Lisbon, Rest of the World — By Alexandre Kühl Oliveira on October 6, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Filed under: eating, japanese, restaurant, sashimi, sushi

Review: Traditional Japanese Food at Koi

On the refurbished part of Alcântara, on a gallery of an ancient factory, Koi is much more than another Japanese restaurant serving sushi and sashimi.

Its name, Koi, means love and may well express the dedication of a former pub and fashion photographer that decided to follow his dream 4 years ago. As you enter the place you may feel his dedication and love to it through the way you are welcomed, served and obviously the most important, by the food you are given.

The walls too show some of his art – his photos combine in perfection with a minimalist decoration along the arches of the old factory.

Although the menu shows some (delicious) fusion Japanese food, Koi serves mainly traditional Japanese food. All with top quality products and a fairly decent price.

While we waited for our orders, we started with a fresh and delicious Sakirinha (5€), basically a Caipirinha made with sake. The service was quite fast and soon came our Salmon Carpaccio (€13), the Alcântara Rio (€13) – shrimp, avocado, Philadelphia cheese and salmon roll, the Paulo’s Maki (€9) – salmon, mango, creem-cheese and teriyaki sauce, and a Tamagô Koi – salmon, shrimp, tobiko, mango, Philadelphia cheese and omelette roll. Everything was excellent. We decided that we should finish with another great choice, the Kitigai (€9) – salmon and tuna rolled on cucumber. For deserts we shared a Dupla Koi (€5) – petit gateau with lime ice-cream.

Still, as I said earlier, Koi serves mainly traditional Japanese food. So I went back a few days latter to have lunch with João, the owner. As we were chatting about the changes in his life and about Koi, we were served a combination of sushi and sashimi for two (€20) and vegetable and prawns Tempura (€16). Although everything was just as good as the first time, I have to point out their vicious Tempura.