M Palermo - Buenos Aires

Best restaurant experience in BA. Loved it. The wine selection was lovely as well. Mains weren't overpriced and I really enjoyed the ambiance. We sat outside on the pavement

Not having much luck with beef in Buenos Aires, we craved for some variations. Decided not to venture too far from our hotel and dined at M one night. The food is dubbed Peruvian Nissei (second generation Japanese) Japanese, which cook with Japanese influence. My wife ordered grilled white fish with white onion sauce and coconut rice, I had always enjoyed Anticuchos when I lived in Peru, so I ordered this with sauté vegetable. To my surprise, the antichchos are not beef heart, but tenderloin medallions and octopus legs barbecured Izakaya style on skewer. Turns out pretty good. The fish comes in a big portions as everything in Argentina. Grilled nicely with savory sauce. However, turing the short grain rice into coconut rice did not work out too well. Using longer grain jasmine rice a la Thai style is a better choice, the short grain rice is already stickier than the jasmine rice, adding the coconut milk makes it sticky dessert like and way too sweet. The saute vegetable was doused in soy sauce, way too salty. Sushi is all the rage in Buenos Aires these days, I decided to test the water and try one order of nigiri halibut (lenguado in Spanish or hirame in Japanese). This is usually either served with sprinkle of salt with a tap of yuzukoshi or garnished with some slivered scallion and radish with red chili pepper and served with Ponzu sauce but NEVER soy sauce. My nigiri came, decent looking, asked for some ponzu sauce and things went south. The ponzu came with sesame oil added in, guys, I did not order salad. I forgot to mention, they add sesame oil to almost everything, which is just too much. Fish is fresh and has nice texture and a mild sweetness, nice, that is why this is the top choice as ceviche fins in Peru. The rice is completely un acceptable, cooked way too soft and flavored too sweet, almost like dessert rice dish. The fish died in vain. Do not order sake. Due to high import taxes, the only sake they have are imported from U.S. and are the very cheap quality one. If you wish to pay tourist price for the 1.5 L bottle I can buy in California for $5 a bottle on sale. Help yourself. Nor should you copy the Argentinians and pop open a bottle of red, your seafood die in vain. Order some nice local sparklings that are excellent in price and pretty decent in quality, or get a glass of Torrontes if they have one, the indigenous Argentinian white grape.

We just had an excellent evening here. We arrived in BA this morning and too were tired to venture far from the hotel, but this excellent place was close by. We went into the wine bar and you can have sushi or meats and cheese there. The sushi was very good; after the first dish, we felt comfortable with the waitress's recommendations. She also helped us to choose a very nice bottle of wine. We had a cheese plate while waiting for the sushi (3 dishes) and finished with a plate of procuitto. The total bill was under 1200 pesos, including the bottle of wine. We'll be back.

Perfect food! Great ambience... Slightly whackey! But it works perfectly! We are great fans of Japan! Here was food equal to Tokyo! Delicious! With excellent wines! Lovely service! Creative surroundings.... Outstanding value! A great evening...will we be back... YES ...next Monday!

I set by counter and talked with the sushiman so he suggested the best fish for the day. I ate amazing ceviche and sushi! Great experience, great staff and food.