Sushi Re-Rolls
In which I revisit three spots for sushi and Japanese cooking to see how they're faring now.
Sometimes, it’s time to update old reviews. Mostly, I just want to see how places that I’ve liked in the past but haven’t been back to in some time, are doing. Other times, something has changed with them that warrants a new look. Buckle up!
Let’s start this meander at Sintesís, José León Pagano 2689, here in Recoleta. I first visited it when it was new, a decade ago, and gave it high marks for food and service, with questionable taste in décor and ambiance. I could pretty much say that the same holds true today, though I wouldn’t give quite as high marks to the food as I did back then. Some of it is still fantastic - their house ramen is still one of my top three in the city. Two recent visits….
The pork and chive gyoza are delicious - delicate, and flavorful, cooked just perfectly. On the other hand, the pork and prawn gyoza are gummy, the prawns are rubbery, and most of the wrappers had holes in them and were kind of falling apart. 15200 pesos, about $10.50.
As I said, the house ramen is still up at the top - at the time of the original review I said: “Absolutely palate awakening, beautifully made, Tonkatsu ramen. Rich, mouth coating broth, vegetables, al dente noodles, gooey-yolked egg, smoky seaweed, delicate slices of braised pork belly.” And I’d stand by all of that. The spicy ramen is almost as good. 24500 pesos, about $17.
On the other hand, the omakase-style tabla is… boring. First, with the exception of a half roll in the middle with fried prawn, all the rest is salmon. They’ve got white fish on their sushi menu, how about mixing it up a bit? Show some variety of fish. It was all… okay. I wouldn’t order any of it again. 53800 pesos for 20 pieces, about $37.
And the black sesame “profiteroles” - actually badly made, chalky mochi balls, are just kind of unpleasant, and aren’t made better by the addition of a dense vaguely gingery ice cream. 9000 pesos, about $6.25.
Go for the ramen.
Maybe it’s a given that having a concrete floor isn’t the best idea for a restaurant. Four years ago, as we came out of the pandemic, Lima, Rodriguez Peña 1967 in Recoleta, opened and we enjoyed it numerous times both via delivery and visits. The room was beautiful. Not so much anymore. The tables and chairs are worn and torn, the floor is scuffed and dirty. Actually, a lot of things look like they haven’t been cleaned in awhile - windows, shelves…. Even the waitstaff and sushimen seem a bit disheveled. Add to that that they were serving only sushi because the kitchen, apparently, hadn’t had any electricity for several days. Things did not bode well.
A couple of oysters to start. My waiter returned to the table twice to make sure he had the order right, and had it wrong both times, even though he was supposedly writing it down. They were decent - one topped with trout roe, the other with sriracha sauce. 8000 pesos for two, about $5.50.
And then… a wait. Now, mind you, the kitchen’s not open. So the sushi counter is being manned by not only the regular sushi man, but an additional three people from the kitchen. And there are only maybe ten people in the restaurant, half of whom are already finishing eating. Twenty minutes to get two pairs of nigiri. And they’re good, but there was just no reason to take that long. 12000 pesos a pair, about $8.25… that feels steep, it’s basically $4 per piece of sushi.
And then it really went downhill timewise. It took another forty minutes to get a single roll out of the sushi bar. During that entire time I only saw three other rolls come out and get delivered to tables. I have no idea what they were doing behind the counter - they seemed to be working diligently. I had to actually threaten to cancel the order, pay and leave, before suddenly someone seemed to find a way to make the roll for my table. And it was sloppy. And not worth the 29000 pesos, $20, that it cost. And all I heard was excuses from the waiter, who couldn’t seem to get anything right, table after table. They did give me a 10% discount as an apology.
Overall, this place has gone way down in quality in everything from ambiance to service to the food.
I found myself back, for the first time since a visit back in January of 2024, at Nika Club Omakase, Nicaragua 5952, Palermo. Now, I enjoyed it quite a bit, I just found it really over the top expensive for what they were offering - and with some bizarre pricing… schemes. And at the time, their 90000 peso omakase translated to about $72, and was notedly more than anyone else was charging - I think Uni was probably next highest, and was under $50. I just happened to note see that they’d reduced the omakase price to 85000, and with the current exchange rate that brings it down to about $59.
So, I was plopped down at the sushi bar next to the only other solo diner, and despite, mostly his protests that we were not together, they treated us like we were, which made for some weird timing issues, since we weren’t eating identical menus.
I’m not going to detail the whole 9-10 course omakase. It was almost all very good, with a couple of exceptional pieces. That’s to be expected from Fabi Masuda (the guy in the middle with the glasses in the photo up there). I’ve had his food at different spots over the years, starting back with the original Club M Omakase over a decade ago, where they had (in a corner of this same building, a six-seat sushi bar and a couple of tables off to the side); and then on, later, to Omakase Masuda a few blocks away, in a basement, which closed during the pandemic.
Here’s the thing - I look back at my earlier reviews, and I’m struck by both how little his style has changed, even serving many of the same plates, and at the same time, I’d venture that the value overall has dropped.
At the original Club M the omakase was roughly the same as what I thought was too expensive here, the first time I visited, a bit over $70. But it included a plate of sashimi with two different kinds of fish and two shellfish; two different five-piece tiraditos, one of sole, the other of octopus; a salmon tartare plate; two rounds of two-nigiri each and two rounds of half rolls (4 pieces each). Roughly, in volume, a 32-piece omakase.
At Omakase Masuda, the price was down to about $50. It began with a small amuse, then a sashimi platter of two each of six different fish or shellfish; then the same five-piece tiradito of sole; the salmon tartare, the two rounds of nigiri and the two rounds of half rolls (4 pieces each). ln volume, still about 30 pieces - just more on the sashimi at the beginning, but a price far lower. And a little less variety.
The current offering, as I noted, down to about $59, starts with an amuse and a bowl of rice with furikake on it; then three types of sashimi, essentially two pieces each; four different nigiri; two ostensible half rolls (only 3 pieces each); a handroll; and that was it for sushi, then it moved on to stuff from the kitchen - a battered and fried prawn, and a sort of bruschetta of cured trout; a piece of grilled fish with some vegetables on the side; a cup of miso soup; and a piece of cake. All told, 13 pieces of sushi, three other small fish plates; some veggies and cake. I left still a tad hungry, though that might be because I just didn’t care for most of what came out of the kitchen end of things and didn’t finish any of them.
Now, again, the sushi all very good - with the exception of I still don’t get his commitment to this bizarre sweet maki of prawns, strawberries, and almonds, though at least he’s taken the cream cheese out of it since Omakase Masuda. I liked his food the best back at the first place - I think it was the best value and the best food he made. And, I guess I’d have liked to have known that the omakase wasn’t all sushi, that half of it was out of the kitchen. I’d go back and order a la carte sushi, which is where this place shines.
The wrap-up?
Sintesís - go for the ramen and the pork-chive dumplings
Lima - pass, sorry, it’s foundering
Club Nika - a la carte sushi, I’d pass on the omakase