Best Japanese restaurant

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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Samurai maintains its leadership as by far the best Japanese restaurant in Dominican Republic.

Last night had dinner at the Samurai Restaurant's new location. Have good news and bad news. First the good news. The place is outstanding. They have really outdone themselves. They are now located on the street that runs parallel to Abraham Lincoln, behind Unicentro Plaza. North of Radio Shack. Just don't remember the exact name of that street.

This facility that has nothing to rival any Japanese restaurant around the world.
They have several areas for different Japanese foods. If you want to impress someone, take them there. Food is good.

Do not expect any bargain, actually it is quite expensive, more so the drinks at RD$230 + 16% + 10% for a bloody mary. But given the settings, if you can get someone to invite you there, or splurge once in a while, then go for it. First class.

The bad news is that they have eliminated the very popular and extremely good value Sunday brunch buffet -- all you can eat.
 

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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I have three teenage boys (17, 15 and 13). They are all in top shape (capoiera practioners) and slim but it is impressive how they could pack in all the sushis and sashimis. Samurai is now off limits for the boys. I have not yet told them.
 

joecanada

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Not to hijack, but for the North Coast, Wabisabi in Cabarete is far and away the best sushi/sashimi restaurant. Also not cheap, but quality costs and they went out of their way to do it right. They even serve Sapporo and Kirin beer!

I highly recommend it, and I've actually lived and worked in Japan.
 

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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Have you been to the new Samurai in Santo Domingo? Please visit and tell me which is a better restaurant, taking into consideration the facility and the food variety. Next time I am in Cabarete, will try to make it to the Wabisabi restaurant to cast my vote.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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k1w1 said:
Good for you. Sounds like you're on top of things. (I recall what I use to be able to eat while on the national swim team and it still grosses me out!! haha)
I'm interested whether
a) any locals (natives) would venture into sushi? (or does economics prevent this)
b) any locals (natives) would perceive 'all you can eat' as a value? (I'm under the impression that food is purely 'sustenance' (sp) and not 'recreation' )
thanx & rgds
I haven't had the pleasure of going to Samurai and probably won't for the foreseeable future:cry: , but when I've gone to restaurants that serve sushi at least 90% of the customers are Dominican.
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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seems there are still people out there who believe that every Dominican lives in the barrio and eats only platano and rice. Wrong. Plenty of Dominicans with money...lots of money.
 

franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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Dolores said:
Samurai maintains its leadership as by far the best Japanese restaurant in Dominican Republic.

Last night had dinner at the Samurai Restaurant's new location. Have good news and bad news. First the good news. The place is outstanding. They have really outdone themselves. They are now located on the street that runs parallel to Abraham Lincoln, behind Unicentro Plaza. North of Radio Shack. Just don't remember the exact name of that street.

This facility that has nothing to rival any Japanese restaurant around the world.
They have several areas for different Japanese foods. If you want to impress someone, take them there. Food is good.

Do not expect any bargain, actually it is quite expensive, more so the drinks at RD$230 + 16% + 10% for a bloody mary. But given the settings, if you can get someone to invite you there, or splurge once in a while, then go for it. First class.

The bad news is that they have eliminated the very popular and extremely good value Sunday brunch buffet -- all you can eat.

Went there tonight, paid about US$100 for 15 salmon sushi (part of the bill, the total for 2 persons was US$250). Expensive. Salmon sushi is better in AKA for me. As well as Miso soup and ensalada de algas. I will never go there again. AKA is the best sushi place in Santo Domingo for me. And AKA is cheaper. And I'm a real sushi lover, I've visited all Nobu restaraunts around the world, I love to make sushi by myself and I know what I'm talking about. Even a soy-sauce is not the best in Samurai and wasabi is too dry.
 

Mr_DR

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May 12, 2002
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joecanada said:
Not to hijack, but for the North Coast, Wabisabi in Cabarete is far and away the best sushi/sashimi restaurant. Also not cheap, but quality costs and they went out of their way to do it right. They even serve Sapporo and Kirin beer!

I highly recommend it, and I've actually lived and worked in Japan.
Hmm,hmmm,hmmm You guys are now making me crave the perfect combo, Sushi and Sake.
 

franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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I forgot to add: a place that is positioning itself as a luxury japeneese restaraunt MUST have ume-shu (japaneese plum wine). Menus are ugly too, design and cosiness are so-so too, but of-course ten thousand times better then it was in Samurai on Lincoln. Checks are hand-writed, salmon roll had a smoked salmon instead of fresh (which I asked), I haven't eat it, but they charged me for it anyway. By the way, does anybody knows what are their plans with their property on Lincoln?
 

