When I reviewed Umai at the end of March, I gave it two stars, based mainly on the fact that service was amateurish and erratic, that it took eons to get dishes out of the small, open 
kitchen and that much about the French-Japanese fusion restaurant seemed provisional. The food, however, was close to excellent.
Last night's meal proved that service is much better -- well-known waiter Patrick McNamara, formerly of Wally Joe, now presides at Umai -- the food still takes a while to get to the table but not hours, and the food itself is better than ever. In fact, throughout our dinner, there wasn't a single misstep. Presentations are artful, beautifully detailed, without being precious or pretentious; flavors are married in series of often playful comparisons and contrasts, the primary emphasis being on purity and intensity. Sushi and sashimi are now available at Umai, but we stuck with the regular menu.
Dinner began with a tasty tuna salad-kimchi amuse-bouche and continued with appetizers of black mussels and the fish Grenobloise. The mussels are flash roasted and then steamed in and served in a kimchi-miso broth and accompanied by thin triangles of toasted bread. This is a great mussels preparations. The mussels are good size and deeply flavorful, as is the broth, which brings an earthy exotic flavor. The Grenobloise is an unusual dish for a restaurant that employs so many Japanese themes and ingredients; this preparation is pure French bistro, two small filets of (in this case) flounder, crusted with panko crumbs and perfecty fried, served on dense, glossy mashed potatoes with a caper-butter sauce.
LL ordered the roasted hijiki seaweed salad, a dish of striking intensity and power. As you can see in the photograph above (which she took), the salad is also beautiful to look at, flecked with sesame seeds, topped with thin lemon slices and adorned with a hem of English peas. I had the <img src='http://www.whiningdining.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/umai3.jpg' alt='ginger-sweet potato soup'
soup du jour, a generous portion of ginger and sweet potato soup (no cream) with exquisite balance between the ginger and the sweet potato. (That's the other image, which I took.)
Since we were drinking red wine (the Hewitson "Miss Harry" 2005), we chose red meat entrees. LL had the "Drunken Duck," slices of medium rare duck breast that had been marinated for 48 hours and then seared. These are served on a bed of creamed potatoes with steamed choi sum (in the bok choi family) and the dark mahogany "drunken duck" sauce. I'll unlimber the word "intensity" again at this moment to say that the duck is one of the most emphatically rich, deeply flavorful and intense dishes, I mean sublimely delicious, I have ever encountered, and we made little inroad, though we took home what we couldn't eat.
Almost that intense is the sirloin strip encrusted with guajillo (a chile pepper common to Mexico) and chickory coffee, grilled to the requested medium rare -- actual medium rare -- and served with a tasty and exotic "sour" fried rice and a Japanese curry veal au jus. Lord have mercy! We took a lot of that home too.
McNamara convinced us to try one dessert, the "homemade pie du jour," last night being an apple and apricot tart that was almost more savory than sweet.
When people talk about bargain dining, Umai should be at the top of the list. Appetizers are $7 to $13, entrees are $17 to $20. The short but well-chosen wine list is equally cost-conscious, the white wines ranging from $20 to $29, the reds from $16 to $35.
The restaurant still feels a bit provisional in furnishings and comfort-level -- it's cold in fall and winter -- but service is thoughtfully Old School and the food, as I think I've indicated here, is superb.
Umai is at 2015 Madison. It's open for lunch Wednesday through Friday, dinner Wednesday through Saturday and for Sunday brunch. Call 405-4241.
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