Visitors dine at Boulder's Amu,

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BOULDER, Colo. — There are few restaurants in Boulder that achieve the consistent symphony of flavor, authenticity and overall experience as expertly as Amu.

With its menu devoted to traditional dishes (no sushi), chefs schooled in artful presentation and a staff of native-speaking Japanese, Amu is, quite simply, not a place where one does sake bombs.

After every meal, I leave satisfied that Amu is one of Boulder's best restaurants, and a recent dinner was no exception.

After removing our shoes and returning the hostess' bow, my companion and I followed her past the long dining room, through a narrow hallway and emerged at a sunken table set into a Japanese-style booth with silk-covered cushions on a wooden bench.

At one end, six men in business suits, all of them at ease speaking Japanese, raised their sake glasses in a toast. We occupied the other end, secluded among stunning prints of Japanese gardens, enveloped in the native language of the restaurant and concealed behind traditional paper doors.

Then came the difficult part.

For years, Amu's "chef's choice" fixed-price dinner, which no longer exists, made ordering easy. We followed our waitress' advice to order many small dishes off the menu in no particular order, starting with the safer, more recognizable dishes.

First were the pork dumpling ($4.75) and seaweed salad ($5.75). Delicious, but predictable, conservative choices. We ventured further and were dutifully rewarded for our intrepidness.

The Tako Sumisoae, or octopus with miso base ($5.95), came in a delicate bowl, the octopus sliced into thick, mouth-filling pieces that, when dipped in the reduced miso sauce, were neither too chewy nor overpowering.

The seared albacore ($8.75) nearly melted in my mouth. So tender it could be cut with a spoon, the gorgeous fish arrived with pickled ginger, fresh radish and paper thin garlic slices, all of which artfully teased out the albacore's savory flavor.

The mixed sea salad ($8.75) transformed a bowl of shrimp, squid pieces, crab and fish tossed with a variety of seaweed into an edible still life with a bold, sumptuous flavor laced with slightly smoky seaweed with hints of green tea.

And so our meal continued, each hot plate emerging from the kitchen and fresh fish coming from the bar at the restaurant's front room. Traditional Japanese meals taper off with a soba or rice dish, our waitress informed, and we got a small plate of noodles on tatami mats accompanied by a side bowl of miso sauce and wasabi. On top of the bowl was a small lid topped with daicon, scallions, and a raw quail egg. The contents went into the liquid, into which we dipped the noodles, for a buckwheat medley of salt, crisp daicon and absolute freshness.

Then we topped off the savory portion of our meal with Chawanmushi ($6), a traditional, Japanese egg custard baked in dashi, with pork and shrimp. For dessert, we shared a sesame pudding that looks like crème brulee, is served with strawberries and a very light sweet sauce. The synchronicity of the sweet with the previous dishes left me completely satiated.

Those who know Amu tend to love it with a protective fierceness generally reserved for family members. Those who don't are surprised to learn of "the Japanese restaurant that doesn't serve sushi."

Even though it shares a wall and owners with Sushi Zanmai, Amu has no equivalent -- at least along the Front Range. It is a boutique café, with a full bar and traditional Japanese sake and beers.

Perhaps big-city Japanese restaurants can evoke the motherland equally well, but I believe Amu is as close to Japan as you can get without boarding a plane.

Please send dining updates and news to boulderdining@gmail.com for inclusion in the monthly Buzz column.