The thought of takeout sushi amid 95-degree temperatures and a pandemic successfully quelled the cravings I’ve had for raw seafood – until now. Those cravings proved too persistent these past few weeks, and when I saw the trio behind Kadence offering a takeout menu, I thought, who better to get takeout sushi from than one of the best restaurants in the city?
So I placed an order for a chirashi bowl, royal red shrimp miso soup, a slice of charamisu cake and a can of Funaguchi Gold sake. I picked up it up at 6:15 p.m. and 25 minutes later, was digging into the vinegared rice bowl teeming with hamachi, kanpachi, madai, shima aji, bluefin tuna, ora king salmon, kisu and hirame. Ikura dotted the assemblage, and nuka-pickled veggies (watermelon rind, cucumber, daikon) added a little crunch. The soup, graced with slivers of shiitake, made a wonderfully light accompaniment, and the matcha/strawberry-soaked sponge and mascarpone layer cake (served inside an oh-so-cute box!) provided a rich-enough ending. Cutting through it all was the Funaguchi, but you can choose from a selection of more than 20 different sakes to take home.
Just be sure to order your food and drink early (1 p.m. is the deadline) as they tend to run out sooner than later. Like most restaurants, dine-in comprised the majority of sales at Kadence, but with the dining room closed, Lordfer Lalicon tells me, they’re doing about 20 percent of the business that they’re used to and they’re doing it with a skeleton staff. “Things are definitely worse,” he says, “but we’re surviving. Luckily we’re used to running the restaurant with just the three of us.”
(Kadence, 1809 Winter Park Road, kadenceorlando.com)
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2020.
