Decadence, Style and Great Food at MF Buckhead

With the wife and kid out of town for a few days, I am taking advantage of the open schedule by hitting some mighty fine restaurants. Last night, I left a bar crawl to hit up the new MF Sushi in Buckhead. I fugured it would be a good choice since 1) the wifey can't eat sushi at the moment, and 2) I figured it would be half the cost since I was going solo (by the time I was done, it wasn't).

First impression when I walked in- Wow!. The place is huge- 8000 sf ft. The sushi bar alone can comfortably seat at least 20. The feel is completely different than the MF in Midtown. Where as that place feels soothing and sedated, this place screams at you. I felt I had walked into the trendiest place in LA or Vegas. I started with a couple of appetizers, a seaweed salad and a dish with yellowtail, lemon, cilantro and wasabi. Outstanding. And it got me in a creative frame of mind, so when the sushi chef suggested Omakase, I immediately jumped on it.

The chef put together a great blend of old favorites of mine as well as some more creative elements. On the traditional side, they offered a great spicy tuna roll, melt in your mouth salmon nigiri, and golden eye snapper sashimi (I had never had this before). One interesting dish they presented was a miso marinated duck. All of this left me clamoring for more, so I ordered more nigiri including Toro and yellowtail. By this time, I have been soaking up this experience for 90 minutes and had gotten on the good side of the sushi chefs. He then showed me the kobe. I remember a scene from Sixteen Candles when Anthony Michael Hall shows a bunch of high school freshmen a pair of girls panties. Their reaction was probably similar to mine in this case: "Ooooooooooo." He cut off two thin medallions and then sears them with a blow torch (the beef, not the panties). I was in heaven.

The experience at MF Sushi Buckhead rivals the experiences I have had at Nobu and at Morimoto. The Omakase is a little more planned at those locations - you know the # of courses and the price ahead of time. But the MF selections spanned the perfect blend of traditional and creative. And the feeling that you get when sitting in MF is as big and bold as the food you are eating. You know you are at someplace special. And for sushi, whether its Atlanta, NYC or wherever stateside, you are.