Satori Sushi Santa Teresa — Restaurant in Cóbano

My girlfriend and i went here for dinner after we looked all the Asian/sushi restaurants in Santa Teresa up. At this evening, as every Wednesday, was live-music, so the place actually very full. Luckily for us the terrace upstairs was nearly empty. The restaurant was very nice decorated and fits perfectly the typical atmosphere and looks of the Santa Teresa restaurants. The terrace was as well very nice and a smooth “feeling”, because of some slight warm lights, but the sitting was typically Japanese “seats”. Literally sitting on floor with a pillow and a small backrest. Moreover the table was as well very low, something about 30-50cm above the floor. However, this sort of dinning was actually very cool, different and the dinning felt authentic during our stay. The friendly staff welcomed us and directed us to our “seats”. The menu, available in Spanish and English, was actually not that big, but absolutely enough to try a lot of different meals from the Asian cuisine. The menu is sorted easily by Asian tapas, rolls and combos. Nearly all of it sounded so good and absolutely worth a try, but, of course, you can’t try everything at one evening. So we decided to try as much as possible by choosing a combo out of rolls and tapas (combo including only rolls also available). These combos are made for two people or more and present a small variety of the menu. Our combo included Satori rolls, California rolls, Tuna Tataki (not sure about the name; Asian tapas), nigiris, fish croquettes and breaded calamari. The food was absolutely amazing. Especially, the Satori rolls were just awesome. For me something completely different compared to the types of sushi i’ve eaten before, but still delicious. When we ordered, we also asked, if we could change the California rolls, since we wanted to try something different and these ones nothing new to us. The waitress asked extra in the kitchen, if it’s possible, but it wasn’t and after that, the waitress felt so sad, that she offered us a discount or anything else for the next time. How kind !? The prices in total were quite moderate, as typical for Santa Teresa, but absolutely worth it. We paid by card without extra fees. All in all, we totally enjoyed out stay and would recommend everybody, who want to try some...

Style Over Substance: A Disappointing Experience at Satori, Santa Teresa

We were drawn in by Satori’s ambiance—modern, expansive, and visually impressive in that “ultra-lounge” Japanese fusion kind of way like Tau in NYC or Koi in L.A.. The menu was creative and extensive, so we ordered generously, expecting an exciting culinary experience. Unfortunately, almost nothing delivered.

Item after item missed the mark. The ramen came in a broth that tasted like rehydrated bouillon cubes, with pork belly that looked and tasted like old bacon soaked in soy sauce. The noodles were overcooked and mushy. The spicy edamame wasn’t spicy—just a dusting of togarashi with no depth.

The sushi was a particular letdown. Low quality all around, with salmon that was borderline inedible—mushy, dull in color, and lacking any sense of freshness. For a restaurant that charges a premium, that’s inexcusable.

We had eaten at NAMI the day before and were impressed by nearly every dish, so the contrast was hard to ignore. Satori, by comparison, felt like a place well past its prime—quiet on a Friday night and clearly not attracting the food-savvy crowd.

The service started off promising but disappeared completely after the food arrived. No check-back, no chance to intervene, no saving the situation.

If you’re just stopping in for a drink or a quick catch-up, Satori might be fine. But if you’re coming for the food—don’t. Especially not with the idea of sampling a range of dishes like we did. If food is important to you, dine elsewhere

Disappointing from start to finish....

The sushi, service, and atmosphere here is excellent. I would say this is probably one of the best, if not the best, sushi restaurants in CR at the moment. (Fuji in San Jose has a real sushi chef, I don't know what he did to get banished to San Jose, but the sushi is good there too.)

I am not exaggerating, the reality is that Costa Ricans do not understand sushi because it is a "tourist food" and they are trying to please tourists who are, for the most part, middle Americans who also do not understand sushi. So their idea of sushi is fresh fish (namely tuna around here, lots of fresh tuna in the water here but not much else) on top of or wrapped in an overly large amount of poor quality sushi rice bought from a local asian store. They do not know about properly preparing and smoking rice, cuting the fish in certain slices, or tobiko (this is not New York, San Francisco, and certainly not Tokyo). However, at this restaurant, they do approach something that resembles a proper method for all of the above.

Please ignore the reviews that complain that it is too expensive for the small portion sizes, those are your overweight middle Americans... probably from Chicago. This place is great, and also has an excellent selection of sake if you are a real...