Nikkei Nama Bar Rada — Restaurant in Makati

My wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary here recently. It was Maundy Thursday and was glad a sit down restaurant was open. Restaurant decor is chic and modern but very cozy. Started with the cocktails around 300 to 400 bucks each, price is not out of place in this neighborhood but was not that memorable for me, both were sake based cocktails. Appetizers and rolls were tasty especially the octopus and the ceviche roll. Entree was seared tuna with cheesy risotto with cilantro salad. The tuna was seared properly, risotto was the proper texture and the cilantro salad was very refreshing but something was missing. Collectively the dish did not work for me. My favorite part of that dish was the cilantro salad. My wife ordered a braised beef dish that was very tender and flavorful, it is unfortunately garnished with an underpoached egg smack in the middle of the fries, which seemed so out of place in the dish. Dessert was incredibly disappointing for me. I ordered a scoop of their homemade matcha ice cream with very high expectations, after all they were charging 180 php for 1 scoop and it was home made. Well, besides the freezer burn and the chunky texture, I felt the matcha flavor was lacking. The other dessert was the Tres Leches, which looks like a decrusted brioche roll dipped in condensed milk topped with diced mangoes and garnished with a mint leaf and drizzled with some sort of caramel sauce. It seemed so gauche compared to how their other dishes were executed. The servers are very attentive. There were other interesting things in the menu that I wanted to try still but I will not be rushing to come back anytime soon.

Note: Washroom is in another part of the building, so you have to leave the restaurant to go to...

I really dont get the appeal.

Almost everything had fried elements and mayonnaise, so nakakaumay siya after a while. The sushis definitely did not hit the mark. They all lacked flavor, although they had a lot of potential maybe if each ingredient was seasoned more.

The rice both in the sushi and the bowls, were definitely not japanese rice. It ruined the texture of sushi for me.

Oyster bowl was something i enjoyed. The oysters were huge and cooked perfectly, but my only hope was better rice and more sauce. At some point youllstart to lack flavor

The skirt steak bowl is very bland. Steak is cooked perfectly, but it isn't seasoned enough and you won't taste any marbling, so it's just a tender piece of beef. The whole bowl also didn't have any sauce, which eventually makes the bowl boring to eat

The shrimp? Yes definitely get that. But the squid? It's 70% breading and 30% squid. Extremely oily and is topped with mayonnaise

Chicken skewers are honestly the best thing here. It has hints of cumin and a bit of sugar. Reminds me of provincial chinese barbeque but more refined

Overall I don't think Nikkei honors japanese or peruvian cuisine. It's kind of just fusion just to say it's fusion. The flavors don't balance and the textures sometimes don't work. It's also 85% japanese and 15% peruvian. I wished that it could've introduced us more to the less...

I first ate here in 2018 and wasn't too impressed and it took me 4 years before coming back again. After the first visit, we tried some new items that we really loved - pork bao and ceviche mixto. However, Nikkei has always been a hit or miss. There's consistency issues on some items we loved in the past like the previously mentioned pork bao as well as the more recent addition to their menu which is the chipirones. But.. there are items here that remain consistently good at every visit such as the ceviche mixto and the spicy cheese risoto. Today, we add another item we loved which is the Iberico pork ribs and I am hoping it doesn't suffer the same consistency issues as with other things we loved.

In today's visit, the service was pretty good but I would like to note that in all of my past visits here, the norm is their shitty service where they ignore you. Hopefully tonight's service becomes the norm though.

Overall, Nikkei is not the place to eat sushi, sashimi, rolls or drink coktails. You'll get disappointed if that's what you are looking for. But, there are hidden gems in their menu that you guys should explore. I highly recommend the ceviche mixto and the iberico ribs. On good days I really also like the pork bao.

Pictures are from...