Japanese-meets-Peruvian inspired cuisine is always welcome in a relatively underdeveloped food scene such as the one in Athens. Not that ethnic-style establishments are not abundant these days – but, good ones are definitely not. So it’s always nice to experience pleasant surprises such as the one at Huaca Nikkei Resto Bar!
Set in the quiet part of the Mets neighbourhood downtown, Huaca occupies a very small place on a small street catering mostly to a long bar and some open kitchen action. The moment we set foot we were warmly greeted by the host, testament to the well-thought concept founders Eirini Beka and Panagiotis Logothetis have created. Having built expertise from many different restaurants in Mykonos and Athens, they launched this ethnic focused food spot in late 2019. Although we would ideally like to also give credit for a well-executed concept, there seems to be some way to still go… although we could definitely feel the passion and effort from all of the staff.
Not to mention the meticulous chefs at work right in front of our eyes!
We started our dinner with some lime infused seabass ceviche (although the tiradito options looked super interesting!) before being served the impeccable and mouth-filling shrimp dumplings with shitake – oh dear lord! The fried chicken skewers with coriander were also very tasty although we could do with a bit less batter. Regardless, the chefs were continuously putting on a show, carefully tending to each dish of orders coming up from the 30-odd bunch of us on the night.
On the plus side, we also put some tuna inside-out rolls with a generous jalapeno sauce for added spice as well as the shrimp tempura roll.
The list of wines offered was rightfully priced and the sake served was damn good, although we’d like it a bit colder. In the end, we ended up doubling down on the shrimp dumplings but skipping the namelaka dessert that looked extra interesting.
Oh well, till next time!
