Although Buenos Aires is located quite near the coast, it’s surprisingly difficult to find fresh fish in this city. Argentina is a country known for its meat, so what do you do if you’re in the city and craving your favorite nigiri, sashimi or maki rolls? Fortunately, there are a few places that you can go for Japanese food where the food is fresh, the ambiance is good and you can leave feeling like a sumo wrestler without breaking the bank.

Gaijin Restaurant is first and foremost, my all time favorite place for eating Japanese in this city. The fish is fresh and served in generous proportions. Just a few weeks ago, I joined some friends here and we ordered a variety of sashimi for appetizers. The tuna we ordered was so fresh, it didn’t even remotely have a fishy smell or flavor. If you’ve tried Japanese restaurants here in Buenos Aires, you may have noticed a lack of variety of fish as most just offer salmon-based plates. But thankfully in Gaijin, their selection is quite impressive. Plus they do a really good job at creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

My second suggestion is a real hidden gem – and all the credit goes out to my friend Valeria for finding the place and suggesting that we go out of our way to the barrio Once for a very Japanese meal at Okiren – the Okinawan center of Argentina (Centro Okinawense en la Argentina). The group I went with were all Argentines so we ended up going with the mixed tempura, salmon sushi/sashimi/maki and a bowl of sunomono (fresh vinegared vegetables with rice noodles). The selection of food was quite impressive (menus were in Japanese and Spanish) and there was a great variety of fresh fish available. The thing I really loved about the place is that when you walk into the restaurant, there was a distinctive smell of walking into a Japanese kitchen – YUMMY! To top things off, they had a variety of fresh ice creams – including green tea (my favorite), wasabi, sesame and ginger. Needless to say, I ate too much but enjoyed every minute of it.

There are other places that get written about all the time by lots of magazines in Buenos Aires. I see so many raving reviews on some of these places that I am beginning to thing they’re paying people for the good reviews. For example – Moshi-Moshi, a chain of sushi bars in Las Canitas and Belgrano was probably one of the most overrated places I have ever been to in Buenos Aires. The salmon had this “frozen” flavor to it – the pieces of sashimi were not at all generous and on top of that, they were very fatty. I looked to the dessert menu to console my tummy and ordered what was called Sopa de Banana – banana soup – thinking “this could be interesting”… It turned out to be about 1/2 cup of cool but not refreshing banana milkshake in a shallow bowl with no garnish at a markup of 2000%. All of their restaurants tout a minimalist style – although to me, it certainly wasn’t the case. Rather, they present a restaurant with a cold, silvery orange atmosphere with very little taste.

I’ll definitely be doing some more reviews on other Japanese restaurants as the months progress, but highly recommend Gaijin and Okiren as more affordable and simply delicious fresh food a la japonesa!

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Gaijin – Paraguay 3521 -
Reservations and delivery : 4823-4250

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Okiren – Av. San Juan 2651, 1st floor
By reservation only: 4943-6927
Free Parking: San Juan 2745

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Both are closed on Sundays.

Popularity: 15% [?]