Over the last couple of months, a sampling of a few spots that offer a more “high end” Sushi experience, currently limited to delivery, but with an eye towards… one of these days, reopening. All of these spots fall into a price range that hits somewhere around 120 pesos per piece in combinations or omakase selections, so it adds up fast.
I’ve reviewed Inoue Bistró at its original location on “La Isla” here in Recoleta a couple of times in the past. During last year’s quarantine, they closed up shop there, and then resurfaced a couple of months later at Vicente Lopez 1825, still here in Recoleta, but in slightly more posh quarters. For the moment, as they don’t have space for sidewalk seating, they’re offering evening delivery/pickup sushi only. And, they’ve gone much more heavily in the sushi direction than before, where it was just one option among many. I did get a look at the space when picking up this order, and it’s at least four times the size of what they had before, beautifully designed, and I’m looking forward to when I can actually go there to eat. As always, their sushi is impeccably fresh, beautifully presented, delicious, and unlike many places, they actually offer a variety of fish. And no cream cheese in the sushi rolls, thank you very much! Accompanied by an order of mildly spicy sautéed snowpeas.
I’m not sure what the plans are for Umamiya Sushi, Av. Álvarez Thomas 1428, in Chacarita. It’s the latest offering from Juan Matsuoka, formerly of his own Matsuoka Sushi, then on to Nippori, both of which are closed. I think this spot might even just be his home address, out of which he’s offering preset sushi combos just three evenings a week, with advance ordering – orders have to be placed by 5pm for delivery between 7-11pm, Thursday-Saturday. Pristinely fresh fish, beautiful presentation. He does bow to local custom of sushi rolls with cream cheese, but is happy to take orders that specify “no” in that vein. Fewer varieties of fish, and the sashimi combo which was supposed to be two types of white fish, tuna, and calamari, came without the last, and just a different white fish instead. Not that I objected, but it’s one of those things that happens too often here in BA, substitutions are made, but no one asks you if that’s okay. Nonetheless, I’d happily order from him again!
Now this might be the most interesting of the four I’m covering today. LABsushi, Acevedo 1261, Villa Crespo. The only one of them that’s a true “omakase”, or chef’s choice. You basically just pick the size of your order – the choices are 30, 40, or 100 pieces. You have to order 24 hours in advance. You can give some specifications – like no cheese, or yes or no to certain things, perhaps if you don’t want shellfish, etc., but beyond that, there’s no listing of what the various pieces might be, and it’s at their whim. On a purely flavor basis, this was some of the most creative, tasty sushi I’ve had in Buenos Aires in the entire time I’ve been here, on par with Omakase Masuda or Osaka Puerto Madero. They were really responsive to questions and requests, and are the only place I think I’ve ever ordered from here, sushi or not, that followed up to see if I enjoyed it, and if I had any suggestions. One minor quibble, the pieces are cut very unevenly, surprising given how much attention there is to the rest of the details – within the same roll, I had pieces that ranged from barely 1 cm to over 2 cm thick, and even the sashimi had thin slices and thick slices.
Okay, by comparison to the ones above, this looks a bit… lacking. And, unfortunately, it is. It’s not bad, this offering from Omakase by Kuda, Paraguay 3521, Palermo, but it’s certainly not on the level of the others. It starts with the ordering process, which is easy enough to do, but immediately noticeable that their delivery prices are 20% higher than their in-store/pickup prices, which I’m sure is to offset the cost of having Rappi deliver things, but then they, or Rappi, also charge a whopping delivery fee that’s far more than for other places the same distance away. And then, although the fish is fresh and the flavors are excellent, there’s the mediocre presentation, and the size. Oh, the size. These might be the smallest pieces of sushi and sashimi that I’ve ever had, anywhere. While with all of the combos above (at the same price) I ate around half or a bit more at first sitting, and had leftover for lunch the next day, I polished off this 14 pieces of rolls and 12 pieces of sashimi and felt like I’d barely had a snack. It may seem like that would be hard given the photo, but for scale, those sashimi pieces on the right are maybe an inch and a half long, and the rolls are barely an inch in diameter. Given that, this one goes in the “no thanks” pile.
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