Uchi Scottsdale Review: No Soy Sauce & the $60 Tasting Menu Hack

Uchi Scottsdale: no soy sauce, a $60 eight-course tasting menu, Hama Chili, pork belly with pepper gastrique, and a $100 Amex Resy credit saving hack.

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Uchi is a modern sushi restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale, started by a James Beard Award winner who believes in the "perfect bite." Every piece of fish is pre-seasoned with fruit, infused oils, or sea salt. There is no soy sauce on the tables. Asking for it is roughly equivalent to putting ketchup on an expensive steak.

A standard dinner here runs around $200 per person. We found a way to do it for much less.

The Strategy: Happy Hour (4:00 PM to 6:00 PM)

We arrived right when the doors opened at 4:00 PM to take full advantage of Happy Hour. We split our approach: I ordered the $60 Signature Tasting Menu (eight courses), and Vincent mixed à la carte and Happy Hour items.

My $60 Tasting Menu

Eight courses at a restaurant with a $200 per person average is already a good deal. Here are the highlights.

Sake Tomka: Salmon sashimi with coconut, lime leaf, dill, and Thai chili sauce. You are eating raw salmon but the entire flavor profile reads as Thai. A genuinely interesting fusion moment.

Bluefin Tuna and Caviar: Extra-fatty Bluefin tuna topped with Siberian caviar over warm rice. It melted immediately. The tasting menu only includes one piece, but Vincent ordered a two-piece Happy Hour set for $24 so we could share.

Pork Belly with Japanese Pumpkin: The best dish of the night. It did not look spectacular at first, but the fatty charred pork belly with pepper gastrique and roasted pumpkin was genuinely mind-blowing. This is the course I am still thinking about.

The miss: A radish and cucumber salad heavily flavored with cilantro. If cilantro is not your thing, this course will not work for you.

Vincent's Happy Hour Picks

Hachi no Hiza Cocktail: Their signature with gin, rosemary, and yuzu honey. Very strong, very good.

Kachi Nigiri: Two pieces of market fish for $9. Unique jelly-like texture with fried shallot on top that boosted the savory flavors. Great value.

Hama Chili: Uchi's most famous dish. Yellowtail, ponzu, Thai chili, and orange supreme. The citrus cuts through the strong yellowtail beautifully. I personally preferred some other dishes from the tasting menu, but this one lives up to its reputation.

Anniversary surprise: The staff brought a complimentary dish of torched Sablefish (Gindara) with yuzu marmalade to celebrate our anniversary. Completely unprompted. Excellent.

The Bill and the Amex Hack

Total before tip: $156. We covered almost the entire thing with credit card benefits.

The Amex Platinum card offers a $100 statement credit per quarter for participating Resy restaurants. We booked through Resy and paid with Amex Platinum. Our actual out-of-pocket cost came to $56 plus tip.

One more thing: our dessert took about 20 minutes longer than expected. Our server, Blue, was genuinely apologetic and gave us a $25 gift card for a future visit without us asking.

Verdict

Every dish except the cilantro salad was worth ordering. The flavor layering and the creative approach to sushi changed how I think about what sushi can be. The Happy Hour strategy cuts the price dramatically. Skip the standard dinner service and come at 4:00 PM.

Find It

Google Maps | Yelp

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