Chef Engin Onural officially brought his popular Palm Springs restaurant Sandfish Sushi and Whiskey to Phoenix in November when he soft opened at the corner of North Seventh Avenue and West Heatherbrae Drive in the Melrose District. It’s his fourth restaurant and his first in Arizona.
Originally from Turkey, Onural remembers falling in love with Japanese culture at age 10. “My father was a professor, and we traveled a lot, so I was fortunate enough to get exposed to many cultures and foods.”
He found Japanese and South Korean cultures similar to his own in terms of their focus on traditions and strict expectations. The more he learned, the more he began to believe that his connection to Japanese food had to be due to being Japanese in another lifetime. “There is no other explanation,” he said with a chuckle.
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Onural uses sushi to communicate who he is to his guests. Rather than the word fusion, he prefers to say that he has created his own style of sushi with flavors inspired by his travels.
“I don’t sit down and say let me go through my flavor file.” Rather, when he travels, he tries to eat at a range of restaurants, from a hole in the wall to three-Michelin stars. “When you do that, you expose yourself to a lot of flavors. Once my brain experiences a particular dish, it’s taking in and filing away the aromas, sights, textures and tastes. And all of a sudden, when I least expect it, I have a download of information.”
Aside from his connection to Japanese food and culture, Onural has given a part of his heart to Scandinavia — with Norway first, Sweden second and Finland third — for its “people, appreciation for nature, ingredients and seasons,” he said. And he’s very proud of his culinary Turkish heritage.
All these elements come into play at the restaurant.
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A minimalist look keeps the focus on the menu
The restaurant’s decor is Scandinavian, minimal and functional. Brass lighting, light wooden tables and chairs, tan leather banquets and gray leather seats decorate the space. One wall is papered with light blue and white wave patterns. A backsplash of white fish scale tiles holds two rows of spirit bottles behind the bar. This minimalism helps keep the focus on the food.
The menu is divided into multiple sections including appetizers, rolls, nigiri sushi, maki rolls, sashimi, signature rolls and plates plus desserts.
“One of my best sellers is a spicy tuna tostada with feta cheese on top,” he said.
Although the Phoenix restaurant has a very similar menu to the original Palm Springs location, it will have a few exclusive dishes, like foie gras, which Onural loves, but is illegal in California.
He has also noticed a strong sense of community — “a let’s help each other mentality” — in Arizona and his fantasy is “to collaborate with a farm to grow things for us.”
The beverage menu consists of cocktails, mocktails, sake, beer, wine and an extensive list of whiskey, which leans heavily Japanese and mostly come from Suntory with a few Nikki. The difference between Japanese whisky — the proper spelling according to the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails — and American whiskey is the Japanese style closely follows Scotch traditions, using malted barley and aging them in wooden barrels, particularly in mizunara or Japanese Oak. This, in addition to Japan’s climate and a longer fermentation period, produces an intensely aromatic whisky that is lighter-bodied than scotch.
Onural sources some of his whiskey locally.
Though the restaurant is intimate, the vibe is hip and comfortable with most of the light directed at the bar.
Choose your own dining and drinking adventure
Both the food and cocktail menus offer omakase, which directly translates to “I leave it up to you” and refers to a Japanese meal that is selected for you by the chef. At Sandfish, you can share your likes and dislikes with your server and enjoy either a bespoke drink or a tasting menu based on your preferences.
I ordered my cocktail omakase-style, simply telling our bartender, Nick that I tend to enjoy refreshing, citrusy and spicy drinks. He made a vodka-based cocktail with cucumber syrup, Jalapeno syrup, lime and a jalapeno slice on top that was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.
From the appetizer section, we decided to chart our own course and ordered the spicy tuna tostada and chicken gyoza.
The tostada comes four to an order, and though the textural play of the soft tuna against the crunch of the tostada gave a great mouthfeel, on this visit, feta was scarce, and without it the dish lacked the much needed salt. We improvised with a dash of soy sauce and it was still an overall enjoyable dish.
The gyoza came in a pool of a sauce that I would bottle up and take home if I could. The dumpling texture was successful and the chicken inside was moist, but most of the flavor came from the chilis, garlic, soy and rice vinegar sauce.
Sushi rolls are delivered with playful touches
I tried two different specialty rolls, the first, called the experiment roll, was recommended by our server and she was right on. Made of snow crab, mango, avocado and cucumber and topped with tuna, jalapeño, cilantro and yuzu aioli, the rice was perfectly cooked and each bite offered a balance of sweet mango, acid from yuzu and a touch of spice finished with a refreshing herbal pop from the cilantro.
The signature Sandfish roll, was made with spicy tuna, crab meat, avocado and topped with lightly fried potato threads — I loved the playful crunchiness — and topped with spicy aioli, teriyaki sauce, micro greens, green onions and black truffle zest. Whereas initially, I worried about the truffle masking the tuna and crab, I only found a faint hint in one piece and almost wished there was more of the promised truffle flavor. That said, bites were tasty enough that I kept coming back for more.
Next time, I’ll sit at the bar, watch Nick do his magic with another omakase cocktail and keep exploring the menu. The Scandinavian roll, made with crab meat and avocado, topped with salmon, ponzu sauce and bonito flakes, and the Albacore tataki, which is topped with seaweed sea salt from Norway that Onural personally helps harvest, are of particular interest.
Overall, Sandfish delivers on its promise of dishes that act as culinary postcards from a chef whose passion for tradition and technique is matched by his appetite for adventure.
Details: 4232 N. Seventh Ave., Phoenix. 602-675-4020, sandfishsushiwhiskey.com/phoenix.
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Reach the reporter at BAnooshahr@azcentral.com. Follow @banooshahr on Twitter.
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