A welcome alternative to pizza and those brown bag lunches
By : Harvey Wisniewski
I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised a few weeks back when I happened to catch the words Sushi Bar Manda painted in big red letters in Europlex's window. Bravo. Hello sushi, do widzenia Fish Mac! Just as I was getting used to the Pizza Florentina at San Marzano as my new midday meal de resistance, too. I may never brown bag it again.
But enough tip-toeing through the tulips. The first time regular "Eating Out" columnist Will Sartori and I tried to taste test Manda we were shut down, as in told to come back later 'cuz we're not open yet. Fiddlesticks. That one was our fault though. Although the restaurant's inaugural day hours were posted, 12:30 p.m. still didn't seem too early for a place planning on catering to the lunchtime crowd. But we would be back, oh yes ...
The next week we returned and with faces fixed for sushi, we joined co-workers Bathsheeba and Larry perched in a sunny window booth. As they were at the end of their meals we prodded them for recommendations. Larry, who was busy trying to nab the remnants of whatever was in his bowl with some rather slippery chopsticks, said that his crispy pork filet with rice and vegetables (zl. 25) was pretty good. So before inspecting the menu, a hungry Will announced that he would have the same, along with sushi of course.
After our waitress delivered a couple of temporary menus (Polish/English), I was impressed but also a little intimidated by the number of Japanese and Korean dishes on offer. Trying to decide what I wouldn't mind gorging on that day from the six pages of food listings was going to be difficult. Yes, I wanted sushi, but what about all of the other scrumptious-sounding stuff? Sushi nigiri and sashimi were givens, but Manda also boasts 10 kinds of temaki (cone-like hand rolls, zl. 8.50 to zl. 16.50), nine types of maki mono (seaweed rolls), 14 teriyaki dishes, tempura, udon noodle bowls, bento boxes, and last but not least, my Korean grilled-beef favorite, bulgogi.
The prices seemed reasonable, especially for the lunch specials, which I was most interested in checking out if Manda was going to be more than a one-stop dining spot. Since we were there on a Monday, according to the menu that meant we could select from nine lunch sets ranging in price from zl. 16.50 for gomokuni including soup, rice, salad and dessert to zl. 38 for sashimi tempura with the same extras. On Tuesday nine different meals are available. Wednesday trots out Monday's menu, and so on into the week. Not a bad plan from a chef's point of view, or for the regular diner.
Having decided on the sushi bento for zl. 35, I was prepared to set my taste buds for raw-fish paradise as soon as the waitress shuffled my order back to the kitchen. No go. Not only did this young woman of otherwise happy tidings inform us that there would be no lunch set meals that day, despite what the menu said, she explained that this was due to an absence of proper trays to serve them in. The bento boxes! Probably still stuck in customs. I imagined an official popping open a carton of Japanese TV trays and wondering why tempura and steamed vegetables couldn't be served on regular "Made in Poland" cookware.
"I'll have the bulgogi then," I said.
In addition, Will and I agreed to split a plate of nine pieces of sushi and six maki for the not-so humble price of zl. 95.50. Ouch. But our tastebuds would soon be delighted. So we hoped.
As expected, Will was pleased with his crispy pork and pressure-cooked rice a meal in itself for anyone less hungry than he was that day. My bulgogi was equally satisfying, and in fact much better than that served at Las. The beef strips were leaner and well-marinated in tamari with plenty of garlic, and served on a bed of perfect pressure-cooked rice. A couple of carrot garnishes added some color. Like Will, I was almost full after my "appetizer," but there were still 15 pieces of sushi to be eaten, and we were just the two guys to do it.
The fish arrived on two small platters seaweed rolls on one and sashimi on the other. It was hard to know where to begin. The tuna seemed like the obvious choice.
Hmmm ... cold. Too cold. Not only does once-frozen sushi not have the same flavor and buttery texture as fresh fish, but the taste is lost even further when served too quickly after thawing. At least it wasn't dry, though, which was how Las served my tuna a couple of months ago.
Speaking of dry, the (scrambled) egg sushi seemed as though it had been sitting out for a bit or just not wrapped very well in the fridge. Will, not a great fan of chicken embryos, left both pieces for me to enjoy. In return, he grabbed the shrimp sushi for himself, which he simply declared to be "good."
The sashimi, however, turned out to be the pride and joy of our meal. In particular, the artfully arranged pinwheel of sliced salmon filled with caviar was luscious. That single item convinced us the dish's zl. 95 price tag was not outrageous given this country's fresh-sushi limitations.
Overall, Sushi Bar Manda is a welcome addition to Mokotow's lunchtime, post-work and after-kino dining scene. The service is attentive and the sushi about as good as can be found in Warsaw. I'm anxious to head back there after the bento boxes arrive. Our meal came to zl. 157 ($36.50) without tip.
