HARU Omakase

Haru Omakase builds its set menu around five courses it calls tours, and the sequencing earns the word. Striped jack arrives with Peruvian amarillo paste, sea bream comes torched with a ponzu jelly, and the fish underneath every pairing is good enough to carry the flourish rather than hide behind it. Sit at the chef's counter. That's where the menu actually happens, with executive chef Yudi Makassau narrating the fish in front of you.

That fish isn't an abstraction. Makassau runs to the Columbus airport twice a week to meet shipments flown in from Tokyo, and the freshness shows up on the plate in ways Central Ohio hasn't had access to since Kihachi closed. Omakase here isn't a format borrowed from bigger cities and stapled onto a strip-mall address in Polaris — it's a real attempt to fill a gap this city has been feeling for years, and it closes that gap convincingly.

Columbus Monthly has taken notice locally, and the restaurant has landed on national radar as well. Neither is the reason to go. The reason is a five-course tour where every course is doing real work.