Sabi Omakase

Sabi Omakase is a small sushi counter in the Edo style on Pedersgata in Stavanger, Norway, and it holds a Michelin star. It was the first sushi restaurant in Norway to receive one.

Sushi chef Roger Asakil Joya, who comes from the Philippines, opened it in 2015 with co-owners Njål Solland and Ask Bringeland. The project grew out of Sabi, a chain of sushi takeaways whose first shop stood on the same street. Joya first learned sushi in the Western style and then trained formally in Japan in the old Edo tradition, and he is accredited by the All Japan Sushi Association. The star followed in 2017, and Vinforum also named it Norway's restaurant of the year. Joya calls his style Nor-Mae: faithful to Japanese tradition, with a Nordic twist.

The building is clad in wood panels outside and in, and inside there is room for about ten guests around a single counter. Dinner is a set omakase of 18 courses. Most of the produce is Norwegian and locally caught, and Joya buys whole tuna and breaks them down himself. Fresh wasabi root from England is grated on a Japanese sharkskin grater. With so few seats and one chef at the board, each piece reaches the guest seconds after it is made.

Courses have included a clear soup with cockles, sea belt kelp and finger lime, the lime brought in from abroad. Squid comes seasoned with Himalayan sea salt and sudachi citrus, and unagi eel is finished with a glaze of umami caramel. In earlier years the sommelier greeted guests with yuzu sake. Using cold Norwegian waters as the larder for a Tokyo technique gives the fish a character of its own, so the sushi tastes of its place no less than of its school.