Taking over the dining room from French brasserie Topinambour in the Palo Santo Hotel, which closed early this year, this new spot focuses on "contemporary nikkei" cooking. Since nikkei cooking is pretty much an invention of the last 15-20 years, I'd have to say that's kind of redundant - all nikkei cooking is contemporary. They haven't done a lot to change the decor - some different paintings and display items, and they no longer put white tablecloths on the tables, and there's still a quite lovely garden if the weather's nice. The guests, other than myself, all seemed to be from the hotel, and wandered in in various forms of dress. I've never quite understood treating a hotel like you're at home, especially when you go into the public areas. It's one thing to wander in semi-dressed if you're staying in a hostel or B&B, but a hotel ought to command a certain level of at least putting all your clothes on.
The food is... okay. The gyozas were well made, filled with pork and garlic chives, a nice touch (220 pesos). But they're cooked in some sort of oily, brownish sauce that clings to them and was, while not unpleasant, at the least, odd. The soy and garlic chive dip on the side had been reduced down to a thick sludge. Then, the sushi. Setting aside a misunderstanding - they offer all their creative nigiri sushi in pairs, and there are eight of them on the menu. They all run about 100-120 pesos per pair. There's a note at the bottom that you can pick any four for 200 and some pesos and any six for 300 and some, which would be a generous discount. And I said something to the waitress about just essentially doing a double on the four-some. She laughed, and scribbled on her pad. When I got the bill, I was charged individually for all of them, and asked her about it. She replied that those combo prices would have been a single nigiri of each type, not two, and since I'd said I wanted a pair of each, she couldn't apply that price. I mean, that makes more sense price-wise, it just would have been nice if she'd have made it clear, or even said, hey, you could get one of each for those prices and then order a roll or something. (Which I had anyway, or, a half-roll.)
But, back to the sushi itself. The fish was all fresh, but that's about where it all stopped being really good. You can see they're all sloppily presented - different sized pieces of fish paired together, just shoved on a slate, no attempt to be neat about it, sauces slopped over them. And the flavors, while interesting combinations, were just out of balance. None of them were bad, but none of them tasted like they were made by someone who understands flavor, seasoning, or balance. And the rice was not holding together, it just fell apart when I tried to pick up most of the pieces. All in all, I wouldn't go back, it's a hard pass for me, both on price and quality. read more