NIKKEI, Legazpi Village Makati

Nikkei is a new restaurant at Rada street that serves Peruvian-Japanese Cuisine. I’m not really familiar with Peruvian so I didn’t know what to expect. Everything in the menu looked so interesting. Most of the ‘Japanese‘ part comes in the form of Sashimi, Maki and Sushi. There is also Kobe in the menu but at the time, it wasn’t available.

For appetizers, we tried out their Tiraditos, or the Peruvian Sashimi. Basically, they are sashimi with different sauces. The sashimi is said to be prepared by their Argentinian chef.

Most of their Tiraditos are available in different kinds of seafood such as white fish, tuna, salmon and octopus. This one is the Coco Tiradito (Php140) in white fish. I forgot to ask what the white fish was, but I’m guessing its cuttle fish. I think the sauce was a mixture of coco milk and Oyster sauce.

This Tuna Kocha (Php140) was pretty good. The black pepper like dust there is actually tea leaves.

This is the Octopus Nikkei Tiradito (Php160). The Nikkei sauce tastes like oyster sauce, but not as salty. The chili and silantro add a nice flavor to this one.

The Salmon Ginger (Php160) was disappointing. I felt that the flavor of the salmon was lost in the sauce.

We also got their regular Salmon Sashimi (Php155). It was fresh and chunky.

The Ceviches are seafood marinated in vinegar. This would probably be their version of our very own Kilawin. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Kilawin na Tanigue and Tuna so I was really excited to try this out.

nikkei-cerviche

The Classic Ceviche (Php280). I seriously cannot differentiate its flavor from the Kilawin that I’m used to other than this one is not drowning in vinegar. It comes with a little container of extra leche de tigre (vinegar). I DEVOURED THIS. To whoever invented kilawin, THANK YOU!

The Green Ceviche (Php360) was suppose to look like a tower but it fell right before I took the photo #sadPanda. It is just like the Classic except that it is smothered with Wasabi Cream. The Wasabi Cream was tasty but not overwhelming. It comes with corn on the side.Thumbs up for this one.

The Seared Tuna (Php650) comes with a risotto. The tuna was cooked just right. It was served in chunky slices. I liked the risotto because it was creamy and buttery but it might not be for everyone.

This Lomo Salta (Php420) was supposedly a tenderoin dish. We couldn’t find the tenderloin at first because it was hidden under lots of vegetables. It tasted like our very own Caldereta with sesame seeds. It was served with fries topped with an egg (that’s new).

For refreshments, they have lots of options. They have coffee, juices, cocktails, beer and sake! I tried their mojito (Php160 / +100 for Rum).

ON TO THE DESSERT!

The Ice Cream Tasting (Php350) is made of their three signature ice cream flavors on top of French buns. It has the wasabi, ginger and sesame flavors. The sesame was the best complement to the French bun. I’m not a fan of wasabi ice cream. The ginger was kind of sweet. The bun was the best part of this dish. It was chewy and sweet.

The Tres Leches (Php250) is a very dense spongecake topped with peaches. The cake wasn’t very sweet. I didn’t eat this because I don’t like peaches but Jeff liked it. There was oyster sauce around it. I’m not sure if you’re suppose to dip the cake on it. I tried and it turned out okay.

The place is quite small. It can probably fit about 30-40 people at a time. They don’t seem to accept reservations so I think it’s best to go there on a weekday.

All in all, I find the Peruvian-Japanese Cuisine so-so. It’s delicious and fresh but the flavors are very familiar. I liked the atmosphere of the place. It felt very light and clean. They have no washroom though. You have to go to the lobby of the building outside.