Sushi, like any culinary discipline with hundreds of years of history, is an art. We already saw it in the award-winning documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi: the protagonist’s own son spent years and years just to learn how to cut the fish. And then he would go on to do something else.
Respect for dogma and tradition in Japan is very delicate and taking it to other countries is not always easy, but in Madrid, in addition to essential Japanese restaurants, there are some good examples of restaurants where sushi is treated as the culinary jewel that it is.
1. Yugo the bunker
Yugo the Bunker’s calling card is its raw material, of extraordinary quality. It is impossible to find many of its products in a conventional (or specialized) supermarket. For this reason alone it is worth it. For that, of course, and for the Michelin star that guarantees its quality.
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📍Location: calle de San Blas, 4 (Las Letras)
2. Kabuki
Talking about Japanese food in Spain without mentioning Kabuki is like talking about Spanish cinema and not mentioning Almodóvar. Nonsense. Kabuki, with a menu that hybridizes the best of Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine, is a classic among Madrid’s high standard Japanese restaurants. Although since chef Ricardo Sanz left the kitchen it no longer has a Michelin star, his former partner José Antonio Aparicio maintains its excellence.
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📍Location: Avenida Presidente Carmona, 2 (Cuatro Caminos)
3. Mr. Ito
Although the best thing about Sr. Ito is not the sushi pieces (perhaps the best is the prawn, tiger and piparra neem ), its constructions -called rolls- are an ode to the avant-garde of uramaki. How else to define a roll with tempura prawn, tuna, ricotta cheese and black tobiko?
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📍Location: Calle de Trafalgar, 7 (Chamberí) and Calle de Pelayo, 60 (Chueca).
4. Naomi
Miso soup, tataki, tempura and nigiri. This quadriunvirate has served Naomi well to consolidate itself as the sushi bar in Madrid most similar to a traditional Japanese restaurant. Namely: its bar, its low tables, its sliding wooden doors and its specialization achieved through repetition.
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📍Location: Calle de Ávila, 14 (Cuatro Caminos)
5. Yokaloka
Another sushi classic in Madrid: one of the oldest in the Antón Martín Market and one of the first tenths of the fever that is nowadays Japanese cuisine in the city. Carefully prepared and eventually some off menu (see the squid nigiri ) that make it a must.
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📍Location:calle de Santa Isabel, 5 (Antón Martín Market)
6. Musashi
If experience is a degree, Musashi is overqualified. Opened in 1991, one of the first Asian restaurants in Madrid, it offers a traditional product with little room for anything that is not done in the same way as 10,000 kilometers from Madrid.
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📍Location: calle de las Conchas, 4 (downtown)
7. Ebisu by Kobos
If the goal of a restaurant is first and foremost to succeed, what’s the point of hiding? That is the question one asks oneself after visiting Ebisu by Kobos, located in the basement of the Matritum wine bar. Eels and tuna of outrageous quality. Purism and the highest level. But keep in mind that this restaurant closes and opens seasonally.
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📍Location:calle de la Cava Alta, 17 (La Latina)
Kappo
In Kappo, as in traditional Japanese restaurants, you don’t choose what you want to eat. The power of decision is reduced to the chair in which you want to sit (and not always). The chef serves the customer between 15 and 20 dishes. A restaurant that is only open in the evenings, with capacity for very few people and with one of the most interesting proposals in the city.
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📍Location:Calle de Bretón de los Herreros, 54 (Chamberí)
9. Ikigai
At Ikigai they serve nigiris and gunkans of fish you never knew you could eat raw (sea bream, horse mackerel or sea urchin). Reasonable prices for the quality of the product and the certainty that every step taken is going in the right direction: to become a classic Japanese restaurant in Madrid.
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📍Location: Calle de la Flor Baja, 5 (downtown) and Velázquez, 136 (Salamanca neighborhood).
10. Umiko
Umiko is Japanese fusion cuisine that has the recognition of the Repsol guide -it has two suns- and of all the palates that have had the opportunity to try it. And it is not surprising that having chefs Juan Alcaide (formerly at DiverXO and Kabuki) and Pablo Álvarez heading the project, eating here is an experience. The classics on the menu are paella nigiri, guo rong porra, tuna curry and shrimp ramen.
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Location:Calle de los Madrazo, 6 (downtown)
11. Tora
Tora is inspired by the idea of a contemporary Japanese tavern and has chef José Osuna at the helm of its kitchen. In addition, this is the first incursion into the hotel business of soccer player and businessman Mario Hermoso.
Tora’ s kitchen reinterprets traditional Japanese dishes with a Spanish touch. Asturian black pudding gyoza with pears in red wine, fusion nigiris among which stand out the tuna with Wagyu fat and caviar, roasted bull with scallops or Wagyu A5 with marinade and sprouts that is completed with its lamb sweetbread temaki and tartar sauce.
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Location:Calle de Padilla, 5 (Salamanca district).
12. Zuara Sushi
Zuara carries the weight of being in the place where DiverXO was previously located, but this does not deter them and in 2022 they premiered their first Michelin star. David Arauz, who already had a star in 2020 at 99 KO Sushi Bar (now closed), seeks to transfer the simplicity, quality and elegance of sushi to the whole experience of this restaurant.
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Location:Calle Pensamiento, 28 (Tetuán)
13. Nanako
At this restaurant in Chamberí you must come prepared to practice omakase (put yourself in the hands of the chef) to devour the signature sushi with Brazilian airs that Ariel D’Avila prepares with care and expertise. Paired with Spanish wines, the dishes of a tasting menu that is well worth the effort include delicious flavors from Brazil, such as moqueca and farofa. The eleven courses on the menu are one stroke of genius after another, but you can also eat à la carte, although we recommend always taking the chef’s advice.
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Location: Calle Raimundo Lulio, 24 (Chamberí)
14. Santoku
Santoku is the restaurant that claims to be the smallest in Madrid (it only seats eight diners) and is probably one of the most fashionable. The combination of these factors, in addition to a good product, means that to book a weekend reservation you have to wait six months.
Here even the dessert has raw fish, they call it salmon cheesecake because it is a classicnigiri with sliced strawberries and a pinch of cheese on top. But their star product is the makis stuffed with eel and flambéed duck liver.
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Location: Lope de Rueda street, 6 (Salamanca)
Japanese food is one of those gifts that globalization has given us and now it would be difficult to imagine ourselves without it. Sushi is the summary and the epitome of good cuisine. It seems simple, but there is a whole craftsmanship behind it.