The restaurant’s “about us” web page provides a mild-mannered, simple description of a beachfront restaurant with an “intimate chef’s counter the place you may expertise an revolutionary omakase eating expertise with recent, regionally sourced, and flown-in fish.”
What it doesn’t inform you, nevertheless, is that your miso soup can be served in a beaker, the yellowtail is smoked beneath a lab glass, specialty cuts of fish are torched earlier than your eyes, and uni is topped with caviar and gold flakes.
It’s all a part of the imaginative and prescient by New York City actual property developer Hank Freid and his son Brandon, whose trendy tackle conventional Japanese eating is now serving on the bottom flooring of the 106-room Residence Inn by Marriott Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach.
Brandon tells New Times his household’s Impulsive Group bought the resort property three years in the past, opting to bypass Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County for unexplored territory.
According to Brandon, Pompano Beach offered a promising alternative to develop its holdings — which embody New York City’s Sanctuary Hotel, Haven Rooftop, and the Ameritania Hotel — right into a burgeoning South Florida market.
“Other areas like Miami and Boca Raton felt oversaturated, but when we started looking into the revitalization taking place in Pompano, we immediately knew this was going to be the next hot spot,” says Brandon.
As with its New York City sister ideas, the Florida outpost serves up conventional sashimi and nigiri with a laboratory-themed presentation.
Sushi Lab first opened as an eight-person omakase on the concierge desk within the foyer of the Sanctuary Hotel. The idea rapidly expanded to the constructing’s rooftop, a second location in East Village, and the Chemistry Room at Sushi Lab, a 30-seat offshoot that includes a 15-course tasting menu in Midtown.
Sushi Lab provides an oceanfront view from the bottom flooring of the Residence Inn by Marriott Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach.
Photo courtesy of Sushi Lab
“It’s exploratory sushi — both traditional and nontraditional, with different fish and offerings you wouldn’t find somewhere else,” says Brandon. “How we prepare everything really stands apart from more generic places. We get imaginative in what we do, and how we highlight different flavors — like scientists in a lab.”
As the Residence Inn flagship restaurant, Sushi Lab’s signature $60 omakase would be the fundamental draw. Despite the experimental theme, the choices aren’t all fusion however as an alternative current artistic marrying of advanced flavors from each Japanese and French delicacies. The distinction and presentation are supposed to supply a contact of pleasure.
You’ll want a reservation to expertise Sushi Lab’s entry-level omakase on the bar, nevertheless it’s served on the desk as properly. Dubbed the “Chef’s Selection” and priced at $60 per individual, it contains 11 signature items doled out over a 90-minute dine. For the extra adventurous eater, the $100 “Lab Experiment” will get you 15 programs, every accented with high-end components like freshly shaved black truffle, caviar, and gold leaf.
While Sushi Lab’s focus is on omakase, extra indoor and out of doors seating presents company with the choice of an a la carte izakaya, sushi, and maki menu that features appetizers, salads, and entree-style fundamental plates. Seated on the bar for omakase, however desire the bao buns? You can order these, no downside.
Highlights embody sharing plates like a selection of miso eggplant, tender shell crab, or pork stomach bao buns; mains like seared Wagyu lettuce wraps or a candy and bitter tackle hen and waffles; and an inventory of specialty sushi rolls together with the “Surf & Turf” that pairs spicy tuna topped with torched Wagyu beef or the “Water Dragon Roll” with truffle-dusted barbecue eel, cucumber, and avocado.
“Sushi is still an untapped market in Pompano,” sums up Brandon. “Sushi Lab will offer diners an elevated, high-quality oceanfront omakase and sushi experience, but one that’s also approachable. This is a very different environment from your usual omakase spaces.”
Sushi Lab. 1350 N. Ocean Blvd., Pompano Beach; sushilab.com. Sunday by means of Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Thursday by means of Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.