“I pledge my allegiance…”

We changed Japanese restaurants recently. And, though they definitely deserved us deserting them, I still felt like a guy leaving one of his best friends.

But our old faithful had gone astray. Cutting the amount of fish on their rolls in half and then offering it two for one. “Desperation”, I called it.  

And those blindingly bright lights. Over a year ago, we strongly suggested that they “turn down the wattage”; we may be ancient but we still like a little romance. But they never listened. And, our last time there, we were the only ones there.

So off we went. And I knew where we were going. I’d been contemplating the move for a few weeks.

The place is called Ryoko. I’ll make the very bold statement that they serve the best raw fish in San Miguel de Allende. In fact, I’ll even say they serve some of the best fish I’ve ever had in a Japanese restaurant. But the place is pricey. Quite pricey.

How do you measure the cost of a good meal? I could have bought that navy blue cashmere sweater at Liverpool for what we spent at Ryoko’s sushi bar last night. And I could have worn that sweater over and over again. But instead, we chose a for-one-night-only pleasure and went for one of those chef-driven, multi-course feasts that the Japanese call omakase.

The bill, with a bottle of Ryoko’s least expensive white wine, two bottles of Pellegrino and tip came to $4700. Yes, a little sticker shock. But I think it was worth it.

So what gave it that value? Well to us, good Japanese restaurants are about good sashimi and sushi. They are the heart and soul of cocina japonesa. And, though the quality of the rice can’t be neglected, sushi is mostly about the quality of the fish. And fish is mostly about freshness. And I think Ryoko’s fish is as fresh as you’ll get in San Miguel de Allende.

I’m impressed, as well, by Ryoko’s selection process. For example, take what they call maguro and you might call bluefin tuna. Bluefins have come a long way in the last 50 years. Back in the seventies, they were known as horse mackerel and usually ended up in 9 Lives cans. Today they are one of the most expensive fish you can buy.

The price though is variable. Because bluefins are like cows. Certain parts of them are considered much more desirable and are, therefore, much higher priced.

Generally speaking, the fattier, the better, so in most sushi restaurants, you will often be offered the more expensive toro which comes from the belly as well as the regular maguro.

I’ve been in a couple of sushi restaurants, however, that went one step further, offering three different levels of maguro: akami, the leanest tuna; chutoro, which is medium fatty tuna; and otoro, the very fatty tuna.

Ryoko takes the grading even further, offering something I’d read about but never actually seen before. It’s called kamatoro and comes from the collar and I think is most easily described as extra fatty tuna.

If you’re interested in what the price difference is for each cut, for nigiri, the simple mound of rice topped with wasabi and a slice of fish, Ryoko charges by the 10 gram portion as follows: Akami $75. Chutoro $85. Otoro $105. Kamatoro $140. In case you prefer to think in $US, yes, that’s over 300 bucks a pound for the kamatoro.

Now I know many sushi lovers may think the restaurant has gone too far with their heavy duty grading and pricing and I’m sure there are people who may be saying just give me some cheap yellowtail and I wouldn’t argue with them. I know, I won’t be ordering kamatoro any time soon. I doubt that I’d know the difference between it and otoro unless I was eating them side by side.

What I do like about the categorizing of tuna at Ryoko is that it shows how serious they treat their seafood. And when most of the product you sell is raw, that is very important to me.

I mentioned that we spent $4700 for our omakase dinner for two at the restaurant of which $1500 per person was for food. But what would a simple lunch or dinner cost at Ryoko? A typical meal for me would consist of a bowl of miso soup, four nigiri, and one simple maki (or roll). The price for that would be about $600 with drinks and tip extra. It’s not going to put Ryoko on my once-a-week calendar but it might get me there once-a-month.

I haven’t said much about Ryoko except that I think the fish is very good and priced accordingly. I will mention one major disappointment with the restaurant and that is the lack of knowledge of the staff. When the menu tells me that the king salmon comes from New Zealand, the chef should be able to tell me why. Or why he chooses Japanese yellowtail rather than Mexican. And every single employee should know why the place they work in is called Ryoko.

Ryoko is located at Hernandez Macias #82 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday from 1:00 to 11:00 pm; Thursday to Saturday from 1:00 to 11:30 pm. Reservations can be made at opentable.com.mx.