A catwalk of sorts from the front door to the hostess station is its own amusement – more distracting than the Jackie Chan movie projected on the wall. The blonde hostess, dressed in a low-cut strapless dress, smiles and studies the seating options. Behind her, co-owner Omar Shaikh looks on. This man is the perpetual watcher, his face defined by trademark dark eyeglass frames.
As at Carnevor, the steakhouse Shaikh owns a few doors away on Milwaukee Street, Umami Moto is a scene. Chicago designer Rocco Laudizio expunged his own dramatic blood-red design from the space, which formerly housed the nightclub Eve. Umami’s clean, minimalist look is spa-like in its use of tiny, green square tiles and pillars crusted with small stones. The horizontal lines and stark black-and-white place settings are appealingly austere.
Through his signature spectacles, Shaikh sees well beyond the stylishly dressed clientele coursing through the door. He and partners Tom Wackman and Michael Polaski (who opened the Brookfield Umami Moto, with a different menu, earlier this year) have pooled their resources to cement the culinary identity of Milwaukee Street – to build a “Restaurant Row” – which is why club Tangerine (which Wackman opened in 2004) ended its run, to be replaced by the nuevo-Latin Charro Restaurant. It’s gutsy in this economy, but perhaps it’s also what we need – a continued evolution that shows optimism about the future.
Shaikh found chef Dominic Zumpano through a mutual friend. At the time, the 31-year-old Chicago native was employed at the restaurant of a spa/resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., and under the tutelage of an executive chef who competed on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America.” That chef pushed Zumpano to strike out on his own.
Zumpano balances his culinary exuberance with the need “to get Milwaukeeans to trust me,” he says. So the modern fusion menu isn’t too out there. Some of the better dishes are comfort food. Overall, it’s a good menu.
There’s little doubt what Shaikh considers the menu’s trademarks, and the servers will steer you to them. One is Zumpano’s lobster chowder ($9), which is both a creamy bisque and a chunky chowder. Serving it is a two-handed job, requiring one to place before you the curved white bistro bowl containing the shredded lobster meat, corn kernels, chopped potato and snow peas; and the other hand to pour the thick, smooth soup into the bowl. My only complaint is that the soup was tepid.
Lettuce wraps aren’t unexplored terrain, but the beef version at Umami has a pleasantly piquant-sweet quality that relieves it of the usual heavy-handed saltiness. The beautifully tender beef strips blend well with vinegary cucumber and fresh mango inside crisp lettuce leaves ($9).
The Kobe sliders are insanely good. Three glistening, buttery mini buns cup the rich beef patties (medium-rare preferred), which could, but don’t, stop there. Creamy Taleggio cheese and crisp slices of sweet Nueske’s bacon contribute to the gluttony ($13). Although the burgers aren’t Asian, they turn my thoughts to the “umami” name – a Japanese term referring to the so-called fifth element of taste. After sweet, sour, salty and bitter, that would be savory or brothy/meaty.
The Asian influence on the menu is most obviously apparent in the sushi and sashimi dishes – a couple of maki (sushi rolls), a take on shabu-shabu (a Japanese dish where raw beef is cooked at the table in hot broth), and a flawless sashimi special of buttery tuna drizzled with truffle oil and cracked pepper and served with pungent sea beans and truffle potato chips ($11).
In terms of entrées, while the seared, tomato jam-topped diver scallops with lobster salad and cauliflower puree overpowers with its complexity ($21), the ahi tuna delivers an even, nuanced hit. The mellow potato-dashi broth (dashi is a Japanese stock made from bonito flakes) unabashedly plays second fiddle to the fish, at its best seared medium rare ($27).
Both the pork tenderloin with sour cherry reduction, spiced apples and watercress ($21), and the beef short ribs cooked long and slow ($19) – and tantalizingly, with Chinese char siu seasonings (such as five-spice powder) – have a nurturing effect on the psyche. It’s the same feeling I expect to get from the prime filet with tempura onion rings and wispy-layered potatoes gratinée. But while the steak was tender and cooked to the desired medium-rare, the beef-sake sauce was just too strong to complement the meat ($27).
Umami is the sort of place to invite whimsy into its dessert menu. Plain old crème brûlée? Get real. It’s the playfulness that draws me to the donuts dipped in sugar and arranged seductively on lemon curd and blueberry sauce ($8). The single improvement I’d make on this is to serve the donuts warm. The apple pie soufflé is like spicy fruit in a cloud – an ethereal dessert served with dense streusel ice cream ($12).
There’s a lot to respect in Shaikh and his colleagues’ mission to create a dining microcosm on Milwaukee Street. Umami has the style this group excels at and, generally, a well-executed menu.
Umami Moto, 718 N. Milwaukee St., 414-727-9333. Hours: L Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; D Mon-Wed 5-10 p.m.; Thurs 5-11 p.m.; Fri-Sat 5 p.m.-midnight. Prices: appetizers $7-$13; sushi and sashimi $8-$12; salads $6-$9; entrées $12-$27; desserts $8-$12. Service: young, attractive, well-trained. Handicap access: Contact the manager. Smoke-free. Credit cards: M V A DS. Reservations: recommended.
