Real Deal Sushi
Yuki is the real thing – that’s the place that wouldn’t even let us in the door way back on a Saturday night. Monday nights no security guard, they just buzz you in. Quiet – I went at 8:30, maybe 15 people eating in dining room, three at sushi bar, took a place at the bar, looked at the menu, looked at the display of fish and shellfish, watched the chef, Kazuo, for 2-3 minutes, looked at him and said “omikase”, i.e., “your choice”. He beamed like a kid in a candy shop. He paraded half a dozen plates in front of me one after the other spectacular – sashimi, sushi, and a grilled fish – some stuff I haven’t even seen here in Buenos Aires before. We talked about the fish, we talked sake (decent brand, lightly chilled, 24 pesos, and served traditional style in the little wooden box), they clearly have regulars, both argentine and japanese. I suddenly realized I hadn’t asked or specified a price and started to get worried, but then saw they accept cc’s and decided what the hell – and it turned out to be a non-issue – plenty of food, spectacular food – 90 pesos. His father opened the place 40 years ago when they moved to BA from southern Japan, when he was just a kid. When he was old enough, he went back and went to school for sushi chef training in Osaka, then returned to work with his father, and then took it over a few years back. This isn’t a fly-by-night newcomer!
Buenos Aires – I scribbled off the above missive to a local friend about five minutes after arriving home from my first time at Yuki, Pasco 740, in Congreso, 4942-7510. I don’t really have a lot to add to it. I could go into detail, I suppose – things like thinly sliced caracól, or giant sea snail ; or the panapea, a geoduck clam, shaved into a delicate ponzu sauce; or perhaps the pejerrey amarillo, the saltwater relative of the local river fish pejerrey, that only comes on the market once a year for a few weeks; or maybe just the thick slices of lightly seared bonito, lined up in rows… nah, there’s no need to go into any of that. Let’s just say that for an hour and a half I didn’t miss the sushi bars of New York… Apologies for the pictures, I didn’t have my camera with me, just a phone with the resolution of a pinhole camera shot through a coke bottle bottom… and these have been photoshopped to death…
July 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Dan, thank you for the FYI and for sharing. Does YUKI offer other traditional rice bowl dishes (oyakodon, katsudon, etc)? And it is great to see a varied selection of sushi, besides salmon. Domo arigato.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
my usual login name has surprising resonance for this post. Good to see those hearty pieces of sushi. Got to see if I can get in
July 12th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Yuki does have a full menu, including rice and noodle dishes – I noted my favorite zaru soba and filed it away for a future visit. I forgot to mention in the post that while talking to Kazuo I asked his opinion about the ubiquitous salmon and cream cheese combo that’s everywhere here – he just grimaced. I commented that if I want salmon and cream cheese, I want the former smoked, and I want it all served on a real bagel with a slice of raw onion. He was laughing so hard I thought he was going to cry. Then we agreed on that you can’t get a really good bagel here… which launched more food conversation – a good time had!
Sushilovin – if you go earlier in the week it appears there’s no issue. On weekend nights they’re apparently so popular that they simply won’t accept walk-ins.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 am
[...] deal (50 pesos) given the quality of the sushi, which is very good – not quite up to what I had at Yuki a few weeks back, and of course, my thoughts are tainted by truly spectacular sushi had in New York [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
[...] again, taking the place of some cool little neighborhood café), yet with two exceptions – Yuki and Nihonbashi – I’ve never seen salmon eggs here, and certainly not available retail. Well, [...]
August 14th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Just an update – I’ve been back to Yuki a half dozen times since this review. It likely would have been more often, but the second time I went, with the person to whom I’d scribbled off the opening missive, a virtually identical menu, with only the addition of a small plate of sea urchin sushi, and an extra sake or two, set us back 500 pesos with tip. That 90 peso omikase menu jumped to 175 pesos apiece, though, each visit since has been 150 plus beverages – perhaps the sea urchin carried a 25 peso apiece surcharge, but we hadn’t asked for extra, it just arrived as part of the parade of dishes. Still, it’s put Yuki in a “special occasion” or at least “I need really, really good sushi” category.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] So overall – more expensive but better quality than the first spot, but still a far cry from the quality of Maki, my usual delivery spot, which is also here in the ‘hood and deliver in 20 minutes most of the time = plus, had I ordered two rolls and one nigiri selection, it would have been less than 10 pesos cheaper. The remaining two spots on the list are a fair distance from here and I doubt they’d deliver this far, so likely I’ll just leave them alone. Back to Maki for deliveries and occasional special treat evenings out at Yuki. [...]
November 17th, 2009 at 8:56 am
[...] quality plates of raw fish and rice. And there have been successes, and glimmers of hope – Yuki, Nihonbashi, Comedor Nikkai, Maki… but mostly it’s been lackluster, mediocre, and all [...]