Entrance:

Bright Japanese restaurant hidden on a little street very near the Ramblas. Hello Sushi is headed by Chef Yukie Horita, supposedly the first woman ever educated at a Japanese sushi school. I was eager to eat somewhere with a real Japanese sushi chef!

Interior:

Cool and comfortable setting with pretty stone walls, candles and colorful lighting. At the entrance is a narrow bar with low tables and mats and cushions to sit on the floor. I came on a Thursday, and at the early hour of 9pm, was the first diner to arrive. However, weekend reservations are recommended by various sources.

Bread.

Chewy cold bread with a thick sweet pepper and miso flavored dip. I would have liked the bread fresh and crisp like when this reviewer visited the restaurant. No matter!

After scanning and rescanning the messy and hard to read menu (the colors of the text and paper didn’t contrast too much and it seemed the words were all over the place) that had an interesting thick gray felt cover, we completely forgot to order any sushi at this restaurant aptly named Hello Sushi! Instead…:

Misoshiro €3

Normal hot clear miso soup.

Huafu Salad €3

Fresh crunchy bean sprouts, shredded carrots, seaweed strips and one leaf of lettuce in a very tasty sweet thick soy and sesame sauce.

Shrimp tempura with sweet and sour sauce €16

Very doughy and soft soggy tempura, almost a bit raw, with another sweet and salty thick sauce. The batter was so raw and not the least bit crispy crunchy that it was a little difficult to finish the plate without feeling funny. Maybe we just got the unlucky first plate of the night.

Sakana no Teriaki- fresh seasonal fish barbecued and served with teriyaki sauce €10.50

Soft juicy salmon sprinkled with a very small amount of plainish teriyaki sauce and some zucchini. The taste was more bbq than teriyaki with a grilled charcoal flavor in some spots. This must be an example of how this place is Mediterranean as well. A big slab of light and clean juicy fish, but watch for bones!

rice €2.40

Yummy chewy Japanese rice sprinkled with sesame seeds. I still think rice should be free in all restaurants!

Crunch- 8 crunchy pieces of California rolls filled with Philadelphia cheese and salmon €8

Maybe because I’m American, but I really liked this fried roll! They tasted almost like mozarella sticks but not chewy on the inside. Really crispy crunchy, really melty warm cream cheese, and slightly cooked salmon. Hungry Chicken says yum yum yum!

It’s too bad I didn’t get to try any of the real sushi or sashimi here, but my brother, who ate here a few days later, said it was decent. Overall, a pretty good place for Japanese. The pretty decorations make up for some of the food which still needs refining.

The waitress actually forgot to include the Crunch roll and our waters, so the bill came up to only €38! I felt bad, and being an honest hungry chicken, I told her to fix up the receipt, but when she still forgot to add the water, oh well!

Receipt:
2 servicio pan 1.00
misoshiro 3.00
huafu salad 3.00
sakana no teriyaki 10.50
tempura de gambas 16.00
gohan 2.40
californian crunch 8.00
total+tax= €46.97 (dinner for 2)

This entry was posted by chicken on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Barcelona, Raval, Japanese, Mediterranean. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.