Credit for the discovery of Sun Taka goest to my friend Yvonne, who eats out 5 nights for my one. Chef Mitsutaka Kawata opened this Izakaya restaurant a year ago. Izakaya is a Japanese tavern of sorts. Typically, the emphasis is more on the drink with a host of salty dishes to accompany them. Usually casual, it’s a good place to frequent in a group of friends the better to share dishes.
At Sun Taka in Barcelona, a white chochin lantern hangs low at the door and three steps lead down to the restaurant. (Bad feng shui according to Yvonne but good food nevertheless she insists.)
Luckily I am here with four hungry friends who don’t want the menu del dia. We order ten dishes to share. Ranging from a sashimi platter to duck breast in hoisin sauce. Some dishes are a clever Japanese take on local ingredients. The mussels in a light lemongrass broth, for example, is an inspired pairing. Ubiquitous eggplant sits beneath smoked eel with a stripe of basil miso sauce on top of it like a trail of thick caterpillars. Gyoza always good, is made even better through the use of Iberico pork. The sashimi platter is stunning, a work of art, the fish laid out amongst twigs and broad leaves, cucumbers fanned out at intervals. None of it is cheap but cheap and Japanese are not two words I want to see next to each other the exception being the onigiri at the Seven Eleven chains in Japan.
There are a couple of dishes that I find unbalanced, being simultaneously too sweet and too salty. The duck in hoisin is enveloped in too much of the cloying tar-like sauce with no acid or bland rice to distract from it. The calamari too, while crispy and not oily, is sat in another too sweet sauce, like homemade ketchup. We try in vain to scrape the stuff off. Two duds out of ten are not bad going overall, still with both dishes costing 10€ or more a menu cull wouldn’t be out of place. And those two would get my vote for the chop.
Dessert is a matcha millefeuille. Nice. Although PlateSelector, who nominated Sun Taka for their best new restaurant of the year 2019 category, waxed lyrical about a mochi filled with cream cheese and fig jam. That’s on my wish list for next time.
Sun Taka Japanese
C/ Bruc 146
Eixample 08037
facebook.com/SunTakabarcelona/
instagram.com/suntaka_bcn/
Dishes we tried and prices
Akadashi 7.8€
Mussels 8€
Gyoza Iberico 8.60€
Nasu Dengaku 9€
Watarigani no tempu 13.80€
Sushi Sashimi Moria 26.50€
Kamo no Terihaki 14.50€
Spicy Teeka Maki 13.50€
Nigiri Ika 3€
Nigiri Hotate 3.60€
Salmon Don 11.30€
Millefeuille Matcha 6.80€
More Japanese restaurants like Sun Taka to try on Foodie in Barcelona:
Aiueno
Can Kenji
Kak Koy
Koy Shunka
Sato i Tanaka
Shunka
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