A very popular modern Japanese restaurant. For a casual but stylish atmosphere and decent Japanese, come here!

Entrance:

Almost every night, this place is packed. Get used to staring at this big metal door and fake bamboo as you wait outside for a table. Another option is to get drinks at the less popular bar/restaurant right across the street, owned by the same company.

Interior:

High ceilings, dark walls, red accents, and big wooden tables and benches remind me of NYC and Republic noodle restaurant.

Udon Soup €4.05

Good soy based udon noodle soup with seaweed. The noodles were a bit thin.

Tofu, Edamame, and Shitake Sauteed in a Wok with Teriyaki Sauce €4.05

I’m not sure why I ordered this one, but it came out as expected: a normal plainish soy sauce and veggies dish, the kind you would make and eat at home.

Ebi Tempura- shrimp tempura €8.95

Pricey, but yummy, this time there were 4 slightly larger shrimp. Crunchy crispy batter on normal sized shrimp with good sweet soy sauce.

Salmon Katsu- breaded salmon kebab with red sauce €2.80

Crunchy plain salmon with mayonnaise sauce. More sauce please!

Smoked Salmon Maki with Beetroot and Chives (6) €5.15

Pretty in pink rolls with yummy lightly smoked salmon taste and lots of chewy rice (salmon wrapped in white rice wrapped in pink, probably beetroot soaked rice).

Yogurt soup with Curry and Chocolate €4.35

On a previous trip to el Japonés, a couple seated opposite from us happily slurped up this dessert and even ordered seconds. They saw another family looking at the dessert menu across the table and eagerly recommended them to get the yogurt soup. Being curious, I decided to order what didn’t sound so dessert worthy to me (not a big fan of yogurt).

Sprinkled with lots of curry powder, the first taste in your mouth is salty and of typical yellow curry powder, which was a little strange. Then you taste a little chocolate sauce and then the milky plain yogurt in watery soupy form. The combination was a bit weird to me, as the curry was just too salty, but perhaps yogurt fans would adore it! On this trip, we also ordered the sesame ice cream again. Check it out below, it’s really good!

Receipt:
Salmon-Katsu Pin 2.80
Ebi Tempura temp 8.95
Sopa de Udon 4.05
tofu, edamame y 4.05
maki de salmon a 5.15
helado de sesamo 4.35
sopa oriental de 4.35
te japones 2×1.50 3.00
total+tax= €39.27 (dinner for 2)

warm Sake €3.31

Lukewarm and strong sweet rice flavors.

Cheese Okonomiyaki €5.10

Mmmmm! Nice and warm, and melty cheesy, fried egg batter with bits of veggies and seafood inside.

Shrimp tempura €8.95

Wow! For about 10 U.S. bucks, you get 3 tiny tiny shrimp! It looked so small and silly in a largish bowl (in comparison) that I actually laughed a little in shock when it arrived. However, they tasted really good and crispy in nice tempura batter and soy sauce. Just much too small!

Futomaki €5.15

Normal roll of egg and veggies.

Warm Chocolate Tart €4.35

Warm soft and chocolatey cakey brownie with a strip of seaweed and candied orange peel on top.

More on this restaurant: 1 2

This entry was posted by chicken on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 8:03 am and is filed under Barcelona, Eixample Esquerra, Japanese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.