Ian Froeb | Post-Dispatch

Restaurant critic

Achi, the omakase experience at the Lobby Lounge of the Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis in Clayton, can leave you breathless, a little dizzy. Alexander Kuzin, the hotel’s executive sous chef and Achi’s ringmaster, and his assistant, Joseph Dang, pack 10 courses into a tidy hour at the lounge’s sushi bar. Kuzin narrates each dish with the brio and practiced jokes of a game-show host. He urges you to close your eyes and let the food transport you.

I didn’t confuse Clayton for Tokyo, but a bite of buttery Hokkaido scallop, torched on the surface just before serving and paired with a barrel-aged shoyu with the biting smokiness of a peaty Scotch, took me somewhere more colorful than the Ritz-Carlton’s transient happy-hour splendor.

I could have substitute

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