Tag Archives | sushi

Restaurant Discounts During Tour Gourmet Buenos Aires

La Panza Porteña points out some great Buenos Aires dining offers that include discounts of up to 50% off at select restaurants during Tour Gourmet Buenos Aires 2012 which runs through February 29, 2012.

Now in it’s 7th year, the Tour Gourmet is a chance to sample the culinary offerings from a variety of restaurants at 35% – 50% off depending on the restaurant and the day of the week. To take advantage of this offer, all you have to do is head over to their website and print out the coupon for the restaurant of your choice. Some of the current restaurants include Sushi Club, Te Matare Ramirez, Akira Sushi and Lizzie’s, though the list changes every week.

We had a chance to check out Sushi Club Palermo Hollywood on Monday night, and the 50% off discount made an expensive meal relatively affordable ($338 pesos for 45 pieces of sushi reduced to $169 pesos). Plus, they had red tuna which is a rare treat. Just remember, most coupons do not include drinks, service charge or tip.

There is also a wine tasting course at the Sheraton available with a 2×1 discount. Enjoy.

The Quest for Sushi Continued

By DaVe McComb on in Food

I’ve previously written about the travails of finding good sushi in Buenos Aires, which included having a tuna roll made from canned tuna and really only liking one or two places we tried (Osaka being one). Plus, I still cannot understand the Argentine fascination with putting cream cheese in just about every roll they make.

Still, one of the benefits of being here for a longer time is the ability to hear about good experiences and try new places. Recently we tried two – Itamae Sushi and SushiPhone.

Itamae Sushi is a large chain with thirteen locations in Capital Federal. I was pretty sure I had been at least once before and liked it, but couldn’t really remember, so we decided to try it for dinner delivery last week. All I can say is – I must have a bad memory. The sushi was bland, the rice too compacted and it arrived much colder than sushi should be eaten at. I was expecting a lot more, especially for the price. What a disappointment. We have now crossed this one off our list for good, which is too bad as it’s right around the corner from us.

Sushi Phone on the other hand does not have any physical locations and only takes orders by phone (pretty clever with their name, huh?). We found out about them through a 50% off discount on FullExit, which offered 40 pieces of sushi for $56. We placed our order not expecting much, but figuring the discount made it worthwhile. When the sushi arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. Even though a lot of the rolls did contain cream cheese, they were flavorful and well-balanced. The fish was fresh and the combinations were creative. I would rank this as one of the top places I have tried so far (much better than Sushiclub for example). The only drawback was that it took about an hour and forty-five minutes for the food to arrive, so be sure to plan in advance. I also wish I had ordered more than just one coupon!

So, here is a shortlist of my acceptable sushi places (the ones I can remember at least): Osaka, Sushi Phone, Dashi, Jardín Japonés, Benihana (nothing special, but their menu ejectivo is a great deal), and To Sushi.

Any other suggestions?

The Week(s) in Review

By DaVe McComb on in Randomness

Unfortunately, work has once again taken over a major part of our lives for the past few weeks, so we’ve been a bit slow on posting any new updates. I’ve got a few drafts started, but they’ve been on hold while we try and juggle these other projects and Spanish classes. Let me tell you, running a blog takes a lot of work and unfortunately, for most people, it doesn’t pay the bills either.

So, here’s a quick update on some of the more interesting things we’ve been able to do recently:

Mersal finished building and programming the web site for the South American Music Conference (SAMC). They host conferences and electronic music festivals across South America. The Buenos Aires SAMC is in March 2009.
I’ve been busy gearng up for New Year’s Eve, our busiest time of the year.
We’ve been able to check out some great new restaurants:
- We met up with Eddie and his wife when they were in town and got to check out some great restaurants: Sucre, Osaka, and Las Nazarenas (amazing bife de chorizo).
- We went to La Cabrera, a steak house that everyone talks about – and for good reason! For $54 pesos (about $16) had a steak bigger than the two of us could finish along with a great assortment of 12 small side dishes. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
- We’ve now gone to Osaka twice and have another reservation this week. It’s the best sushi in Buenos Aires!
I started taking horseback riding lessons with a friend-of-a-friend in Buenos Aires. It’s a lot more work than it seems like and the saddles are not like western saddles, so they take some getting used to. If you’re looking for a great instructor, let me know. I’ve already referred two other people to him.
We went to the election night party at Sugar bar with hundreds of other expats to watch Barak Obama’s victory. (Well, ok, we actually didn’t make it that late, but we found out in the morning.)
We went to Creamfields Buenos Aires, a 50,000+ person electronic music festival last weekend. It was a great time, but I wish I could remember more of it!
We took advantage of the 90 degree weather we’ve been having here and cooked an asado on our roof patio.

Hopefully, we’ll do better at updating the blog, but it might be a few weeks as we’re off to Patagonia (Calafate and Ushuaia) next week with my brother and his girlfriend! It’s a surprise, so don’t tell them!

Here’s some photos too!

The Quest for Sushi

By DaVe McComb on in Food, Living

While we love so much about Buenos Aires, we’ll be the first to admit that we have been less than enthusiastic about the sushi here. For a major cosmopolitan city, we expected more options and choices even though we realize that beef is the primary food here. Luckily, our complaining about the sushi is now over.

Last night, we met our friend Eddie and his wife for dinner at Osaka on Soler and Fitz Roy in Palermo Hollywood. Osaka is a Peruvian and Asian fusion restaurant and it more than satisfied our craving for good sushi. The food was without a doubt some of the best we’ve had since we’ve been here. (We were not very impressed with Casa Cruz.)

The sushi rolls were creative and delicious, the sashimi was fresh and melted in your mouth, the ceviche was outstanding, and the hot dishes didn’t dissapoint. Even the spicy maki was actually a little spicy! And, while they didn’t have fresh tuna, we didn’t even notice in the end because everything else was so good.

While it is a little expensive, it is not unreasonable and the quality cannot be beat. You will need to make a reservation in advance though as they were completely booked on a Monday night. You may also run into some celebrities – we sat next to Benicio del Toro.