Review: Sushi Bar at Cinnamon Lakeside

 

The Sushi Bar at Cinnamon Lakeside (135, Chitt. Gardiner Mawatha) is so modestly and unpretentiously announced, you may miss it all together, if you’ve weren’t really looking for it. That would be a pity: a competitively priced, extensive selection of beautifully plated sushi – of above average quality awaits you at the Sushi Bar.

            We opted, as you should, for the Chef’s assorted Sushi platter, which promised 5 fish offerings for the Nigiri (Tuna, Modha, Salmon, Cuttlefish, and Prawn) and three for the maki rolls (Tuna, Salmon & Cumber)– quite a good deal for Rs. 800. This with tea, makes a great lunch. But we added a separate potion Smoked Salmon Nigiri (Rs. 580), was well as two made to order pure vegetarian options – the Spring rolls and the California Rolls (Rs. 400).

            The star turn was the assorted platter; the tuna always the variable in different places, had great fatty flavor, and wasn’t sour. The Modha was good as well, the cuttle fish was buttery, the prawn, marinated sweet sour, was a lovely change, the Salmon was soft, fatty and rich. The tuna, it must be said approached Nihonbashi quality, at a lower price point, and the presentation was really pretty. The smoked salmon was also marvelous, with the added melt in your mouth cold bacon flavor, that comes with that delicacy. In general, you really can’t go wrong with Salmon, which is air freighted from Norway – with Tuna and Modha, quality will vary—depending on the catch of the day, and the nearness to the belly of the cut, but Lakeside did well.

            The vegetarian options though outstandingly plated, didn’t have enough flavor – these maki rolls are really built around crab sticks, and if you do leave them out – a really intensely flavored cumber or radish must take its place, I feel. To be fair, these pure vegetarian options are not on the menu, and were created for us – perhaps they need more work for vegetarian sushi lovers.

            Our dessert was the green tea ice-cream, which was creamer than what we expected, and sweeter – some scoops had an amazing after taste of tea, but that was a little uneven. But the cold Sake (Rs. 800 for 150 ml) , and the hot green tea (Rs. 220) we had with the meal were great.

            The service was amazing, with Sunil Perera (lounge manager) and Nadiyah Akram (marketing) making us feel like we were king and queens of the castle. If you’d like to take a visitor out to lunch, you really can’t go wrong at the Sushi Bar at the Cinnamon Lakeside.