Splurging at Tomo worth it

If you’ve tried Tomo Japanese Restaurant but still don’t get what all the fuss is about, here’s what you have to do: Plan on spending big, give chef Tomohiro Naito a budget, and then go to town. A recent such meal featured barely seared Spanish mackerel in garlic ponzu sauce, with a tuft of ginger and scallion cut with such fine knifework it was like cotton candy. A kusshi oyster topped with caviar (farm-raised at the University of Georgia) and a squeeze of yuzu brought one of those bites that lives on forever in your memory.

Japanese snapped sashimi came on a sheet of kelp on which it had been lightly cured, picking up all its glutamic acid and flavor and filling the mouth with the sensation of pure umami. Chawan mushi — a traditional egg custard baked in a teacup — became luxurious with the addition of sea urchin and Périgord black truffle shavings. There was more — much more — with a final lineup of sushi, each a one-bite wonder.