With a lack of authentic Japanese restaurants in Buenos Aires, I am happy to add another place to the list. Thanks to a tip-off from my favorite Treatsy and Lost Asian Buenos Aires food bloggers, I found out about the relatively unknown traditional Japanese spot: a hidden gem on the Belgrano-Nuñez border, where a Japanese mother and daughter duo run an intimate restaurant that is by reservation only. It’s always a good sign walking into a Japanese restaurant where the majority of the dining clientele are Japanese. This place is legit.
Located inside a house that has been converted into a restaurant, Niji is much more than just any old sushi place. If you know someone who speaks Japanese (shout out to my best JAP^2 pal), or knows about Japanese cuisine, make sure they come along. Since most of the menu is in Japanese with some Spanish translations, it’s important to choose your dinner guests wisely for optimal dish ordering. The whole menu is a bit overwhelming as it is printed on massive laminated cards, each card displaying a different course (appetizers, sushi, teppan, bento boxes, etc.). Luckily, for those who are a bit rusty in Kanji, in good ole Denny’s menu fashion there are photos shown of each dish listed.
Like many of my favorite restaurants, it’s ideal to go with a larger group and order many small plates to share. Bad food sharers aren’t invited: since it is tapas style, it wouldn’t make much sense just to order one thing for yourself. So another reason to choose your eating partners wisely, no picky eaters or “I’ll just get my own dish” types are allowed to come. One of my favorite dishes of the night (shown left), a take on octopus-esque salad. Look at those adorable fresh little critters! Nicely dressed with just the right amount of acidity, the octopus also had a pleasant texture, and it didn’t feel like I was chewing on a condom (because I love to do that from time to time).
I wanted to break my sharing rule when this sizzling hot pan fried plate of gyoza were dropped off at the table – those little doughy morsels are the absolute shit. Fried in a cast-iron pan and served as the Japanese do, all in one glorious clump from the heavens, these bad boys aimed to please.
Other highlights of the evening included a Japanese salad – a fresh starter with greens and topped with sashimi in a light dressing.
The family jewel of the night: the sushi platter. Make sure to be clear that you are ALLERGIC to queso crema (cream cheese) or they might bust a big white load on your rolls. While I wish they had a bit more variety of fish on the platter, other than salmon and whitefish, the freshness was quite apparent – it went down like butter, no fishy smell here. It seems a bit silly to comment on sushi rice, as it’s something that is quite standard in making good sushi, but there are so many places in BA that can’t cook rice, so it was a nice surprise to actually eat it when cooked and seasoned perfectly.
For the MEHH dishes – a tofu and green onion sort of soup that came with a nice light soy based sauce, while it wasn’t bad, it didn’t have anything memorable about it. Next, a small grilled fish plate that was a bit of an afterthought and a low note after the sushi. Perhaps as a starter it would have been better. Anything will be a hard act to follow after that sushi platter.
Being the only ones in the restaurant, I felt a bit rushed to get out of there. Ready to eat more, due to lack of customers and a torrential downpour, the kitchen closed early, making the majority of the things on the menu unavailable. So when food isn’t available, drinking comes next. Yes, that is Sake in a cool futuristic sake pitcher.
Even though the atmosphere was reminiscent of a Northern Wisconsin wooden cabin circa 1989 (No Disneyworld for me, my family used to take jet-setting summer vacations to hotspots like Door County & Eagle River in Wisconsin, the Indiana Dunes and New Mexico’s Anasazi ruins), the service was quite good and staff was attentive and helpful with the extremely large flash card menu. Prices are standard for sushi / Japanese in BA – not cheap, but not ridiculously expensive either. It’s a place to go with a group who are looking to satisfy that Japanese craving and in the need of something for a bit more than a California roll and cream cheese with salmon.
