Sora Omakase opens in Stony Brook

Good restaurants are plentiful and satisfying — great ones are rare and revelatory. The first serve fine sushi, the second is Osan Weng’s Sora Omakase.

“Good evening,” Weng said quietly at the start of a recent visit, his voice just firm enough to extinguish any lingering crosstalk. Over the course of the next two hours it sometimes seemed like Weng might be overwhelmed by the gleaming open kitchen behind him, and perhaps by the garrulous diners sitting just out of reach at the L-shaped wooden counter. But Weng had only to open the glass-topped box at his side and lift out a pinkish tranche of fatty tuna or an opalescent piece of raw sturgeon to bring the evening to a dead stop. It was that kind of sushi.

“We need to be 80 to 90% full each evening to make a profit,” said Scott He, who co-owns the small restaurant in Stony Brook where all this excitement takes place. It has just 18 seats, all at the counter, and just two seatings a night, which is to say that it seems a risky venture as restaurant business models go, particularly this night, with just eight of the 18 taken. Still, Sora had opened just the day before.

Weng has the proper bona fides — stints at noteworthy ventures like former Megu in Manhattan and Shouya, a restaurant in the ritzy Nihonbashi neighborhood of Tokyo — and so did his fish, much of it flown in on the regular from that city’s legendary Tsukiji market. Lots of fishless triumphs emerged from Weng’s kitchen — planks of meltingly good A5 Wagyu in a truffle-tinged nest of shimeji mushrooms, cups of sake poured from gorgeous, hourglass-like dispensers atop the counter, whipped cream-topped matcha cake. But the fish was otherworldly.

Trust is paramount when it comes to omakase which, for those not familiar, involves a set number of courses, each created and chosen by the chef. Sora offers diners two sushi-heavy options: a 13-course ($95) and an 18-course ($165, both not including beverage, tax or tip), which sounds like a lot but is actually a relative bargain by comparison to, say, Manhattan’s current king of omakase opulence, Masa, where a seat at the counter can set you back a head-spinning $950.  Could it be that much better than Weng’s sweet and oniony katsuo (skipjack tuna) or golden-eyed kinmedai (alfonsino) topped with bits of scallions, or even his toro handroll, its minced tuna cool against the rice paper Weng warmed till it was soft enough to roll but still crunched when bitten?

As with the pieces of katsuo and kinmedai and tiny bowl of uni and Alaskan salmon roe, and the maguro (bluefin tuna) and yellowtail that preceded them, each preparation was different from the last. With every course, the chef methodically formed a single nugget, added greenish Japanese horseradish grated on-the-spot into wasabi paste, delivered it to a single diner, then returned to his station and started the process all over again. (You felt almost sorry for the person who’d chosen the last seat.)

“We tried a ramen place before this,” He said, referring to eShin Noodle Bar, which he ran in this location until last year. “Business was up and down. It was popular when the students were in school but empty when they weren’t.” As such, you can see why He was drawn to Weng and omakase. Great food knows no season.

Sora Omakase, 1113 Route 25A, Unit 3-E, Stony Brook, 631-551-5544, soraomakase.com. Two seatings are available: Tuesday through Thursday at 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 6 and 8:15 p.m.; Sunday at 5 and 7:15 p.m. Closed Monday.

By Scott Vogel

scott.vogel@newsday.com

Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.