Raj Patel
Google
I've gone to Ohka for years. It's always been excellent - one of my favorites in Sao Paulo. I'm writing this review because Ohka has taken it to the next level.
It's not hard to find a sashimi bar in Sao Paulo that has either a spectacular ambiance or quality fish. Having both is truly only at a small handful of Japanese spots in Sao Paulo. Ohka delivers both regularly, but they've taken the experience to another level with wildly creative fish and other seafood dishes. Whether our assigned artist for the evening was a wakiita or itamae did not make a difference. Ours, Robson, impressed us with his knife skills, perfectly slicing kingfish with a surprising hint of lemon, chili, and soy. The tuna slices melted in our mouths, literally. The rice under the very few pieces of nigiri at the end of the experience, often overlooked, had perfectly lightly seasoned rice. The creativity with hotate, intricately sliced to maximize flavor release together with a dab of ponzu, really reveals the genius of Brazilian creativity with using the palette that is Japanese ingredients. This was also true of the tako slices, practically shaved and cooked with a delicious smokiness reminiscent of a relaxing Brazilian churrasco.
As a former oil painter, strangely I'm not as hung up on presentation as I am on the freshness, quality, and inventiveness of the flavor combinations. Nevertheless the presentation, so critical for most gastronomy fanatics, was also on point, novel, and consistently so.