I liked this place better than Matsuei, but only because they had more things I could eat and the chef understood my dietary restrictions. This is not a cheap sushi restaurant. It’s a beautiful, outdoor space in the Swissotel. It’s small, intimate but casual enough that a Japanese family came in and sat at the sushi bar – mom, dad and kids. The sushi chef smiled at them and happily made their dinner, all the while turning out thoughtfully-plated courses for my table. Such as:
Salmon tartar with roe and avocado on rice crackers. This was actually a great combo, even though you don’t expect rice crackers at a fancy restaurant. I couldn’t do a cracker or bread with gluten, but the salty rice crisp got into the salmon like soy sauce does and made the flavour of the farmed Chilean salmon better. It’s the same salmon you get everywhere, and I usually don’t eat farmed fish but it worked. You’d find this served all over North America in a similar way as an amuse-bouche, and the appetizer form would come in a martini glass. So the combo is international.
Next, sashimi. Creamy, sweet scallops, tender octopus (for once!), my requested uni (the orange stuff at the bottom that I love) topped with seaweed, red maguro tuna, the same salmon, and what I think was flounder (the white fish). The thick cut of the clam won by far, and the uni didn’t taste fishy at all. Just chilled and fresh. It was a big plate, and we got one each, which made the rest of the meal very filling.
Plus wine (thought most customers were ordering juices or pisco sours):
Argentinian Viognier. I expected it to be sweeter and really smooth, but this Viognier (a varietal you see a lot of in France and not so much elsewhere) was very crisp and a little acidic. So, perfect with the sashimi and tartar.
A side note on wine in Peru: They don’t drink a lot of it here. Despite the large Italian population, there isn’t a lot of local product available in stores, and what there is is pretty awful. And you’d think that’d be fine because Argentina and Chili – two great wine-producing countries – are right next door, so you’d be able to get your hands on good stuff. And you can, but it’s SO expensive. Argentinian and Chilean wine often costs the same amount here in Peru as it does in Canada or more! There must be a large importation tax. At the local Wong, a large grocery store, there are weekly deals of up to 35% off mostly larger producers, and if you’re lucky you can get a good bottle for $13. But often the average plonk (Frontera, Casillero del Diablos) costs around $15/bottle, which is ridiculous. Your average bottle costs around $17, and the current trend seems to be overly sweetened sparkling wines. Good luck finding an extra brut for under $30! All this leads me to think there’s not a big market for wine here, and locals drink a ton of Cusquena (local beer) and Pisco (fermented grape liquor) and a couple local rums that haven’t received the best reviews but I have yet to try myself. So the Peruvians are supporting local by marking up imported stuff and the locals are happy to drink Pisco sours, Chilcanos and beer. Wine is snobbish and good luck finding a restaurant for an affordable glass or bottle. Next:
Wrapping a maki roll in squid is a fun way to use up squid. Stuffing it with avocado, cucumber, sole and tuna and topping it with a few spices and a yuzu citrus-soy sauce is an especially great way to use up squid. The cucumber-wrapped version of the same was refreshing (or watery, depending on who you talked to), but the chef used Japanese cucumbers that have fewer seeds and more texture, so I veered towards refreshing. There were a lot of edible flowers this meal. Every plate that came was gorgeous, including:
The mackerel with sole and cucumber. It’s as though Peru has this concept that if you can’t feed the gluten-free woman anything on the menu yo just stuff as many rolls with as many different kinds of fish that don’t necessarily go together as possible. The white fish in this was great, but mackerel overpowers everything, always. A little more sugar in the lightly brined mackerel would have helped subdue it’s flavour, too. But look at those blue flowers! Gorgeous! And the carrot hadn’t been sitting around all day to be a garnish either.
It was really sad I couldn’t have mot of the menu, because the menu looked so good! Above is one of the chef’s cooked dishes: a pretty simple buckwheat noodle stir-fry with bok choy, carrots, onions, sugar snap peas, toasted sesame seeds and soy sauce. The reason the dish was so good was the impeccable vegetable sourcing of the chef. Apparently he gets first pick of his vegetables from the hotel kitchen. He’s very picky. He also very carefully sources his fish, ensuring that he uses only the best. That’s also why prices are so high here. You pay for quality.
It was a huge plate and a great way to finish the meal by filling out any empty places left in our stomachs with salty comforting goodness. Neither of us could finish our plate. The one above is not for sharing. Order one and share.
What I wish I could have ordered:
The maki acevichados and flambeados. That means maki in a ceviche sauce ($14) and flambéd maki ($14). Acevicheado is a popular fusion roll where you’d think the fish would just be topped with a mix of lime juice, chili pepper and salt, but actually they often throw in soy and sometimes blend in the fresh chili pepper with mayonnaise. If the mayo comes from a package it can have dairy in it and I can’t eat it, and if there’s soy I generally can’t eat it. We didn’t get any acevicheado here but I’m sure chef could have made it. It doesn’t seem like the kind of place they’d used package mayonnaise, to be sure. I have no idea about the flambéd maki, but the idea of lighting any maki on fire makes me pretty excited.
They do use fake crab here, though, even in the seaweed salad appetizer. That seems out of place, but the fresh version is so expensive. Also 30 soles for the app is steep ($12 – the same as a whole acevicheado roll), but maybe it’s a huge serving, and the imported seaweed is pricey, as I found out at the local Japanese market in San Isidro the other day. The tiradito is 42 soles ($18.50), but I’d just had spectacular tiradito at La Locanda, so didn’t need it that night.
One more note on booze: Even here when I asked about sake they said, “Hot or cold?” which is not the answer I wanted. At the Japanese market the best sake they have a dai gingo and it doesn’t look great. What they do have lots of are flavoured sakes – lychee and even Peruvian fruits. And there’s a lychee Pisco. The market makes a lot of its own version of imported goods because they can sell them at lower prices, but they don’t make sake. And there’s not a big enough demand for good imported stuff, unfortunately. Weird, because there’s a huge Japanese population, like there’s a huge Italian population, yet you can’t get good sake and you can’t get decently priced quality wine. Hurray local?
Sushi Cage
When: Mon to Sat: 12:30–3:30pm, 7pm–11pm (Closed Sundays)
Phone: +51 1421 4400
Via Central 150, Centro Empresarial Real, San Isidro, Lima
How much: 65 to 150 soles ($26-$60), as it really depends on what you order. À la carte adds up fast, and if you add wine you can get up to 200 soles easy ($80). The meal above would be around that with the wine.
Leave a Reply