UN Restaurante

Foi minha primeira vez no UN. Sem dúvida dou 5 estrelas pois foi tudo perfeito nessa quarta-​feira. Minha experiência e de meus amigos foi muito boa. Em alguns aspectos superou alguns que considero os melhores japoneses da cidade como o Kan e Kinoshita.
Os peixes estavam simplesmente divinos e o serviço impecável. Sentamos no balcão reservado para as 10 horas e apesar do restaurante cheio nossos lugares foram liberados as 10 em ponto.
Ao chegar sentamos no bar e tomamos um Manhattan que foi muito bem preparado.
Ponto para o UN.

When one reads about the concept and sees the images of UN Restaurante, nothing but the best can be expected — the location is absolutely spot on, its a very well designed, high ceilings, low lights, clean space — the looks of it are just right and when I read that the chef Tadashi Shiraishi had worked in NOBU, I really thought that it would be wonderful — expectations were high but then when it comes to food and beverages and service — UN Restaurante needs to improve radically.
I went there on a Monday night, there was no need to make any reservations (one has the option) but there were several empty tables so I had the pick of it all. The décor, as I have said above, is beautiful — ambient lighting is dim but there is enough light focussed on the tables to be able to clearly see the food etc. To start with, I ordered the Salmon tartar and made the tragic mistake of getting a drink — a Blackberry Bramble. The tartar was decent but the bramble was sweet and with excessive crushed ice on top, making it more like a beach ice-​cream rather than a cocktail. Also the menu has like 4 – 5 cocktails, and as they did not have the ingredients for a ice negroni, I tried a bramble — word of recommendation — avoid the cocktails and stick to water.
On the menu, I saw ‘toro’ availability — my attendant told me that they did have it and would cose R$ 27,00 for 4 slices of sashimi or 2 sushis — toro is rare so I went ahead and ordered it, after 10 minutes, she comes to me and tells me that they are out of toro — I found it quite weird that a restaurante of this caliber, on a slow Monday night, was already out of toro and without ingredients to make an ice negroni. I then tried their ‘New Style Salmon Sashimi’ which was very fresh and well made and a signature Nobu dish — ‘Salmon Tatami with karashi’ which wasn’t bad either.
Some of the reasons for my 3-​star review for this place :
a. Lack of ingredients on a Monday night
b. The menu is not descriptive, so you have to keep asking for the attendant to help you out with most of the dishes
c. Terrible bar/​cockatils — even the sake caipirinha with strawberries wa less sweeter than my Bramble
d. Much better japanese (maybe not as fancy) options in the city.
Some of the pros :
a. Prices are in the ‘normal’ japanese a-​la-​carte line
b. Amazing décor
c. Attentive service.
I don’t think I will be returning to UN — its a place that has so much potential yet it’s already stumbling…