Yes, truel, or triel, is a word, and the equivalent of a duel, but between three parties. And new words for me, I guess in the back of my mind I assumed that there might be words for duels between more than two people, but had never looked them up. Learning, always learning! Today, we’re looking at three more of the omakase bars in town, including what may be currently the oldest and newest around.

Let’s start with the older one. Now, as I mentioned in the first post in this series, the very first sushi bar in Buenos Aires, from the 1960s, was Yuki, and he offered both omakase menus with a choice of all sushi, all cooked dishes, or a mix. But this place, Buri Omakase, I think was the first spot to open up dedicated to just an omakase sushi bar experience. And it’s been open for quite a few years. And, it’s a puertas cerradas, a hidden away restaurant in an apartment, by reservation only (in an apartment building near the corner of Guatemala and Carranza, in Palermo – the address shown on Google Maps is close, but not the actual address). You’d think I’d have gone by now.

This is a big space. If I were to guess, they took a large living room and turned it into a bar, Kori, which is also run omakase style, with the bartender creating new drinks regularly, and guiding you through a drinking experience, if you wish. And you can do that at just the bar, making a separate reservation, or he’ll come to you at your seat in the sushi bar and make suggestions. What was probably the dining room and kitchen combined is now a twelve seat sushi bar. It’s all very chi-chi looking, and pretty impressive. Once inside, you’d never think of it as an apartment or living space.

Interestingly, the menu opens with three cooked dishes – the night I was there, a prawn chawanmushi, a grilled bluefish, and a torched king oyster mushroom.

And there are trio of tartares in close succession – wagyu beef, prawn, and a handroll of sea bream.

Following that, a plate of sashimi, and a series of seven nigiri, each beautifully presented, and with interesting touches of flavor, like trout topped with a crispy grasshopper salt, or mackerel with a citrus koshu. And at the end, a scoop of sesame ice cream over crushed black sesame seeds, all garnished liberally with shaved bonito flakes – a fascinating sweet and savory combination.

Overall – love the space. Service – very friendly, but very slow… albeit the sushi chef was preparing sushi for a full bar of twelve people, a fifteen course menu like this shouldn’t have taken three and a half hours – chatting with the young woman from NYC to my left and a couple from Singapore to my right, we were all itching to head out at least an hour before it ended. Also, despite a discussion with the chef on selecting a sake to pair with the menu, ordering it, and repeating the order a bit later to the server, I never got it. It’s expensive, coming in at 13,000 pesos (10% off for cash) including bottled water. The food was absolutely delicious, everything you might want from an omakase experience.

---

Not long ago taking over the space vacated by dive bar Fauna, and previous to that, El Surtidor, this place has been reimagined as a very pretty, sweeping oval of a sushi bar that probably seats about two dozen. Now Himitsu Kichi, Costa Rica 5198, corner of Godoy Cruz in Palermo offers up a menu of “fusion” sushi. [In retrospect, I’m curious about the name, which is the name of a song at the end of a popular anime, Danball Senki, and translates as “Secret Base”.] They don’t officially offer an omakase menu, but apparently it’s a popular enough request, that they put together individually curated series of selections from their menu. And it is individual, I had a different menu from the two young women next to me who came in a bit later (and theirs were different from each other), or the young man who was already there when I arrived that the chef is talking to in the photo. He asked a few questions about my likes and dislikes, and put together the selection from that.

So what I received was a series, first of sashimi – two pieces each of two different ones; then four nigiri together, a single torched nigiri and then two pieces each of five different rolls – 19 pieces of sushi in all. And very reasonably priced for that only 3500 pesos – though the price will vary somewhat, depending on what it is you get in your selection – what my bill showed for all of the above was a charge for a six-piece nigiri of salmon plate and a salmon maki. I like the space, service was friendly and attentive, and, as noted, very individualized.

Each piece I had was really delicious. The chef goes for a bit of modernist cuisine touches, with some gels and dehydrated things, and oils and a variety of other garnishes. And most of them are brilliant flavor combinations that just light up your palate. With the flavors of the garnishes. To some extent, lost in the whole experience, was the fish. I’m not sure that for most of these pieces it would have mattered what fish was used – the only things really tasted were the garnishes and sauces. The fish became the supporting element rather than the primary one, reversing the usual approach to sushi. So that’s a consideration. There are nights when that might be exactly what I want, but most of the time when I think sushi and omakase, what I want is the fish, accented by other flavors. My only negative note though, the rice was too cold – almost refrigerator temperature. Sushi rice should be room temperature or a bit warmer. But still, would I go back? Yes. Happily. But going into it knowing the above.

---

And, ending today’s post with one of the newest of the omakase bars, Gokana Sushi, Av. Monroe 1625, in Belgrano, just a block or so away from the far end of Chinatown. Now, I hadn’t, and haven’t, heard anything about this place. No one has mentioned it to me, I haven’t seen any write-ups on it. I found it when another place on my list that I wanted to try wasn’t open for the night because of a power outage. I put “omakase Buenos Aires” into an Instagram search, and it popped up with this one among others. Not having heard of it, but based on their posted photos and videos, I decided to make a reservation. They have two seatings a night, for up to nine people. For the early seating the night I went, it was just me and two women from Uruguay.

While not hidden away, other than the logo above the door, there’s nothing to indicate what’s here, and you can’t see through the storefront to see the sushi bar. It’s be reservation only, though I’d imagine if you showed up and they had space, they’d happily seat you. Service is friendly, and even a bit chatty, though some of the latter may have simply been that there were only the three of us. They do seem a bit concerned about how the food and experience are being perceived – I think we were asked after almost every piece by one or another of the three staff – what we thought of it; and at the end were engaged in a conversation about what we’d liked and not, and what we thought they could improve.

The menu is 18 courses. The first two courses, a tiradito of grey mullet in a fish stock ponzu and garnished with an almond and cashew furikake and a trio of pieces of three different cured fishes, had it come out to a total of 22 pieces. Following those two courses, there are fifteen individual nigiri, and then a chocolate dessert. In some ways, this place is the opposite of the previous experience. The chefs are really creative with an array of garnish ingredients and sauces – I don’t know that I’ve seen a place with quite so many different toppings arrayed, but they’re used judiciously, and the fish is the star, accented by those flavors. Among my favorites, sea bream with sesame oil and toasted sesame, a torched prawn with garlic butter; a torched calamar with sesame and confited garlic oil; and possibly the best surprise of the night, a grilled and smoked oyster mushroom brushed with miso butter.

Every piece, delicious. Nicely presented. They could lose the dish of soy sauce and the blob of wasabi paste, since each piece comes with its own sauce and garnish – but, as the two chefs said, there are some people who just insist on those on the plate. I’m not sure that’s true – not one of the previous omakase places I’ve been to had those on the bar, and I didn’t once see someone ask for them. They could be a little more attentive to cleaning up – the sushi plates got a bit messy over time from the various different sauces and oils – I’d probably replace them midway through; and at the end, they were simply left in front of us, even while dessert was served and bills were presented. Beverages are bit lacking – while a bottle of water or a soda (Coca Cola line) is included, the only alcoholic beverages (extra charge) are bottles of Corona beer, or a glass of either white or red wine, fairly uninspired. For the quantity, quite reasonable – 8000 pesos with a 10% discount for cash. I’d very happily return to this place and wish it wasn’t quite so far from home!