Time for another all-Asian round-up – actually, split into two in a row, or this would get to be a wayyyyy too long post. I’ve been hitting a lot of Asian spots recently. Let’s start in about as Japanese a spot as we can get…
The Restaurante Jardín Japonés, in, the Japanese gardens, Av. Casares 2966, Palermo. Now, I’ve been to the gardens, on and off over the years. It was, back in the day, a very tranquil spot to just go sit and relax. And the fee for entry, while it gradually crept up from the 5 pesos it was back when I first moved here, always sort of kept pace with coming in between $1.50-2 as the value of the peso changed. At some point it jumped a bit, still not ridiculous, but these days it’s 200 pesos, or a shade over $3. In the scheme of things, that’s nothing for a beautiful walk in these gardens, but they’ve also become a real tourist attraction, and during the day, at times, the place is filled with selfie sticks and screaming children, making it a far less attractive spot to go and relax.
As to the restaurant itself, I’d only been once before, back in 2008, so it was time for a revisit. At the time, it was one of the more expensive meals to be had, particularly for Japanese food, and perhaps even more so, because we didn’t have sushi that time around, which tends to carry a higher price tag. We’d shelled out, for lunch, 75 pesos, at the time, the equivalent of $23 apiece. So, how would I fare, this time around?
I ordered up their six-piece nigiri combo, which was to have 2 pieces of tuna, 2 of salmon, 1 white fish, and 1 prawn. No prawn. A shrug from the waiter, “it comes out however it comes out”… well, no, it doesn’t say on the menu, “sushiman’s choice of six”, it lists what’s in the combo. Shrug. In addition, two pieces of salmon skin, and six of octopus. The nigiri are oddly setup on the menu, some come in twos, some come in sixes. Whatever. All… good. The fish is fresh, the octopus is tender. The rice is kind of bland and loose, it tends to fall apart when picking up the pieces.
Given the amount of sushi I ordered, I decided on just a tempura appetizer as a “main course”. A nice mix of perfectly crispy vegetables and prawns. Tasty dipping sauce. Definitely a cut above the sushi.
Still, the place is packed with tourists, and not to disparage tourists at all, but it was a lot of yelling in English, French, German, and Portuguese, and not so much Spanish, as people tried to place orders and waiters did their best to understand them. Kids running around careening off of tables. Not the tranquil spot that it once was.
And the price-tag – the above food, a bottle of water, tip, and again, one must pay the garden’s entrance fee to get to the restaurant, came in at a shade over 2100 pesos, or almost $35. Yup, it’s still expensive. And there are far better Japanese restaurants in the city, particularly for sushi, with better service, and, given what it’s become, better ambiance, despite the lovely view.
The Hot Pot Company, Av. Rivadavia 2369, Once. The start of an empire. The much anticipated opening of the flagship branch of this shabu shabu spot (a small outpost opened up a few weeks ago in the San Telmo Market). Chatting with the owner, he plans to open multiple locations around the city. And he’s not sparing on the investment. This place seats 70, with an individual ceramic induction burner at each position, individual pots for broth, plus everything else involved in furniture, decor, and preparation. I would have imagined that staff costs would be lower, because they don’t need people to do much cooking and serving, almost everything is serve and cook it yourself, but there are plenty of staff involved in explaining, demonstrating, and at the least, food prep for the self-service bar.
First, you select your broth. If you’re as enamored by the broth server as we were, you take your time. You have a choice between spicy, mild, and miso broths. We all got the spicy, though in retrospect it would have been good to try the others – and we will – so right there you know we enjoyed it.
Once your pot of broth is on its burner and coming to a simmer, you make a trip to the “fixin’s bar” as we might have called it when I was growing up. At lunch time this is primarily vegetables of various types – the only meats were some cubed ham and some sliced kanikama, or fake crab stick. At dinnertime they apparently put out an array of other meats and seafood (and, there’s a price differential – lunchtime is all you can eat for 500 pesos, dinner is 900 – plus beverages).
Then you mix up your own dipping sauce to your personal tastes – there are chilies in various forms, garlic, green onions, ginger, cilantro, and various sauces – soy, peanut, hoisin, creamy tofu, sesame oil, black vinegar, and more.
By the time you return to your table, a platter of thin sliced beef will be there (at night it’s beef and pork belly). You can start adding things to your broth to flavor it, or, perhaps wait for the charming owner or one of the others to come around and…
… show you how it’s done. I think all of us had had shabu shabu or hot pot before, but it’s nice to get the personal attention. Paper bibs provided. That’s Steven, by the way, whom you’ve heard of a few times in these posts. One of my two regular Sunday afternoon outings partners.
Overall? Good to very good. The spicy broth seemed a touch out of balance to us, but not sure exactly why – just missing some depth I think. But then, as you add things to it, it gets better and better. Personally, I’d probably go back and get the miso broth, and just add some of those chilies and ginger and such from the sauce bar selection to give it the heat that I’d want. We’ve had better shabu shabu in the city, but Shabu Shabu 153 requires a trip out to Floresta – this place I can walk to from home; and Nihonbashi is more than double the price. Also, at neither of them do you get to design your own individual shabu shabu – at the former, it’s a communal pot, and the latter is both communal and, you get what they serve you. I like this version.
Don Fuu, cocina asiatica, Suipacha 176, San Nicolas. Basically just a little lunch counter, with a lot of take out going on.
Woks, sandwiches, salads. For the former, pick the type you want, then decide it you want it veggie, chicken, or beef, and if you want any add-ons. It’ll be in your hands inside of five minutes, if they’re not busy, two to three.
The woks are a hefty portion, more than I cared to eat at one sitting. I went for their version of pad thai, which bears some resemblance to what pad thai is. Heavy on the vegetables – cabbage, bean sprouts, and carrots. A bit light on the noodles – I mean, it’s supposed to be a noodle dish accented with vegetables, egg (there is none, unless you order it extra), meat, and peanuts. There’s an okay amount of meat, almost no peanuts. It had good flavor, though not a flavor I’d recognize as pad thai, and having ordered it spicy, it even had a decent kick, but it’s really more of a cheap vegetable stir fry with a little bit of the more expensive ingredients (rice noodles, meat, peanuts) thrown in. Still, it’s filling and tasty, and only runs 290 pesos, just shy of $5. The only beverage available is their house lemonade, which is a big jar of water with some lemons floating in it and a little sugar, for which they charge 50 pesos a glass. Meh.
