Bruce Ricketts and his band of sushi-obsessed misfits—the same teams behind Sensei and Mecha Uma——are setting up (a temporary) shop featuring their specialized take on a Japanese favorite.

Go by Sensei is a fast-casual kaisendon pop-up concept that will run from February 5 to May 31 at The Grid Food Market. It will offer a strong and concise selection of raw seafood rice bowls. It’s the fifth concept in Bruce’s culinary brand, and leverages his and his team’s sushi expertise in a fun, bold format.

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“We wanted to do something fun and accessible with the sushi expertise we’ve developed in Sensei and Mecha Uma, and we thought that a pop-up kaisendon concept would be the perfect way to do that,' said Ricketts.

'Go will have a very small menu with the same integrity of ingredients and techniques that you would get behind my sushi omakase counter, but with a more casual, quick vibe. Think of it as the bridge between the more serious approach of Mecha Uma and the casual comfort of Sensei, all in a food hall that you could visit any time of day.'

Akamizuke Go by Sensei

'I want customers to feel like they can have Go as comfort food. Daily, easy, and familiar, but without the absence of craft, care, and quality. The signature dish is the Akamizuke (shoyu-marinated maguro or yellowfin tuna), then there’s the Salmon Oyako, or “mother and child” in Japanese, as it has salmon and ikura, which I think will be a crowd favorite.'

Salmon Oyako Go by Sensei

'We also have more premium bowls like a Smoked Toro kaisendon that’s basically a big-format version of the smoked toro nigiri that was our signature at Mecha Uma. Each kaisendon comes as a set with miso soup, nori and pickles, and customers can eat it like a straightforward chirashi bowl or make their own temaki if they like.”

Smoked Toro Go by Sensei

Bruce and his team are on hiatus after Mecha Uma’s closure in December 2023 and are keen to practice their techniques and explore a different kind of service before their next sushi omakase restaurant, Iai, opens in late 2024.

“It’s the perfect opportunity for my team and I to practice our fish and sushi rice techniques before Iai opens later this year. We don’t want to get rusty and we want to keep on serving, but we want to have fun with a cool format that’s new to us. ‘Go’ also means a lot of things to me. It means ‘five’ in Japanese and is my fifth brand, and is also a unit of measurement for rice in Japan. There are other obvious meanings as well, and they all define many aspects of where I find myself these days.”

Negitoro Go by Sensei

Go’s menu sets itself apart from regular chirashi bowls (which typically contain a variety of toppings) and moves into the more specified category of premium kaisendon through Bruce’s fish aging and slicing expertise, and through the use of shari (vinegared sushi rice). Go’s kaisendon feature one premium topping—versus the seafood assortment found in chirashi bowls—and is best enjoyed room-temp.

“We start with fish that we age depending on the conditions of arrival. We work with local yellowfin and big-eye tuna that we acquire whole and butcher in Sensei, farmed Japanese bluefin tuna, chilled salmon, as well as hamachi that goes through ikejime and dry aging. We work with a local Japanese rice farm in Canlaon, Bacolod, that provides us with koshihikari, and we manually polish, wash and soak the rice overnight to ensure even cooking throughout the batch. We’re also really proud of our sushi rice vinegar, which is a blend of three types (rice, sake lees, and aged vinegar) that gives our shari a nice richness, color and freshness.

Hamachi Tataki Go by Sensei

These are all practices that I do behind my omakase counter as well as in Sensei. We’ve developed these techniques for over a decade, and they’ve grown and evolved as I have. But how we treat the fish and calibrate the rice is dictated by how we want it to be eaten——fast and often this time around. Constantly exploring how we can serve Japanese favorites is how we keep ourselves on our toes, and we hope our customers will appreciate the careful work, but still have a lot of fun and not take things too seriously with us at Go.

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Go by Sensei | February 5 to May 31, 2024 | Stall 17, The Grid Food Market, 2/F Power Plant Mall