Japan in Madrid: Kabuki

Partly seared tuna belly | Sardine with Lardo | Partly seared turbot Nigiri

It has become a passion of mine to look for good Japanese restaurants – whereever I go. So it seemed logical to look out for the same in Madrid too. Especially after experiencing the wonderful seafood quality in Barcelona. After some research on the net I decided to visit Kabuki for sushi.

The restaurant itself is not spectacular from the outside. We sat at the counter, directly watching the sushi chefs, which we liked very much. As often in Spain, they have a good selection of well priced cavas, that perfectly go along with the food.

We went for an omakase option and let ourselfs get surprised. Along with some supplements we had about 20 courses:

I loved the seafood quality at Kabuki. The fish was of excellent quality – fresh and well tempered. In comparison to other good sushi places the tuna belly was a bit watery, but still nice. They do a lot of (partly) searing, which gave the nigiris a more „rustic“ touch. Fine for the winter though.

The rice was ok – for my taste a bit too hard and grainy. Tastewise it lacked some acidity and that certain fullness you would expect from very good sushi rice.

Their signature nigiri are the quail egg and the wagyu burger, which were good – but in my view the traditional ones were better balanced (especially the wagyu was…well, a burger on rice). A real surprise was the dessert: I doubted that I would like the gel-cream combination, but it was just amazing. Especially the cream was incredibly rich and creamy and the yuzu gel added a wonderful fresh taste.

Kabuki offers good sushi for a reasonable price, so I would definetely come again. Arigato 🙂

Visit: October 2016
Michelin stars at time of visit: **
Budget: 150€/person (including wine)
Location: 8/10
Service: 7,5/10
Food: 8/10

Timon
Spracharbeiter. Kommunikator. Sprecher. Trainer. Historiker. Leidenschaftlicher Koch. Foodie.