Catch of the day
Raw fish is good. Raw anything very far from its source, however, is something I've always avoided. After a recent trip to Ohh! Sushi, though, Wilanów appears to be just close enough to the sea to gain my approval. Ohh! Sushi is an unprepossessing place on a busy street in southern Warsaw. It's basically a house converted into restaurant. There is only limited atmosphere. One small dining area is on the ground floor - close to the sushi counter where the chef chops, piles, shapes and rolls - and some smallish rooms are upstairs with a couple of tables each. All are set up simply with plain tables and limited decor. In nice weather you can sit outside under some umbrellas. What the place lacks in swank it more than makes up for with excellent food. And perhaps an overwrought interior would just get in the way of the combinations that create sumptuous flavors in each carefully prepared bit of sushi.
I've visited the restaurant twice, originally tipped off by a Canadian friend, and both times been impressed with the quality and freshness of the ingredients. With the namesake dishes, the short-grain rice is sticky with a hint of vinegar and sweetness, the fish is delicate, firm and flavorful, and the wasabi is sinus-clearing powerful. For people who want to avoid uncooked Osteichthyes, Ohh! Sushi isn't just about sushi. A variety of cooked Japanese and Korean dishes are available. The Japanese side includes a tasty tempura with lightly battered and fried shellfish and swimming fish, and (cooked) fish and poultry dishes. We haven't explored the Korean side of the menu but it has an extensive array of soups, salads, entrees and the like. But back to the real reason we visited.
My most recent spin through the dining room was during lunch, when Ohh! Sushi has some nicely priced menu specials, including a sushi box (zł. 40), a maki box (zł. 35), a teriyaki box (zł. 35), a sushi sashimi box (zł. 45) and a couple of other selections. Each comes with a plentiful assortment of the named goods, and adds soup, salads and tea. The sushi sashimi box, for example, starts with a miso soup, a broth made from soybean paste with pieces of seaweed and some sprouts. It's appropriately salty and a good starter for the food to come.
Then the actual box, a big hunk of black plastic divided into several compartments. The sushi sashimi box has six pieces of sashimi, chilled, sliced fresh raw fish arranged on top of a bed of a shredded, flavorless veggie. Add five pieces of sushi, different kinds of fish laid out on top of rice and dosed with wasabi. (Generally, I hate cabbage. But, in fairness, wasabi is a semi-aquatic member of the cabbage family. The plant's stem is ground into a green paste with the powerful flavor of horseradish and used as a sushi condiment. It is thought to be an antidote to food poisoning.) Add another six maki, or sliced sushi rolls, made by placing strips of fish and vegetables with rice onto seaweed and forming a roll with a bamboo mat. Add three futo-maki (fat rolls), which are like maki but more elaborate. Each variety is made with several different kinds of fish - forgive my ignorance, I can't name all the specific makes and models. They came in lively shades of pink and tones of white, and melted in my mouth.
On the side is kimchi, a Korean dish of spicy, fermented cabbage (another exception to my cabbage rule), and a small green salad with a sesame dressing. The lunch special is only available Monday through Saturday from noon until 4 p.m. After that, you have to order from the regular menu, which still has lots of value. A normal sushi set, with nine pieces of sushi and six maki, is zł. 55 and a family set is ridiculously huge, served on a small boat and must have required the efforts of the entire Pacific fleet to concoct. It's zł. 150. A la carte, individual pieces range from zł. 10-zł. 23. Lunch for two, with a couple of refreshing Japanese beers, came to zł. 114 ($28).
