Delage.

Delage

Masa Sasaki brushes the soy onto each piece of nigiri before it leaves his hands, at a twenty-seat counter beside Swan's Market.

Why go

Chikara Ono runs B-Dama next door and opened this on 7 June with Masa Sasaki, who had earned a Michelin star at Maruya in San Francisco.1 The star is Sasaki's and it belongs to that other restaurant. The format is omakase, roughly eight courses, and the kitchen works the seasons: Kim Westerman opened her meal on Maglia Rosa tomatoes with halved Bing cherries and an ume-shiso pesto.1 Then a flat sheet of Himalayan salt on a wooden platter carrying raw salmon and seared Miyazaki wagyu together.1 Four pieces of nigiri follow, each cut to one bite, unadorned, the soy already measured onto the fish by Sasaki.1 Read that account as history. It is from the opening season and nothing current describes the menu. The fish still comes from Japan, New Zealand and American waters on the landlord's own listing.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: the omakase. It is the only thing served, and the price Westerman paid, $65, is from the opening season and is not today's.1
• Order: the smoked baby corn if it comes round, with togarashi aioli, a fried quail egg and cotija, corn silk left on and edible.1
• Avoid: walking in. Twenty seats, eight at the bar.1

What locals & experts say

• Kim Westerman, KQED Bay Area Bites, on the fourth course: The fourth course was a delightful soup, surprising in its depth of intensity, and certainly one of our favorite dishes of the night. Furofuki daikon, minced chicken, enoki and carrots in an ankake sauce.1
• Westerman on the oddest plate of her meal: the smoked baby corn was the strangest dish of the night, and a big success.1

Good to know

• Where it is: beside Swan's Market in Old Oakland, and the market lists it on its own tenant directory.2

Verdict

could-visit — Twenty seats, eight at the bar, and a chef who brushes the soy on the nigiri before it leaves his hands so nobody drowns it. Chikara Ono built it next to his own B-Dama and brought in Masa Sasaki, who had won a star at Maruya across the water. The problem is the record: the only detailed account of a meal here is from the opening season, so the courses and the price here are history, not a plan you can book on. Held at could-visit until somebody with a byline eats here again.