At the corner of 36th Street and 8th Avenue at the BGC’s Uptown Ritz, you’ll find the newest iteration of the ever reliable Nikkei chain of Japanese-Peruvian restaurants, the Nikkei Robata. Nikkei’s cuisine has grown familiar over the years for the discriminating diners looking for Japanese cuisine, and the Robata heralds how this establishment will specialize and highlight grilled menu items—robatayaki. Almost every cuisine in the world will showcase grilled food, but the Japanese have somehow managed to make it an Art, imbuing it with flavorful subtlety and delicacy. 

As Carlo Lorenzana was proud to mention, it’s all about the quality of their seafood, meat, vegetables, sauces, and other ingredients; that have always been the trademark of the Nikkei restaurants, and it’s no different with Nikkei Robata. The smoky aroma may be more pronounced at NikRob, but the relative sophistication and texture of their offerings are still intact, and I loved the sampling of dishes I indulged in when Issa and I ate there the other evening. 

We started with the scallops with uni sauce. This is expertly seared scallops on a bed of toasted sushi rice sprinkled with sesame seeds, then served with a buttery uni sauce that came straight down from Heaven. I swear, Issa had to share the two pieces of scallops with me, and commented straight away that the next time we dine at NikRob, she’ll make it a point to get at least three orders, and just gorge on these succulent scallops. 

The Kushiyaki platter is one way to go "sampling: and come out a sure winner. There’s esguerra kurobuta pork belly, two sticks of ika (squid), a stick of ebi (shrimp), a stick of tamago, a stick of quail eggs, and the tare sauce to enhance the flavor of this bounty of offerings. And the moment you’ve partaken of this sampler, you’ll know what to prioritize on the succeeding visit. 

The hamachi kama is grilled collar of hamachi, served with a cilantro salad, and use the wedge of lemon, as it helped bring out just how great this hamachi is. Think of "panga ng tuna" as a close relative, and you’ll see why scraping the bones to get to the soft meat is part of the pleasure of having this dish.

For our starch or rice, we opted to order the grilled salmon belly with mushroom risotto. It’s two generous pieces of salmon, mixed with shiitake, shimeji, and enoki mushrooms. There’s asparagus and huancaina sauce mixed in the rice that’s has parmesan cheese added to it. It’s a mushy risotto that’s typical Japanese who like these dishes on the ‘wet’ side. Think mushy paella, but with a new set of flavors. 

Leave room for dessert, as their tres leches is moist sponge cake soaked in custard cream with torched cubes of fresh mango forming the top layer. You’ll really love this and want to take a portion of it home as a midnight snack. 

Hosting us that night was Carlo Lorenzana who entered the eatery after having done his evening work out, and PR manager Monica Modomo. They both have a lot to be excited about, as Nikkei Robata is a real winner—and they better stock up on the scallops with uni sauce for when Issa returns!