nice knife work to be well proportioned with the rice but I would have preferred more adventurous pieces. Overall, while it is hard to fault the sushi, they failed to really elicit the same joy I had when eating sushi in Japan or even some of the better places in Boston. Given the high prices at Nagaya (most nigiri are €10+ per piece), that really should not be the case but that is more a quibble on the value than the quality of the sushi.
The main course was argentian beef with a wasabi mustard sauce. This was an excellent example of smart sourcing, the argentian beef having excellent marbling and delivering 80% of the flavor of Japanese wagyu for likely 25% of the cost. The accompanying sauce was the second time in the meal that Nagaya proved very adept at using wasabi, again providing a subtle heat and nicely balancing out the rich beef. While we were eating the “cheap” lunch menu this was a main course that would feel at home on the dinner menu of just about any restaurant. This was followed by a black sesame dessert that I sadly missed in my notes.
