The Japanese Handjob
In which I explore BA's latest sushi trend, dedicated handroll bars
It’s been a bit since a dedicated sushi post. And this time, I’m focused on the latest sushi craze in Buenos Aires… handrolls. I’ve already written up a couple of spots that specialize in them - Norimoto, Asiaka, and Handororu, respectively, very good, excellent, and very good. I’m not sure why they’ve suddenly taken off this year, but then, who knows why any trend starts?
Let’s start at Kuro Neko, Paraguay 831, in Retiro, opened about five weeks ago, taking over the storefront vacated by the short-lived off-shoot vegetarian Mudrá Express. The room has the feel of an upscale hotel lobby bar. And there’s a lot of open space there, since all the seating is at the sushi counter or bar. I don’t know if they plan to add tables, but I kind of hope not, it’s a unique feel to the space.
While they offer a three course lunch that involves a sushi taco (more in a moment), a handroll, and a chirashi sushi bowl, I wasn’t keen on the last of those - too much rice for me. I decided to order a la carte, and started off with a two-piece nigiri of, I believe, sea bass, topped with what is more or less a “chili crisp” - crispy chili and garlic. Fresh and tasty. 6900 pesos, currently about $5.50.
A couple of handrolls, first one with scallops with more chili crisp, lemon, and kewpie mayo. 5000 pesos, about $4.
The second came unrolled, but an easy fix, and packed with fresh trout, passionfruit, and crisp, puffed quinua. Both excellent. 4500 pesos, about $3.65.
And finished off with what they claim is the only “sushi taco” in Argentina - not actually the case - offhand I know that Osaka offers sushi tacos that look pretty similar in style, if a bit fancier. It’s a taco shell made of fried nori seaweed, packed with rice, ceviche style sea bass, sweet potato, avocado, lime zest, and a hit of spicy shichimi togaroshi seasoning. Fantastic. 5000 pesos, about $4.
Overall? Loved it. They have various combination options, from the lunch special to multi-piece selections of either handrolls, tacos, or nigiri. Pricing is inline for good sushi bars, and service is friendly and helpful.
Next stop was the two-month old Shima Handroll Bar, Migueletes 715, Las Cañitas, taking over the upstairs of Casa Isla, a burger and snacks café. Lots of very attractive staff, all of whom seem not 100% sure of what it is they’re doing or if they’re doing it well. I can’t remember a meal where I’ve been asked more times by more different employees different aspects of how it was going. Even on my way out, on the stairs, the busboy asked me what I thought of the food.
Then again, maybe they need to be asking, because despite my polite murmurs of it all being… fine… it was all pretty mediocre. The fish in the handrolls was fresh, but there was no creativity whatsoever. I had high expectations - the 8-piece handroll combination listed three different fish and three different shellfish, each handroll coming with a different sauce and garnish. And among the eight rolls I got, not one of them was one from the detailed menu. Instead, what I got was the three different fish and one of the shellfish, all with the same “acevichada” preparation and garnish; a fish and a shellfish, each with the sauce nikkei and the same garnish; and one fish with spicy mayo. Basically everything tasted the same, and none had the promised creative touches. All in all, a big yawn and not worth the time nor money spent (32,100 pesos/$26 for the 8-piece combo).
Welcome to what might be the newest of these four, coming in at a mere three-weeks old, Sachi - The Handroll House, Roosevelt 1702, Belgrano, just north of Barrio Chino. Let me save you some anticipation. This place had, easily, the best creative handroll experience, and some of the best creative sushi I’ve had in quite awhile. Okay, maybe Kuro Neko above isn’t all that far behind, but between the two of them, they blow away the competition. And I was completely won over by the detailed descriptions of what the sushiman was making and serving (we chatted a bit, he worked at Nicky Harrison (minus the obsession for cream cheese) and then at Chui, and the flavor combinations show the quality of those experiences).
Various combination options are available (and soon, an omakase menu that will include cooked dishes as well), and I went with “#3”, which consisted of “1 regular nigiri, 1 special nigiri, 3 regular handrolls, and 3 special handrolls”. I’m not sure what makes the regular different from the special, they’re all creative and interesting. If I have any negative, it’s that for their white fish, they pick one fish for the day, and all the white fish pieces are made with that, with different sauces and garnishes. It might be nice to have some more variety of the fish. On my visit it was mero, a sea bass. I loved the piece brushed with a wasabi infusion and topped with smoky bonito flakes.
Truthfully, I loved every single combination, but the two that stand out in my mind are the sea bass with a mixed citrus mayo topped with a praline style crumble of peanuts and texturized soy protein; and the three-hour herb and aniseed confited sweetbread topped with a smoked eggplant puree, sesame, and chives. I’m stealing that idea, in some form, in the future. The food was so good I ordered another two nigiri after the combo, one that had just called out to me, and one to see what, given his experience at Chui, he was doing with vegetable sushi. Just as good as the fish! (Combo 27,000 pesos/$22. an excellent deal. Individual pieces and handrolls run from 3200 to 4000 pesos/$2.60-3.25.
So this one turns out to be not so new. At a year and a half old, you’d think I’d have heard of Masunori, Pasaje Buschiazzo 3043, Palermo. But no, it’s never come up. It’s got high ratings, though, and once again upfront, I have no idea why in this case. Whereas Shima, above, all tasted good, but lacked in creativity, let’s just say this is the reverse. A whole lot of creativity for a whole lot of not something I’d want to eat again.
We were actually doing okay with an unagi nigiri (eel) and a centolla gunkan (spider crab) as starters, albeit ridiculously expensive, running 15,100 pesos/$12.25 for two pieces. They weren’t wow, but they were good.
And then it promptly went downhill for the six-piece handroll (actually seven, because the sushiman (whose cooking experience was primarily as a line cook at a French bistro, though he did put in some time years ago at branches of Sushi Club and Fabric Sushi) wanted to show us something else) set, with clashing flavors, gloopy rice (the dark color is because they use brown sugar rather than white in making their sushi rice, and I’ll just go on record as saying that’s not a good idea), and in the case of the two shellfish pieces, scallops and prawns, overcooked - the latter being the texture of pencil erasers. 22,600 pesos/$18.25 for the six-piece (also available 4 or 8, with options, like a “kosher” option, which I can only assume means no shellfish, but the place isn’t kosher, so neither would the sushi be).
I’m sure there are, or soon will be, other dedicated handroll places. But the four reviewed here, and the three previously (linked in the first paragraph) are the only seven I’ve found to date. How do they stack up overall?
Sachi
Kuro Neko
Asiaka
Norimoto
Handororu
Shima
Masunori
There are two big jumps in quality and creativity in there. The first two are highly recommended, numbers 3-5 are recommended, and the last two are simply… not.