Kanpai

Oscar and I are by no means sushi experts but we do enjoy a nice sushi dinner every once in a while. The best sushi we have ever had was at KOI Restaurant in Los Angeles. We were rookies and didn´t know what to order. The waiter was extremly helpful and told us that he would bring out dishes for us to try and if we liked them, great, if not, he would bring it back to the kitchen and bring out something else. We ended up loving everything he recommended. It is probably one of the best dinners we have ever had.

I read an article in the paper a few weeks ago that recommend places in Madrid ¨a la Sex in the City¨ since the movie was about to premier here. Of course, no NY night on the town would not be complete without a little sushi. We hadn´t been to a sushi restaurant in Madrid and decided to try it.

We arrived early for our reservation and, since it was a nice summer night, decided to walk around downtown a bit. We peaked in the restaurant, Kanpai, on the way. It was after 9pm and the restaurant was empty - not a good sign. Oscar had his doubts but we decided that we would take another peak closer to our reservation. When we came back the place was buzzing. After a little encouragment, Oscar agreed to stay.

The restaurant décor was simple and modern. The service was good and the ambiance was much better than we had expected. We started with a vegetable and langostine tempura (house speciality) along with some dumplings. The tempura was outstanding but the dumplings didn´t wow me. We then had a california roll and a salmon cream cheese roll followed by noodles with chicken in a delicious sauce.

Even though this restaurant didn´t compare to KOI, we enjoyed the dinner and would go back another day.