The chefs of Umiko, that Japanese restaurant that has been fighting for almost a decade and where the long menu reaches 240€, have just opened a new place. But you don’t need to save for weeks or go to a different location than usual. You just need to be hungry, 50 euros and sit at the bar of the local Madrazo, 6 -two minutes from Sol.
It’s called Umaki and is literally inside Umiko, but it’s not Umiko. Here there is a bar, temakis and a very concrete idea: you enter, eat and leave.
They have called it a “handroll bar”, but the truth is that it goes beyond that. Because yes, the temakis rule -the one with Madrid-style tripe, with its spicy touch and ham powder, is a round trip; and the one with cod kokotxa with green mojo, pure filigree-, but there are also tartares, sashimi, gyozas, oysters and even a reinterpretation of the squid sandwich made with crunchy nori seaweed. All served quickly, without frills and with that touch of genius that turns the simplest bite into a signature dish without the need for the menu to say so.
A menu without traps
In any neighborhood Chinese restaurant, gyozas cost 6 euros. At Umaki too. But while in one they are reheated vegetables, here they are garlic shrimp or chicken with passion fruit sweet chili. Grilled, steamed or fried, it doesn’t matter. The level is very high. The same goes for the tartares: where others would charge 25 euros for a tuna dish that says nothing, here the tuna with fried yucca and quail egg costs 14 euros.
On the menu there is room for the pure product (eel, bull, shrimp), for twists and for some nostalgic genius. Like the desserts: the Phosmiko, the Tigrekom or the mochis that have been sweet emblems of Umiko now also live here, in this more informal, faster, more direct space.
Two in one, but without mirrors
Umaki and Umiko share kitchen and equipment, but they do not share dishes. Here you don’t come to live the immersive experience, you come to resolve your appetite in style. It is a more street proposal, but without lowering the bar. There is no after-dinner conversation, there is no brawl: there is rhythm, precision and flavor. If you want to sit for three hours and meditate on umami, go to the lounge. If you just want to eat very well and talk about it, this is your place.
The people behind the invention are Juan Alcaide and Pablo Álvaro, the same people who have been breaking new ground for years at Umiko.