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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k1w1 said:
Excellent point Snuffster! My bad and most humble apologies to you & yours. I guess I'm wondering how often you see your bretheren (or whatever) out there spending US$250 for two people to eat sushi? Please school me.
Most appreciated. (My impression (admittedley mostly from DR1) is not so often. I'd love to hear otherwise. Thanx again)

Plenty of money being spent in the nicer restaurants.

DR1 is not a good reflection of the DR, the majority of the posters here are casual visitors or tourists, so they never get to see or feel the "real" DR.
 

franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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k1w1 said:
Excellent point Snuffster! My bad and most humble apologies to you & yours. I guess I'm wondering how often you see your bretheren (or whatever) out there spending US$250 for two people to eat sushi? Please school me.
Most appreciated. (My impression (admittedley mostly from DR1) is not so often. I'd love to hear otherwise. Thanx again)

If you'll visit one of this places in Santo Domingo around 9 pm you'll find out it's full and you can't find a table there without a reservation, some of them are quite big restaraunts, average bill is more then US$100 per person: Peperoni, Sophia's, Porterhouse, David Crockett, etc. Or what, you think Dominican Republic is all about poor people? Did you know that DR is a second market for Porsche AG in the Latin America after Mexico? People with money live, eat and spend the same way in all over the world with only little differences.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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franco said:
If you'll visit one of this places in Santo Domingo around 9 pm you'll find out it's full and you can't find a table there without a reservation, some of them are quite big restaraunts, average bill is more then US$100 per person: Peperoni, Sophia's, Porterhouse, David Crockett, etc. Or what, you think Dominican Republic is all about poor people? Did you know that DR is a second market for Porsche AG in the Latin America after Mexico? People with money live, eat and spend the same way in all over the world with only little differences.
Using the Porsche example is not as revealing as one would think.

However, Santo Domingo does has more Mercedes-Benz owners on a per capita basis than any other city in the Western Hemisphere. This fact comes from the people of Mercedes-Benz/Chrysler themselves!

And what about the Bentley dealership on Kennedy? There are only 2 (yes, 2) authorized Bentley dealerships in all of Latin America, the other one is in San Juan, PR. These businesses don't stay in business in places where there is no demand for and yet, Santo Domingo keeps these businesses, well in business!

To make this post related to the thread, Samurai are the most respected warriors of Japanese society. To be a Samurai is a very prestigious accomplishment and Samurai war principles and tactics come in handy in non-war activities, such as running a business and beating the competition!

For this reason, Samurai is the appropriate name for the best Japanese restaurant in this country, par excellence! - well for me at least!
-NAL
 
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franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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Dolores said:
Is AKA the Peruvian sushi place in Plaza Orleans?


Chief and the co-owner is half-japaneese peruvian, but the main owner is the same with "RED". Aka is red in japaneese.
 
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Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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Agree. That place is where we will take the boys because it is affordable and good. But Samurai people have done a wonderful job with the location. Overall, I still would give Samurai my vote as the best Japanese restaurant in the DR.
 

franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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Nal0whs said:
Using the Porsche example is not as revealing as one would think.

However, Santo Domingo does has more Mercedes-Benz owners on a per capita basis than any other city in the Western Hemisphere. This fact comes from the people of Mercedes-Benz/Chrysler themselves!

And what about the Bentley dealership on Kennedy? These businesses don't stay in business in places where there is no demand for and yet, Santo Domingo keeps these businesses, well in business!

To make this post related to the thread, Samurai are the most respected warriors of Japanese society. To be a Samurai is a very prestigious accomplishment and Samurai war principles and tactics come in handy in non-war activities, such as running a business and beating the competition!

For this reason, Samurai is the appropriate name for the best Japanese restaurant in this country, par excellence! - well for me at least!
-NAL

Bentley dealer is Avelino Abreu, the guy who holds half of the car brands in this country. He is also one of the major shareholders of Popular Bank. I don't think they are doing good money with selling Bentleys here, only a dozen of this cars are riding dominican roads, I think it's a metter of prestige. And if the car is that expansive it doesn't mean dealer earns a lot. This guy represent VW here and Bentley is owned by VW, so I guess it was not hard for him to get this brand.

And I really don't understand why you are surprised with all this cars and rich people in the DR? Sugar, coffee, tobacco, tourism, many other businesses are very successfull here, in each industry there are real people behind this businesses...

