“Summer is naturally a slower season in Florida,” says Ryan Ratino.
It’s true. Poll most restaurateurs and they’ll tell you it’s often their most challenging time, affecting the spectrum from fast casuals and food trucks right on up the ladder to places like Ratino’s Ômo by Jônt, the Michelin star of which shines brightly in a beautiful little space just off Winter Park’s Park Avenue.
Here, multicourse Chef’s Tasting menus go for $195 or $375, but a new offering in the restaurant’s cozy Salon, just $78, is welcoming in both regulars seeking something simpler and, to Ratino’s delight, newcomers enjoying Ômo for the very first time.
The menu features several snacks, gorgeous bites that practically present like food porn slo-mo — tweezered bits of edible flowers atop glistening proteins, fruits and chocolate delicately fashioned into flower petals — followed by first and second courses, as well as dessert.
“We know a lot of people are being more intentional with how and where they spend their money right now. The prix fixe gives us an opportunity to welcome guests who may have been curious about Ômo, but were waiting for the right time to experience it.”
Similarly, downtown at Sushi Saint, chef/owner Michael Collantes and his team dropped a $75 menu in their omakase room. With 12 progressions (several appetizers, a hand roll, a selection of nigiri and dessert), it proved a hit right out of the gate.
“We were booked solid for three weeks,” says Collantes. “People lost their minds.”
Sushi Saint’s Michelin-starred sister, Soseki, has been a 10-seat salon of supremacy amid Orlando’s robust omakase offerings, but the downtown omakase room’s reasonable new menu is, naturally, an entirely different experience than Soseki’s $285 odyssey.
The omakase room at Sushi Saint’s downtown/Creative Village location. (Courtesy Fernando Delgado)
“We wanted to give guests value, a budgeted omakase they could experience that hopefully is a gateway into other tasting menus,” Collantes says.
It’s roughly an hourlong experience, but guests are welcome to add on at the counter. Or come before to enjoy drinks in the main dining room/lounge. Or linger there afterward. To choose their own adventure outside of their chef’s fine choices.
For Collantes, that’s one of the prime appeals of tasting menus.
“I don’t want to have to think about it,” he says. “Let the chef do it, let them choose whatever is the best of the season, or just what they’d like to cook or prepare that night.”
Wagyu Zabuton, one of two entree choices available on Ômo by Jônt’s $78 prix fixe menu, is available in their salon in Winter Park. (Courtesy Ômo by Jônt)
This is precisely what the team at Ômo had in mind when crafting their current prix fixe, but allow guests to keep one hand on the wheel.
“The new menu is designed to showcase the ingredients and flavors we love working with while giving guests choices throughout the experience. Right now, highlights include dishes like our hotate crudo with white peach, almond and cucumber with a choice between Wagyu Zabuton with hana doko mushrooms, porcini and beef jus or madai with saffron, tomato and potato.”
The menu, he says, will continue to evolve based on seasonality and ingredient availability, which has always been central to their approach.
Sushi Saint chef/owner Michael Collantes puts the finishing touch on a piece of nigiri at their Creative Village/Downtown location. (Courtesy Fernando Delgado)
At Sushi Saint, the vibe is easygoing, says Collantes, but the interactivity with the staff is there, leading guests, new or experienced, through what a proper chef’s tasting should be.
“We don’t want to take it too seriously,” he says, “but you get that great experience of having the chef make everything directly and have that communication, which is the best part.”
While Sushi Saint and Ômo have expanded offerings to bring them into the fold, other venues — like Edoboy and Norigami, also Michelin Guide-recognized — have had this mindset from go.
Norigami’s 10-seat counter at its Plant Street Market location in Winter Garden has two omakase offerings in addition to its à la carte menu. (Courtesy Shaina Ofstein)
Norigami’s Plant Street Market counter in Winter Garden (look for a second location at Crooked Can’s new Minneola outpost soon) has two omakase offerings in addition to its à la carte menu. The basic (10 pieces of nigiri, one handroll and soup) is priced at $67.
