The cluster of neighborhoods south of close-in Powell Boulevard — Creston-Kenilworth, Woodstock, Sellwood-Moreland — are already blessed with several sushi restaurants most Portlanders would be happy to have nearby. But as far as I can tell, none advertises fish flown directly from Japan.
At Kaede, a new Sellwood “sushi bistro” from chefs with experience at restaurants in Tokyo, Amsterdam and San Francisco, guests are slipped a small square of paper listing that day’s nigiri specials. On a recent visit, those included kamasu, or Japanese barracuda, and hobo, a seasonal white fish, each imported from Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.
I first heard about Kaede nearly two months ago, when the restaurant was still serving chirashi bowls and “omakase boxes” to-go. A friend from out-of-town had been impressed by a social media post showing the restaurant’s castella-style tamagoyaki, a Portuguese-inspired sponge cake version of the familiar rolled egg that chef Izumi Uehara had been testing out last fall.
Though both were born in Japan, Izumi and husband Shinji took different paths to the United States, each entranced by the idea of working overseas (Izumi is a low-key Disney adult, Shinji a budding Blazermaniac.) Izumi first stoped in Europe, where she worked for nearly four years under chef Masanori Tomikawa at the Michelin-starred Amsterdam kaiseki restaurant Yamazato. Shinji, meanwhile, apprenticed at a sushi-kappo restaurant in Fukuoka prefecture, then traveled to San Francisco, where the couple met at the long-running Sanraku. They were married in 2014.
The Ueharas moved to Portland in 2021, planning to open a restaurant of their own. They were drawn to Portland for its climate, NBA team and what Shinji calls its “antiques culture” — given the number of antiques shops nearby, Sellwood seems like a good fit. Once here, Izumi took a job at Afuri Izakaya, while Shinji worked at Bamboo Sushi.
In the early going, the Ueharas have stopped takeout and are limiting Kaede’s 16 seats to reservations only. If you snag one, you’ll probably find Shinji carefully forming nigiri behind the old live-edge wood bar, a hand-me-down from Ancestry Brewing, complete with rough patches from beer drinker elbows, now repurposed as a sushi counter. Until they hire a front-of-house employee, Izumi has been greeting customers, taking orders, pouring sake and overseeing the small plates coming out of the kitchen.
Given their résumés, you might expect Kaede to offer a pricy sushi omakase or even formal kaiseki service. But the Ueharas are aiming for something more approachable, if not exactly casual. Kaede’s “sushi bistro” tag is meant to evoke a sushi-kappo restaurant, where sushi and hot dishes are crafted to order from an open kitchen, and most things are available a la carte.
Kaede, a new sushi-kappo restaurant, or "sushi bistro," in Southeast Portland's Sellwood neighborhood, also serves hot dishes, including these soba noodles with slow-roasted duck breast.Michael Russell | The Oregonian
Still, sushi superfans should test out the “nigiri premium,” an eight-piece chef’s choice selection that might include hamachi belly, bluefin tuna from Mexico and sea urchin from Maine, finishing with a split of that airy tamagoyaki. Kaede is one of just a handful of places in Portland (Murata is another) to serve battera sushi, a type of “pressed” sushi featuring lightly pickled saba, or mackerel, layered with translucent strips of kombu and cut into box-shaped pieces.
Over two visits, it seems Shinji’s style is to pair lightly seasoned rice with bold accents — yuzu kosho with the yellowtail, some koji-cured jalapeño with the tuna, healthy dabs of wasabi here and there. Kaede probably won’t knock Nodoguro or Nimblefish out of Portland’s top sushi tier, but it does take its fish more seriously than many of its neighbors. (There’s also a tight sake selection, including the tasty cedar-aged yamahai from Choryo Brewing. If you’re looking to pair a spider roll with a sake bomb, keep walking.)
Last month’s launch of in-person dining brought a small menu of hot dishes that could end up being as much of a draw as the sushi. After picking up a takeout chirashi bowl in early January, I returned around 10 days ago to find appetizers that included fat, panko-fried scallop skewers drizzled with wasabi mayo; simple soba noodles with tasty slices of slow-roasted duck breast in a sweet-savory broth; and an umami-rich shrimp, scallop and maitake mushroom chawanmushi pudding swimming in thick dashi. Agedashi tofu, red miso soup and grilled miso black cod are all earmarked for my next visit.
Order this: Scallop kushi-katsu, maitake chawanmushi, duck breast salad, saba battera, nigiri specials, cedar-aged sake.
Details: Kaede serves dinner by reservation only from Wednesday to Sunday at 8268 S.E. 13th Ave., 503-327-8916, kaedepdx.com
— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com
Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe