[Radar]: Sushi Raku

Pictures by Joshua Tintner / SmartShanghai

 

Area: 195 Anfu Lu, upstairs from La Strada and Baker & Spice, sharing a floor and an entrance with Mi Thai.

What it is: Sushi Raku is the latest addition to the Wagas Group's ever expanding world cuisine empire. As with pretty much everything else in this compound, Craig Willis, perhaps better known to you as Mr Willis, oversees the operation but he's enlisted the help of Miyagi Shima and Barbara Dai Hong to run the kitchen. Mr Miyagi is a native of Shizuoka, Japan with 11 years in Shanghai under his belt. He boasts stints at the Four Seasons as well as Ayazu Sushi, Rikyuu and Taikou, all of which are purportedly popular among the city's Japanese population. Ms. Hong's background is in pastry and, like Miyagi, has worked at the Four Seasons and Taikou.

Hong and Miyagi cleave to a more conservative philosophy when it comes to sushi. Don't expect them to get too flashy or flamboyant. No Moto-roll-ahs or spider rolls; the California roll even feels like a begrudging concession to appeal to a wider market. This is sushi, plain and simple -- standards like salmon, tuna, squid and sea urchin done as sashimi, nigiri, maki and chirashi (served over a bowl of rice). There is a fairly typical selection of hot fare too, like grilled miso cod and beef sukiyaki. Nevertheless, there are a few surprises to be found on the menu, parrotfish, for instance, which you can get as sushi, or they'll boil the entire head for you. I don't know of too many places around town that serve this festively colored reef dweller. Tuna cheek grilled with salt is another unique cut. Then there is an appetizer of pickled garlic speared on a toothpick with a cube of cream cheese, which would probably work equally well as a martini garnish.

Atmosphere: Knotty gnarled bonsai trees, distressed hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings, exposed rafters and wrought iron window grates give the place quite a unique personality. It's a mix of urban renewal with a bit of rustic ski lodge thrown in along with that mandatory "zen-like" ambiance. The centerpiece is a long blonde wood bar that seems to radiate every available bit of light in the space.

Damage: There are three set menu options priced at 300, 400 and 600rmb. Each option offers about 9 or 10 courses. Price is a function of how fancy you like your fish. For lunch there are bento boxes at 78, 98 or 118rmb, each featuring a starter, steamed egg, miso soup, choice of main and a dessert. Then there is a la carte. Sashimi selections go for anywhere between 45rmb for a serving of octopus to 380rmb for a combo that can feed four to five people. Nigiri are priced per piece at 15rmb for tamago, or Japanese omelet all the way up to 90rmb for piece of otoro. Chirashi bowls will set you back 130 to 200. Maki start around 25 and then round out at 100 for, you guessed it, otoro. Oddly, starters are about halfway down the menu and you can expect to pay anywhere between 30 and 65rmb for one of them. Deep-fried dishes start at 45rmb for agedashi tofu up to 128rmb prawn tempura. Grilled items are 40-150rmb. Sweets, 30-50. For drinks, you can spend anywhere between 280 and 2700rmb for sake. Beers on average are 45 per bottle.

Who's going: Tough call. On my visit, all I saw was a couple of food writers waxing nerdy on recent meals they'd had.

First impressions: Freshness and simplicity. They've got it in spades. But, the place lacks the wow factor that you can find for just a few hundred kuai more elsewhere in town.