The 10-seat counter sits amid the bustle of the market but feels intimate, with plenty of chef engagement and beautiful fish on equally beautiful sheets of Japanese paper.
“We just wanted to make it approachable as opposed to being in a fancy, private room that’s really quiet, and this model is just so approachable,” says Norigami owner Johnny Tung, whose restaurant portfolio also includes Orlando’s only two-Michelin-starred omakase, Sorekara.
“We want to be able to share this style, this kind of food, this great quality fish with a low entry point. People want to learn more about sushi. They think that all the really great quality comes from omakases that are $200, but that’s not true.”
Gorgeous nigiri is just part of what you’ll find on Edoboy’s current $65 menu. (Courtesy Alex Gonzalez)
At Edoboy, the city’s only standing sushi bar in Orlando’s Mills 50 neighborhood, guests can order à la carte, as well, but the $65 set lets chef Tyler Inthavongsa take the reins and changes seasonally.
“Right now, it’s focusing on chef Tyler’s Lao background,” says Edoboy owner Sean “Sonny” Nguyen, “with starters and the first half of the sushi all Lao-inspired. Following the palate cleanser, we bring it back into clean Japanese flavors to end the meal.”
Nguyen notes the set menus’ approachability, as well.
Edoboy always has a $65 set available at its stand-up counter. The current menu features flavors inspired by Tyler Inthavongsa’s Lao heritage. (Courtesy Alex Gonzalez)
“We created it for those looking for a high-quality, curated experience without the price tag…. It’s a step in the door for the omakase experience,” he says, adding that the chef’s choice sets will generally consist of pieces that are not featured on the à la carte menu, giving those who partake something special.
It’s not just the Asian counters wooing the summer crowds, though.
A while back, chef Bruno Fonseca began offering the $85 four-course Quatro menu to give regulars an alternative to the marathon $195 multicourse while also giving newcomers, leery of dropping too much, too soon, a wonderful excuse to try them out.
Foreigner Restaurant’s ‘Quatro’: exceptional — and accessible | Review
Upgrades like caviar and seared foie gras are available, of course — as are similar items and wine/sake pairings for most of the aforementioned — but there’s really no need. You may be able to crush $300 worth of courses and still want more, but you’re not leaving hungry from any of these sub-$100 meals.
For some, like Norigami, you don’t even necessarily need a reservation. If there’s space at the counter, guests can sidle up and chow down.
Renowned Florida chef Norman Van Aken at Norman’s, his namesake restaurant in Dr. Phillips. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Over on restaurant row, chef Norman Van Aken’s namesake has its own “bargain” prix fixe: three courses for $75 per person, though here, diners can choose from three offerings per person, allowing groups to mix, match and share bites of classics like Van Aken’s Key West yellowtail snapper and Brazilian-style conch chowder.
“I started my career in Key West. You learn it in your bones to take care of the locals if you want to survive,” Van Aken said.
“Relationships are the heart and soul of what we love about the hospitality business. We create these value-oriented menus as a way to share our food and service during the tighter economy we’re in these days.”
Collantes’ summer special at Sushi Saint may just stick around, he says. The team has been excited to see new faces and regulars coming back for a quicker, more affordable hit.
Says Ômo’s Ratino, “It’s really about opening our doors a little wider and creating another way for people to enjoy what we do.”
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
If you go
Edoboy: 728 N. Thornton Ave. in Orlando; edoboysushi.com
Foreigner Restaurant: 2816 Corrine Drive in Orlando, 321-517-6985; foreignerrestaurant.com
Norigami: Located inside Plant Street Market, 426 W. Plant St. in Winter Garden, norigamifl.com
Norman’s: 7924 Via Dellagio Way in Orlando, 321-754-1025; normans.com
Ômo by Jônt: 115 E. Lyman Ave. in Winter Park, 321-972-5225; omobyjont.com
Sushi Saint: 400 Pittman St. in Orlando, 689-323-3028; sushisaint.com