From fresh seafood to ripe vegetables, Ono’s seasonal omakase menu celebrates the rich agriculture of Awaji Island. Based on traditional kaiseki techniques, the cuisine is presented like art, bringing together different colors, textures and aromas of the season on beautiful crockery.

The opening dish is a cold appetizer of noresore, a seasonal seawater eel, and red clams. Served in a chilled dashi broth and sprinkled with fresh chives and wild herbs, the light texture is refreshing to the tongue.

Striped beakfish and sea urchin sashimi brings in the rich aroma of the sea. The fish is left to rest for a day for a deeper flavor. Enjoy with a pinch of sun-dried salt or ponzu sauce made from fresh yuzu citrus.

Grilled blowfish milt is paired with the rich flavor of hairy crabs. The creamy milt is grilled until lightly charred and served on a thickened sauce made with soft-shelled turtle soup and crab meat. Bamboo shoot and clam soup is full of umami. Made with clam dashi and Miyako Bijin sake from the island, the flavorful broth warms your stomach.

The strip of Kunugiza wagyu chateaubriand is grilled to perfection over smokey straw. The straw is first fermented to add a fragrant aroma to the meat. The seri water parsley and hirokko chive shoots balance well with the sweet fat. Sea bream rice is carefully cooked in a donabe pot with dried scallop stock. Garnished with wild Japanese leek, the warm, fragrant steam fills the air.

INGREDIENTS
Almost all the ingredients used in Ono’s cuisine is procured daily from Awaji Island from producers the chef knows personally. He says that he is able to obtain the best produce because he is constantly in touch with them. “We know exactly who has caught the freshest sea bream and which farmer grows the tastiest bamboo shoots,” the chef says.

Not limited to fresh produce, Awaji is home to a number of food products and other local items made with high levels of craftsmanship. For condiments, Ono likes to use Senzan soy sauce, which is produced locally. He custom orders sea salt that has been sun dried during full moon and new moon. The Awaji sea water is rich in nigari, a coagulant typically used for making tofu, which he uses as seasoning. The selection of local sake and wines from the island are also superb.