Madrid: Sushi

Besides pizza being my favourite staple food, I also need to satisfy my sushi craving, which is very important also for a balanced diet (need some of those omega-3s). I started eating sushi since I was maybe 7 years old or so, and my aunt, uncle, mom and dad would take me to eat at good sushi places in Massachusetts (which is where I am from). Now that I have been living on my own, I am always in search of good or decent quality sushi places that fall into the budget of a poor college student.

During these past two years living in Madrid, I have tried many sushi places, especially the sushi buffets. There is one sushi buffet restarant that I have tried multiple times in Madrid which I can confidently say that it satisfied my sushi hunger (and let me tell you, I eat a lot) without breaking my bank: Sumo.

Sumo, Calle de Fuencarral, 116 (Fuencarral; Bilbao metro).

There are actually four Sumo restaurants throughout Madrid; one in the Fuencarral area, another in Cuzco, one in Azca (Castellana 89), and the fourth one is on Gran Vía (it is the Sumo Fusion restaurant). I will only give my opinion on the Sumo located in Fuencarral because I have been there many times, and I liked it better than the one in the Cuzco location (it seemed better quality food in my opinion). Also keep in mind that the buffet menus are only available in the Fuencarral, Cuzco and Azca locations.

What I love most about the Sumo buffet menu is that there is a very large selection of sushi and hot food to choose from. The system works like this:

• You must order a beverage with the buffet menu (drinks are not included, and they require that you order one).
• You can order up to five plates per order, and up to three orders. In total, you can order a maximum of 15 plates, but trust me, it's definitely more than enough to fill you up.
• Be aware not to order more than you can eat because they will charge for every uneaten item that you leave.

The restaurant opening hours are as followed:

• Sunday to Thursday from 1-4:30pm and from 8pm-midnight.
• Fridays, Saturdays, and holidays from 1-4:30pm and from 8pm-12:30am.

The buffet prices vary depending on the day and hour:

• €13, 75 per person Monday-Friday for the lunch hours (1-4:30pm), not including holidays.
• €17, 50 per person Monday-Thursday for the dinner hours (8pm-midnight), also not including holidays.
• €19, 95 per person Friday night-Sunday night, as well as on holidays.
• €7, 95 for kids under years old.
• Free for babies under 3 years old.

I highly recommend Sumo as the go-to place if you're looking for a sushi buffet in Madrid.

If you're not so much of a buffet person, you can also order a la carte.

Feeling lazy to go out to eat but still want sushi? If you're looking for a good quality sushi take-out place, then I recommend that you order from Irsushi. I have tried their take-out sushi many times, and it's extremely good quality. Average price would be around €15-€20 for a plate of sushi, which is enough to satisfy you and I think you won't be disappointed by the quality.

The runner-ups.

After I've told you about Sumo, I want to first explain why I didn't like the other places I've tried. Here's a list and brief description of the sushi places which I have tried in Madrid and they didn't quite cut my satisfaction:

Sumosan, Calle de Martín de los Heros, 4 (Plaza de España).

For very basic sushi and unexperienced sushi eaters, this is a good place to eat at for a low price. The last time I was there (not sure if it's changed), the lunchtime buffet during the week is 10-11€ per person, and at night or on the weekends it's 15-16€. The buffet menu has limited choices and they keep the sushi rolls very simple.

I ordered udon noodles on that day (above) at Sumosan because it was also on the buffet menu, but I remember that I had regretted ordering it because it filled me up so much so that I couldn't have as much sushi as I had wanted.

Sushiwakka, Calle del Pintor Juan Gris, 5 (Cuzco).

The decoration and soft purple colors inside this restaurant was very pleasing to me and it contributed to my pleasant experience there. I also really liked the over-all layout as well as the table and seating design choice.

This is the entrance and bar area. When you walk further in the restaurant, you will find the main dining area. I like the ambiance and coziness of this place.

One thing, however, is that I can't help rembering that the sushi fish looked kind of rubbery and it seemed to me that it was artificially colored.

The appearance looks good at first, but there's something suspicious about the overly-bright colors. I can't be sure because I am not a professional restaurant critique, but I know good sushi from mediocre sushi, and to me the sushi here was mediocre and questionably fresh.

A strange rule that this restaurant has is that when you order the buffet menu, you have to order a certain amount of dishes (I think it's 5 per person) per round, and each round should rotate between cold dishes and hot dishes. In other words, let's say that I start by ordering a round of sushi. This means that the expectation is that in my next round I should order things not sushi, such as teriyaki chicken, for example.

As someone who goes to a sushi restaurant to pay for a sushi buffet (which is really the most expensive item on the menu), I prefer not to fill up my stomach with food I'm not interested in. At first I thought it was obligatory to order the hot, non-sushi food, but after asking the waiter, he said that if I want to, I could just skip that round and move straight to the next sushi round. Just be careful when you go to restaurants and make sure you ask and clarify the "ordering rules" so you're not obliged to order things you don't want to eat, and just focus on ordering what you came there to eat.

Oh, and I think the Sushiwakka buffet menu was 15€ per person.

Xake, Calle Caballero de Gracia, 2 (Gran Vía/Montera).

This place is a kaiten, or conveyor belt, style sushi restaurant. It was only 10€ to eat here during the week all you can eat lunch, but I wasn't really impressed at all. The sushi choices on the conveyor belt are extremely limited and simple, and not very good-tasting either. The rest of the stuff that comes on the belt is Chinese food, but not exactly the best quality either. You can definitely eat unlimitedly here and you'll leave very full for a low price, but I didn't enjoy the food that much.

I hope you found this post helpful, and be sure to read my next article about the best sushi buffet I have ever tried in the whole world (besides in Japan): The Tokyo Restaurant in Amiens, France.

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