Kaiten-Zushi in Buenos Aires: Tô Restaurant
Who doesn’t love kaiten-zushi, or conveyor belt-sushi?
Recommended by the lovely staff at the Rendez-Vous Hotel, a group of my friends and I trekked over to Tô Restaurant (Costa Rica 6000) in Palermo Hollywood for a fabulous farewell dinner on my last night in Buenos Aires. The front-desk woman at my hotel described it as French cuisine meets Japanese, but with a conveyor belt thrown into the mix. The website of the restaurant calls it: “Concepto Frapanese.” I was obviously intrigued and asked her to make us reservations. We felt lucky to get seats at the conveyor-belt bar in view of the sushi-preparers (as the short video that I made shows). Reservations are definitely needed. By 10pm, the place is packed! And for good reason, Tô Restaurant is a fabulous and chic restaurant – and by far, the most gourmet conveyor-belt sushi restaurant that I’ve ever been to. With sky-rocket high prices, the restaurant attracts many foreigners and the elite of Buenos Aires. For a good three-hours of eating scrumptious sushi rolls, nigiri, and other Japanese/French-inspired dishes – all washed down with a bottle of red wine – we all felt a little more elevated in mind and spirit.
Tô (Source)
Tô has two levels. On the ground level is the conveyer-belt sushi bar as well as the regular bar. The room feels open with its high ceiling which is adorned by a beautiful mobile that looks to be built with chopsticks. The bamboo wood against lacquer aesthetic (think bento box) predominates the space. At night the room is aglow with sensual mood lighting as well as light entering from the street. The soundtrack of the space is loungey, what I’d imagine is played in all the cool bars in Paris or in Tokyo. There is a second level that is reached by stairs that we didn’t get a chance to see. But it looked exclusive given the stylishness of all the people we spotted going upstairs.
Flaming Dragon Roll at Tô
Service was very attentive. We were helped by at least three servers at any given moment. There is an English menu if you want to order appetizers or more elaborate rolls or sushi combinations as well as wine, which we did. The dishes taken off the conveyor belt are priced by the color of the plate. The highest-priced dish is a little over $7USD. The salmon skin rolls off the conveyor belt is amazing. I had chicken yakitori as an appetizer that came with a peanut dipping sauce (an interesting Japanese/Thai fusion) and a well-prepared Bloody Mary. My group ended up ordering at least five rolls off the menu as well as many individual plates off the conveyor belt. The most elaborate roll we ordered was the dragon roll that came with a flaming dipping sauce. And we also ordered a bottle of Bonarda wine – my new favorite grape varietal. I am scrimping on the details of our dishes in part because we were very much into the moment of eating the delicious food at Tô, and I was more focused on enjoying my friends company and the sublime experience on my last night in Buenos Aires. The food we had was quite sublime, and I’d only wish I’d have discovered the restaurant earlier. You will definitely find red tuna nigiri and sushi rolls at Tô.
Our total bill totaled about AR$900 or about $225USD – for our group. Or about $56USD a person for a group of 4. Pricey – quite! Worth it – definitely!
