Planeta Sushi
Restaurants
By Anatol Steven.
11.12.2013
After a hard day of business meetings and/or sightseeing, a sushi restaurant can be a welcome sight in such a central location, virtually on Dome Square.
With a couple of locations already doing brisk business in Riga and Jurmala, Planeta Sushi recently opened this petite but conspicuous spot, so we decided to try it out.
The décor is minimalist, reflecting the even-tempered and restrained Japanese character, with lots of bright spotlighting. You can sit by the windows with a view of the cobbled streets and the square. Or, given these tables’ extreme visibility with everyone passing by staring at you and your food, particularly in the hours of darkness, you can opt for one of the secluded miniature tables at the back – ideal for one or two people – or seating upstairs.
Heavy glossy menus illustrate the dishes on offer. Predictably these include a range of bento spreads, the pick of which is probably the Ninniku Bento with its tiger shrimps fried in ninniku sauce with rice and sesame seeds, accompanied by a light miso shiro soup, four pieces of sake avocado maki and a slice of salmon sashimi. All bento dishes are priced at €7, which also includes green tea or black coffee.
Instead, we went for sake miso (€3), a tasty broth with three chunks of salmon, seaweed and green onion, followed by something a little more unusual – chirashi sake avocado (€8). This was a bowl thick with sticky fat rice flavored with sake, vinegar and seaweed, covered with slithers of fresh salmon tasting slightly warm, presumably from the heat of the rice underneath. Wafer-thin slices of soft avocado were set delicately on top.
Together, these two dishes were delicious, although too slight to satisfyingly fill us. More filling may have been one of the choices of doughy dim-sum – a new option at Planeta Sushi. A Chinese delicacy, they are little packages of mushrooms, veal, chicken, lamb, Peking duck, salmon and cream cheese, and shrimp with alternately spinach, mussels or scallops. Try one of each, served in a traditional steamer basket, for €10.
The menu can also be interactive – create your own rice-based dish using various ingredients. Or just blow the bank on teppan steak (€17), with 10 or 12 pieces of juicy beef that have been marinated in a rich sauce.
