We went out to try a new Sushi place in Bugrashov called Sushime with some friends. We bought a coupon for a couple’s meal for 135 ILS. It included a lot: two miso soups, two glasses of wine, a starter, two rubata grill dishes, two rolls of sushi, tea and dessert. That was a lot for the price, in this case, I’m not sure it was worth it. It wasn’t fun making reservations there. I called before buying the coupon but they didn’t want to reserve us a table. After few more calls and talking to the manager they let us reserve a place. The atmosphere of the place isn’t bad, basically because it’s on Bugrashov street and it’s always a fun street to sit there. The inside decor is confusing to whether this is a quick bite joint or a upscale bar. Something in the middle. The plates for the dishes as well: some plastic (the miso soup bowls) and some stone platters same as we saw in Messa. There’s no problem with either kind but it’s obvious that Sushime still is’t sure what it’s trying to be exactly.
The food had even more of the same confusing note of unequal level. We started the meal with a glass of cheap white wine and a miso soup which was average and ordinary. Then Chen and Yoel got their first course which was again confusing: Salmon tartare and baked eggplant served on a bed of almond tehini, garnished with radish, hot pepper. The eggplant was cooked nicely and crispy but I didn’t like the almond tehini which felt to me like hummus from the supermarket mixed with some chopped almonds. We didn’t get our first course still when the grill rubata came to the table. This is what Sushime has pride for, in the menu it says something about old fashioned Japanese style grilling on a skewered. We took the veal short rib and the shrimp. They were both not bad but nothing to write home about.We continued with the two sushi rolls and were disappointed to hear the coupon isn’t valid for the exclusive rolls that we longed for. We tasted three rolls: California: Soft shell crab tempura, cucumber, avocado, tobiko; Smoked Tilapia, teriyaki, avocado, Japanese radish, tempura bits; White fish, avocado. I like white fish sushi but this one was quite simple. I liked the tobiko inside the roll but couldn’t feel the crab, and the last one with the smoked fish was odd. Only then we got the first course which was Tataki salad of seared sirloin, baby leaves, radish, red onion and ponzo citrus sauce. Too salty and this was pretty much all we felt about it. Omer then decided to order an exclusive roll out of the set menu so we tried Bling bling uramaki: chopped spicy tuna, soft shell crab tempura, avocado, sauce onagi (32 ILS). It turned out to be highly unaesthetic roll that looked pretty bad. The sweet sauce took over the crab and tuna flavors. But even after all this, nothing prepared us for dessert: worst dessert I got in a restaurant ever. It was supposed to be a Banana Split. What we got were hot slices of hot banana with tuns of Nutella on top and a cheap vanilla ice-cream ball. We felt like our inelegance is being questioned with this ending.
The feeling I got from this place is that it’s an example of these people who thinks it’s a piece of cake opening a sushi place (or any other restaurant for that matter). Everything about this place felt like their following some kind of a “pattern to success” but in the end it’s lacking personality, singularity and professionalism. This kind of meritocracy could have worked in the suburbs but in the middle of Bugrashov, I think their days are numbered here.
Eeeeewwwww! that horrible dessert!
Ouch….