B.For by Planet Sushi
B.For has wow factor. Situated just down the road from Pacha it is ideally located as a pre-club, people-watching, fashion and food experience. At first glance, the raised terrace instantly gives you the urge to walk up those steps and see what is going on. And what is going on is a super slick lounge restaurant experience…
We were shown to a table just inside the very cool looking restaurant. The lighting is low, the tables under lit and everything seems to glimmer. The furnishings and fittings are lavish and ooze luxury. I asked to move to the terrace so we could watch the world go by, and, more importantly, be watched by the world going by.
The waiter was more than happy to move us, and it quickly became apparent that service is a key part of the operation. And I use the word operation advisedly. This restaurant is BIG, there are LOTS of staff and the menu is HUGE. Ana is the Operations Manager and has an obvious flare for making her clients welcome. All her staff share her enthusiasm for helping you enjoy your B.For experience.
The menu takes some time to get through as there is just so much choice. The style is Japanese fusion and the kitchen is not afraid to experiment and take artistic license. There is an entire page of sushi roll variations, a large section of sushi and sashimi, beef and chicken teriyakis, tempuras and a whole lot of other stuff I hadn’t heard of. Didn’t really matter though as each item on the menu is accompanied by a picture that the food actually resembles it when it arrives.
Once we ordered the waiter recommended we drink a Verdejo called V3 that had recently been voted best white wine in Spain by the best chefs in Spain. Fantastic. Made me think of spring, saplings and all things green.
We started with a great Osaka Salad – Hiyashi Wakame Algae (seaweed) The algae has the most extraordinary texture, slippery but with a crunch when bitten into, and mixed with the sesame oil it becomes irresistible. The red sea bream ceviche was disappointing as the fish was cut too small and had been sitting too long in its marinade.
As I have to eat so damn much doing these reviews I have to be careful what I order and I wanted to try all these weird and wonderful creations. So I only order one sushi – the eel. Goddamn it was great. The best thing I had. The spicy shrimp temaki was very moreish too.
These were followed by two of the more ‘out there’ creations – a red slim and maki roquette. The spicy tuna red slim was good and spicy and came wrapped in red chicory leaves and rice paper. The tuna avocado maki roquette is rocket and avocado wrapped in a thin slice of blue fin tuna. Nice.
Just to really overdo it we had beef teriyaki and a Miami style tempura prawn with asparagus wrapped in rice and laminates of avocado then sliced. It is a fiddly creation but good too. The Argentinean rib eye teriyaki was verging on raw, which was perfect since that was how I asked for it. It had that subtle flavour and softness of texture that seems to characterise beef from the Pampas.
In honour of the Japanese influence of B.For we decided to commit Hari Kiri for dessert and ordered the deep fried cheesecake tempura with chocolate sauce and two very groovy cocktails.
The whole experience leaves you going ‘Wow, what just happened?”
Date we ate: 08/09/09
Our meal for two, including wine and dessert came to €156.50