Niji
Iberá 2424 (near the Congreso de Tucuman subway stop)
Tel. 4544-1850, by reservation only
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Paula De Caro says
I’ll definitely visit this place!!!! Thanks!!!
louisemcarr says
Thanks for this post. I was clueless about Japanese food in Buenos Aires and this has given me some inspiration
Milla Sorel says
Oh! Someone just recommend it above! :D
Milla Sorel says
Hi! I love your blog! Want to go everywhere!
My favourite spot of sushi is in Palermo but the owners are japanese and is no trendy at all, fact that I love.
Sushi is delicious (rice perfect, fish fresh) and is quite cheap, like 80 por person.
http://www.palermonline.com.ar/gastronomia/okishima.htm
Best
Ezequiel Davidovich Caballero says
You have to check out Furaibo. Authentic Japanese cuisine including authentic Ramen.
Anonymous says
i don’t know the second place you’re referring to in this article, but i highly recommend okishima in palermo soho – the staff is japanese, and the food is quite good, mostly home-style japanese dishes. (i grew up in tokyo and am half-japanese, fyi)
Nick says
Have you ever ate at La Escondida in palermo soho? You seemd to have missed out reviewing that one. All you can eat salad bar for 20 pesos with awesome salad.
forkyou says
say it aint so, 20 pesos salad bar?! how do i not know about this.
Argento Wine says
Yum – the food looks delicious in your photos! Amazing the quality of authentic Asian cuisine you can find in BA these days, as Lisa Goldapple discovered in her recent article for our blog about the underground puerta cerrada supper club scene, including Casa Mun and Cocina Sunae: http://www.therealargentina.com/argentinian-wine-blog/buenos-aires-supper-clubs-go-underground-or-go-home/
mary says
i went on Saturday and died from yumminess.
DillyDoodle says
Thanks for the great recommend, I’m going to suprise my husband and bring him there! Being a California transplant I’m seriously missing good sushi and asian food. Sukiyaki in San Telmo is really good, you can’t beat the $65 peso lunch menu, the great service, and the green tea ice cream that tastes..mmmm… like a bitter pot of tea! Also had some very fresh halibut-type sushi that the sushi chef brought over and they forgot to charge us for (nice to be under-charged for once)!
Dan says
Also, I’ve been hearing great things about Sukiyaki in San Telmo for years, no idea why I’ve not been yet….
Marg says
Sukiyaki is bizarre, in a way that I enjoyed quite a bit. There aren’t really words to explain it (which is what everyone who goes there says), so it’s a you’ve got to try to it to believe it kind of experience. The food is tasty! If you go with an open mind, I think you’d like it!
forkyou says
what do you mean by bizarre?
Naranjitas says
Niji has started offering a Lunch menu (every day except Sunday). A pasta or sandwich set is 50ars with coffee, and Japanese lunch box set is 70ars with Japanese tea. In Japan, we have cafes serving good western lunches, and Niji gives us the same experience here in BA…The food was cooked/displayed very nicely, and was very tasty and satisfying! I felt like I was in a good cafe in Japan.
forkyou says
i’ll have to check out the lunch menu, that’s a really good thing to know!
Maria Carra BAFoodie says
I still can’t forget Kayoko, an authentic Japanese restaurant which shut down a few years ago. I can’t wait to try this one!! Might just be the replacement I am looking for!
Dan says
I think you’re missing at least a couple of authentic Japanese places, though you didn’t specify which two – Yuki, Nihonbashi, Nikkai, Fujisan, Irifune come to mind. But thanks for a new find to check out!
razalba says
Yes, perhaps you are right.. I was referring to Yuki (my top choice) and Irifune. I had an awful experience at Fujisan, the cream cheese doused rolls tasted like bathroom cleaner. Nikkai y Nihonbashi are on the list. I’ve also heard great things about a place in Bajo Flores that is supposed to be worth checking out.
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Ruhtra Razal says
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Katie says
I’m not a huge fan of Japanese cuisine, but I would down those gyoza in two seconds flat. They look amazing in that cast iron pan. Want!
razalba says
I have dreams about these gyoza.
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Frances Ren Huang says
chewing on a condom- love it.