A few weeks past, the wonderful photographer James Tran pinged me via IG, mentioning that Komatsuya was doing onigiri for lunch on weekends. Now, I’ve known about Komatsuya for a while, but the Missus just wasn’t too interested in heading up to Mission Hills and trying to find parking for dinner, so the place had been on the back burner. But doing Onigiri for lunch….especially based on the location sounded interesting so I decided to get to the area and find some parking….which I did. And then I walked on over……
And the sign was out….
And I was greeted by the very friendly and professional Hiroka, who was so nice. I was handed the onigiri menu; which gave me a moment of pause.
Well, ok……$6.50 for a kombu onigiri….this for sure wasn’t your local konbini onigiri, right?
I decided to order the Kombu Onigiri and for some reason, I was intrigued by the Saikyo Yaki & Garlic Chive ($8) version as well. I as told that for $7 more I could make it a “set” with karaage and tamagoyaki, so I decided to go for it.
My table, which was out front brought a smile to my face.
The last time I was at this location; it was Fools and Kings and we were seated at the exact same table.
Soon enough my onigiri and tamagoyaki arrived.
Hiroka said here’s your onigiri….and I said “oh, Sumotori onigiri huh?” Which made her crack up. Yes, these were literally bursting at the seams it seems….. I did find it kind of rustic looking with rice and sesame seeds falling along the nori and the uneven shape. Perhaps because Komatsuya is a omakase – sushi restaurant I expected the onigiri to be a bit more refined looking? Well, at least you knew this was made on the spot by hand, right?
I bit into the Kombu Onigiri and quickly noticed how much kombu was in the rice ball!
Enough to make two to three kombu maki! So, I guess if we’re looking at things that way; the $6 ain’t too bad, right? You could make out every grain of rice, which was perfectly tender. The onigiri was warm, the nori was crisp and not soggy.
As for the Tamagoyaki.
It was nicely layered. Nice egginess and savory touches…..a big plus was that it wasn’t too sweet. I did find the egg to be a bit on the drier-harder side. I prefer my tamagoyaki a bit more fluffy-tender.
The Karaage arrived next. In all honesty, I was a bit disappointed in having only two pieces.
I really liked the crisp texture of the smaller piece in the back….it had that perfect light crunch I enjoy. The bigger piece had already started getting soggy.
As you can see, the chicken was really moist, pleasingly tender. Nice savory tones, low in terms of pungent flavors (i.e. garlic/ginger). A very nice version.
And last, I finished with the Saikyo Yaki & Garlic Chive Onigiri.
Again with the perfectly cooked and prepared rice. This was less stuffed than the kombu version, the fish nice and moist.
The flavor wasn’t quite as sweet as I expected from a saiko yaki preparation, but the fish was quite savory without being overly salty. I really enjoyed the pungency of the garlic chives.
So there you go….one of these days…in the future, I can tell someone about the time I paid over twenty bucks for two onigiri! In Mission Hills of course! Just kidding…..
Overall…well, I was stuffed after the two large onigiri. And in thinking about prices, perhaps I’m just trying to justify the price of the onigiri by framing things into how much would a makizushi with these ingredients cost. Though I’m not sure about the tamagoyaki and two pieces of karaage being priced at $7.
One interesting note……I recalled that even when we visited during the time Fools and Kings was in this spot, we dined on the patio. So, I had never seen the inside of the place. I went to the restroom so I could finally see what the tiny dining room looked like.
Nice service and I did leave stuffed!
Komatsuya
4015 Goldfinch St.
San Diego, CA 92103
Onigiri served on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 2pm
Thanks again for the heads-up on this place James!