Sushi House: Excellent Rolls in Barrio Laureles

No, it can’t be. A great sushi place in the city sits right down the street from my place? Really?

Really.

After recently finding great Chinese food in Medellín, I didn’t think I’d find a superb sushi spot so close to my home in Laureles. I thought I’d always have to make the trip to Poblado. I don’t.

Following a suggestion from my new paisa friend Duvan, I decided to try Sushi House. A few other new friends wanted sushi as well, and when we found out Sushi House delivers, we had to give it a shot.

We were very happy to find out that it lived up to the hype.

The fish was fresh, the rolls creative, the rice tinged with just the right amount of vinegar, the price lower than I expected. I liked that some rolls included a bit of mango, something new for me.

It wasn’t cheap — half a Ojo de Tigre roll was 11,900 pesos (about $6), a full roll 21,800 (about $11) — but good sushi rarely comes cheap.

The Ojo de Tigre was a mix of tuna, salmon, crab and red snapper, adorned with the tiny orange fish eggs common on other rolls.

I also had the Caribe (shrimp, mango, avocado, cream cheese and sesame seeds), while my new friends opted to try the same, as well as the Sushi House roll (smoked salmon, shrimp, mango and cream cheese), the Tayrona (chicken, shrimp, avocado and cream cheese), and classics such as the California and Philadelphia.

I ate my sushi like I always do…with lots of wasabi. Of course I tried a couple pieces without too much of the spicy mustard, to avoid masking the taste of the fish, to confirm Devan’s declaration about the quality of the sushi.

It should not have surprised me. Medellín is a very modern city, a place that try to keep up with the latest culinary trends, and Laureles is one of the city’s signature neighborhoods. Perhaps the only surprise is that it took me this long to find the place.

I can take the asterisk away from Laureles now. I always thought to myself, “I like Laureles better than Poblado, but I wish Laureles had a great sushi spot.”

I see only two problems with Sushi House:

1. I want to try the other rolls, quickly, but I cannot because I just got back from a two-month vacation and my bank account is pretty dry.

2. I’ll always be tempted to eat their sushi, which means I have to adjust my budget because, as I said before, good sushi is a little pricey. When it comes to raw fish, do you really want to take your chances with something cheap?

Maybe there’s a solution to my problems, or at least a partial fix. The menu that came with the delivery will remain hidden, to avoid tempting me.