Four Stars

Over the past few years, Medellin has become a hot-spot for innovative and fusion restaurants that explore new uncharted flavors through the combination of ingredients never seen before. This new trend that has mesmerized the citizens of Medellin, has caused for these “innovative” and “unusual” cuisines to surface all around the city of the Eternal Spring. The popularity of these new gastronomic environments is threatening traditional cuisines and restaurants that once ruled the streets of Medellin in the past and has forced for only the best of the best traditional establishments to thrive in this new era of Medellin’s gastronomic revolution. One state-of-the-art traditional restaurant that has managed to stay on top is Hanami, offering an exquisite Japanese cuisine that ranges from a one of a kind experience teppanyaki and appetizing sushi rolls.

When dealing with restaurants, the first and most crucial criteria that you must focus on is without a doubt the food. A restaurant that fails to provide tasty food can’t define itself as a restaurant. But Hanami does the complete opposite, it manages to offer the best quality and most authentic sushi and teppanyaki in Medellin. This is the only place where you can find truly authentic Japanese dishes that include the Tiger Eye Nigiri, Tempura rolls, and much more variety. The menu tries to offer a complete Japanese cuisine in the most minimalist and simple way, including sashimi, nigiri, teppanyaki and other traditional starters and soups that include tempura shrimp or a tofu soup. The menu offers only the finest dishes, meaning the menu isn’t very extensive when it comes to the number of rolls, ensuring the quality of meals to be extraordinary and consistent and helps for the client to choose what he desires in a simpler manner. Differing from other sushi establishments like Wakame, that offer a great deal of sushi rolls, which won’t ensure consistency in quality and puzzles clients when it comes to choosing what to order.

Hanami’s quality of sushi is unmatched compared to any other restaurant as they follow specific traditions in the making of rolls that aid for the final dish to be outstanding. The chefs who prepare the rolls are experienced professionals that learned in Japan and have over 10 years of experience. With this experience, they know perfectly how to prepare the rice properly, and combine simple and fresh ingredients to create a very tasty nigiri. In Medellin, the concept of a sushi roll has evolved completely and has lost the true essence of a nigiri, which is why Hanami stands out above other competitors. By definition, sushi’s most important concept is simple, it should consist of a piece of fish wrapped up in vinegar-flavored rice and nori. While Hanami tries to stay consistent with this concept, other “sushi” establishments like Sushi Market completely abolish traditional practices by adding ingredients like lettuce, carrots, or drowning the sushi rolls with special sauces. Not only does Hanami offer great sushi but also they offer teppanyaki, an experience where they prepare your food in front of you, in which they use many legitimate traditions inherited from Japan. Choosing to dine in the grill opens you up to many options as to what do you want to eat, with the variety being able to satisfy from meat lovers and fish fanatics, and all the way to vegetarian practicers.

The service that is provided by the waiters is over the top, they are always attentive to when it comes to dishes and drinks being served as soon as they are ready, and are always keeping an eye on the status of your drink and dish. Although the waiters excel in their service, the major problem comes from the department of the cuisine, as they must choose between pushing out quality dishes in due time or rushing dishes out of the cuisine but with mediocre quality. The sushi and sashimi prepared by the sushi makers always take some time to prepare as it’s a delicate and complex method to prepare a quality roll. Not only this but if you choose to eat teppanyaki, the time until you finally eat is extremely long, as you need to wait for the grill to heat up, the ingredients to be prepared, served, and finally cooked.

The environment of Hanami is a modern take on classic Japanese decoration, as it combines the use of concrete, wood, and white colors to create a clean and modern ambient giving you the confidence that your food is being prepared in a clean space. Although it doesn’t offer a one of a kind experience with its environment, it still manages to create a comfortable space in which you can spend time with either your family, friends, or partner. Similarly to a local sushi establishment, Sushi Train features a clean and modern look using white colors and Japanese decorations. Yet Hanami’s combination of colors and textures sets it apart from all other restaurants, giving it a unique look.

Hanami has certainly positioned itself on one of the top sushi restaurants in Medellin that thrives in not only keeping Japanese tradition alive but also offering state-of-the-art sushi rolls and one of a kind experiences in a teppanyaki grill. It’s a must-go restaurant for any sushi fanatics out there and people who just want an all around amazing experience.