Let's say one sugar tycoon have a company here, he makes big money, he have a dozen of well paid employees and thousand of regular ones, employees with high salary can afford Mercedes, so somebody opens a Mercedes dealership (Ram?n Ernesto Morales in our case), he have some well paid employees they can afford to go to good restaurants and spend a couple of hundreds bucks on sushi, so restaurants owners becomes rich too, they have employees, they need BMWs, all this people needs accounts in the banks, banks owners becomes rich, they need Bentley, etc, etc, etc. What part you can't understand? Look how many serious businesses are around - Hache, Ferreteria Americana, Supermercados Nacional, Pinturas Tropical, EPS, BusinessMail, thousand of others, all of them have owners, co-owners and they are rich. Look how much is commercial real-estate on Lincoln, Lope de Vega, Roberto Pastoriza, etc. It's around US$15-25 per sq.m. per month to rent it, most of the stores there are around 300 sq.m., it's about US$7500 per month only to rent the place, so imagine with prices of electricity here, with salaries that they have to pay how much do they earn on this locations.

You think all this money came from cocaine? Yes, of-course, money from cocaine and money laundering are here too, but believe, not all of them, many rich dominicans wants to stay as far from it as it possible, they don't even go to the restaurants where they know they can meet this sort of people.

And you can't judge restaurant by it's name, yes it is a good name for Japanese restaurant, but they were the first ones here, so they had an opportunity to pick-up the best name... :) I'm not against them at all, I'm just voicing my opinion...
 

franco

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Nov 5, 2003
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Dolores said:
Agree. That place is where we will take the boys because it is affordable and good. But Samurai people have done a wonderful job with the location. Overall, I still would give Samurai my vote as the best Japanese restaurant in the DR.

Dolores, you know, maybe you are right, I was talking about sushi, but I just realized you're talking about japanese restaurants, where sushi is just a little part of a menu. If you're talking overall I guess you're right, it's a best japanese restaurant, because Aka is the best sushi-bar for me, but it's not a restaurant. Yes, you can say Samurai is the best, but not because they are so good, but because there is no other place like that. :) I don't like other things in japanese cuisine like Teriyaki, Tempura, etc. So I can't judge if it's good or bad in Samurai, what I'm saying is that sushi is not the best and too expensive there. Service was not good and it's not only my opinion.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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Bentley dealer is Avelino Abreu, the guy who holds half of the car brands in this country. He is also one of the major shareholders of Popular Bank. I don't think they are doing good money with selling Bentleys here, only a dozen of this cars are riding dominican roads, I think it's a metter of prestige. And if the car is that expansive it doesn't mean dealer earns a lot. This guy represent VW here and Bentley is owned by VW, so I guess it was not hard for him to get this brand.
Well, Bentley's are not pocket change types of cars and they don't sell for small pocket change.

These cars are meant to be exclusive, they sell exclusivity, and this means low volume at high sticker prices. They also have very good profit margins, in general. VWs, well, they are on a different league geared towards different types of customers.

And I really don't understand why you are surprised with all this cars and rich people in the DR? Sugar, coffee, tobacco, tourism, many other businesses are very successfull here, in each industry there are real people behind this businesses...
Believe me Franco, I'm very well aware of this.

Believe me...

If anything, I was simply expanding on your points!

And you can't judge restaurant by it's name, yes it is a good name for Japanese restaurant, but they were the first ones here, so they had an opportunity to pick-up the best name... :) I'm not against them at all, I'm just voicing my opinion...
That is precisely why the name is excellent for the restaurant! The warriors who made it through the test of time!

Plus, it's a very good restaurant! Of course, nothing will ever satisfy all of humanity, but if most patrons love the place, then it must be good!

-NAL:classic:
 

arturo

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Mar 14, 2002
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I've visited the Nobus and many other places as well as the new Samurai

franco said:
Went there tonight, paid about US$100 for 15 salmon sushi (part of the bill, the total for 2 persons was US$250). Expensive. Salmon sushi is better in AKA for me. As well as Miso soup and ensalada de algas. I will never go there again. AKA is the best sushi place in Santo Domingo for me. And AKA is cheaper. And I'm a real sushi lover, I've visited all Nobu restaraunts around the world, I love to make sushi by myself and I know what I'm talking about. Even a soy-sauce is not the best in Samurai and wasabi is too dry.


I agree with you and Dolores. By Dominican standards it is the best if you consider the prices of the Cabarete place. On an international scale, I've been to storefront places in West L.A. with better Japanese food.