First look: Umami Asian Kitchen

Chagrin Falls is known for many things. Its beautiful, tourist-attracting falls, quaint, century-old homes and a downtown that would make Norman Rockwell open shop. Unfortunately, the one thing that’s been missing from this charming town is food—really good food. Sure, there are plenty of restaurants to choose from, especially casual, family-friendly options, but unfortunately, many are missing that wow factor. Until now. Enter Umami. A very unChagrin Falls-like restaurant in the heart of the village that’s turning heads and drawing in diners that have been craving such a restaurant.

Food:  Umami, which means delicious in Japanese and is also known as the fifth taste, serves up Asian dishes hoping to do just that—entice your taste buds. The man trying to wow your palate is chef Michael Longo, whose philosophy in the kitchen and passion for all things local is well-represented in the menu and throughout the restaurant.

"When cooking, I keep it simple," explains Longo, who once worked with Michael Symon at the old Piccolo Mondo and also owns ML in Bainbridge. He emphasizes the importance of letting the ingredients speak for themselves, to cook within the season, keep it as sustainable and local as possible all while incorporating his classical training into each dish. A training, he believes, that allows him to build a foundation and enable him to explore and create whatever he wants with food.

Examples of his training and philosophy are layered within each dish of the one-page menu, which features a few sashimi options, cooked hot and cold small plates and 10 larger plates, plus a handful of daily specials. Making up those plates are as many local products as Longo can get his hands on.

“Farm to table, seed to mouth,” he explains. “A chef is the connection between the farmer and the consumer.” Longo adds that he can't wait for the local Chagrin Falls markets to open, which is part of North Union Farmer’s Market. He is also very involved with localcrop.com, an endeavor created by chef Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro, and sources a lot of the fish for the restaurant from the Honolulu fish company, which is 100 percent sustainable.

Since opening earlier this year, popular big plates include sake and ginger-glazed pork tenderloin, red curry duck and firecracker prawns, plus tom yum gai and miso with crab soups, sesame noodles with tofu, and five-spice crusted ahi tuna.

On our visit, we sampled a dish within each section. We started with the togarashi-crusted, plancha-seared white tuna with shoyu, tobiko and wasabi, followed by the lobster spring rolls with a sweet chile dipping sauce, spicy Korean BBQ ribs with kimchee and black pepper shrimp with sun-dried papaya, basil, lemongrass, sweet chile and nam pla. Our larger plate, which was big enough to share, was an order of the pad Thai with chicken.

The white tuna was absolutely perfect and incredibly tasty in every way—a must-try item for sure. The shrimp was slightly spicy, sweet and boasted wonderful and unexpected flavor. The ribs were sticky, meaty and spicy. The lobster rolls were incredibly fresh, light and albeit healthy—a nice contrast to the ribs. The surprise dish was the pad Thai. While this popular dish is quite common at many Cleveland-area restaurants, there was nothing common about Umami’s version. This version, with large chunks of tender chicken, nam pla (fish sauce), cilantro, sprouts, tamarind and egg, is unlike any other found within the city, that tend to be on the sweeter side.

Libations: Umami’s wine list offers a handful of pours, heavy on California, plus one sake pour. The bottle list expands to include Italy and France, even one Ohio wine with several more sake choices. There are several beers, hailing from China, Thailand, Japan as well as the states, plus a slew of signature cocktails, including the Red Lotus with vodka, lychee puree and cranberry juice.

Décor: With the first step inside Umami, one thing is for certain: this restaurant does not fit the makeup of Chagrin Falls. This is a good thing. The incredibly tiny restaurant (we counted 10 tables) borders sexy.

With Umami, Longo centered the design around the concept of mixing something old with something new. For example, the brick wall, which dons Warhol pop art and runs one whole side of the restaurant, was uncovered during demolition and became the focal point for something old. The chef’s fascination with lights is evident with the 1920 Edison bulbs that are the centerpiece of the restaurant. The counterpoint to the Edison bulbs, he describes, are the very modern LED candles on the tables.

The chef feels the design of the space correlates to his food in the same way. “I take classics and put a modern spin on them,” he shares. “Restaurant spaces need to have an edge, they need to be somewhat sexy. The food that comes out of the kitchen must have that same edge to it.”

Service: With the open kitchen practically sitting at the end of your table, you can somewhat watch the team in action, almost giddy over each order. Dishes are served promptly and beautifully-plated atop white plates. Servers are friendly and happy to offer suggestions.

Insider tip: Several special events are in the works for Umami, including a sustainable seafood dinner on June 22 and market dinners every Sunday once the market opens in the Falls in early June. Join the restaurant’s Facebook page to be updated on current and future restaurant happenings.

Bottom line: It’s good to break from the norm and stand out. While definitely in a category all its own in Chagrin Falls, the big, bold, craveable flavors of Umami is exactly what this little village needed.

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