SUMI MEANS CHARCOAL IN JAPANESE

or so my friend, Am, kept telling us. Here sister was preparing to open a restaurant with her fiance in Allston. And lo and behold, they were opening a yakitori restaurant (if you look at my posts from la, you'll see that i specifically wished for someone to open a yakitori place in Boston) and so, we all went off to join them on their opening day.

The ironic part about their new restaurant, Sumi, is that even though their name translates out to charcoal, there's actually no charcoal grilling involved. All of it is done over a gas grill which makes for some different flavors. (or lack of grilling flavor). Ok, so let's start. Sumi is a really cute, small restaurant. I think it seats under 30 people. and this being the first night it was open, a large, rowdy group of us made up most of the customers. Here's a photo of some of the decorations. It's a lucky cat! I think it's super cute and they have them all over the restaurant.And onto the food. Am started us off with some boiled soybeans. They were very nicely flavored with sesame oil and soy sauce. I ate a bunch of these while everyone else ate skewers of pork belly and beef. They seemed to enjoy them immensely.Ok, if you remember anything about my previous post about eating yakitori, I really like to eat
oh let's call it "untraditional" part of the chicken. These parts tend to have more flavor and certainly a different texture. And when I saw these on the menu at Sumi, I of course, had to try them out. So I ordered several skewers. Here's my skewer of chicken hearts:
which were quite tasty and in some type of marinade. Here's a photo of the chicken gizzard:
And another photo of the chicken meatballs.
Here's my favorite dish of the night, the chicken wing. And i really liked the small grilled fish. (which i unfortunately don't have a pic of) and was very proud of Jayna and Leah for trying it out.
It's nice that Sumi has different options for people who don't want to order just a bunch of skewers for dinner (which at $2-$4 per skewer, can add up pretty quickly). Leah was smart by ordering a short rib rice platter. And there was also an unagi/fois gras platter that many people at the table ordered and enjoyed. In general, I found the skewers to be quite different from my favorite place in LA. First of all, carcinogens taste good. (case in point, bbq. ) which in an unfortunate fact. So i missed that grilled charcoaly flavor that a gas grill just can't replicated. Also, at my yakitori place in la, they seasoned the meat very lightly and let the flavor and juiceness of the meat come through. I think I tend to enjoy that more than the skewers at Sumi, where they marinate all their meats, cause I found the marinade a bit too sweet and cloying. I did enjoy my meal, though. And am very pleased that a yakitori restaurant has opened so close to my home. I think that next time, though, I'll take someone who'll pay for me (like i do at home), so i won't be counting the number of sticks i order before i hit my budget.

And as a final departing pic, here's our party post dinner. (minus jayna and her 2 friends)