This Japanese Restaurant Specializes in the Ocean's Greatest Delicacy

Stationed in a sprawling shopping complex in Torrance, California, Miyabi Uni has little in common with its strip mall surroundings. In fact, the place is pointedly luxurious, with an open kitchen, an impressive imported sake menu, and over 20 available uni (aka sea urchin) dishes. “Uni is something unique, but it’s very difficult to work with,” Miyabi Uni head server Shintaro Yano tells Thrillist, “and we wanted to create something special.”

Among the most popular of the uni delicacies included on the menu are the signature Miyabi Uni shooters. To prepare the luxurious dish, the chef fills a ceramic spoon with Grade A fresh uni, before drizzling on tosazu vinegar, quail egg yolk, and a sprinkling of flying fish eggs. And for those who are less inclined towards seafood-centric plates (what’s wrong with you?), the place serves an update on standard surf-and-turf: uni-wrapped Kobe beef with ponzu jelly.

If you’d really like to avoid embracing the fact that seafood is truly delicious, settle for the spaghetti, which is drenched in a subtle (but obviously delicious), butter-cream-uni sauce.

“Uni is very hard to cook with because of the price point, and because of the unique taste,” Yano explains. “It’s one of-a-kind, so it was very difficult for our chefs to create this menu.” Nevertheless, the place seems to have no trouble drawing a crowd.

Watch the video above to learn more about the luxurious seafood spot.

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Eliza Dumais does not trust people who don’t like seafood. Follow her @elizadumais.  
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