SOLUNA
Teppei Nii spent eight years as Hideki Matsuhisa’s right hand at Koy Shunka before opening this improbably small room near the Clínic — six stools at a counter, three tables behind — and the pedigree announces itself in the first bite rather than in the decor. Soluna is not a sushi restaurant and not a kaiseki restaurant; it is closest to an elevated izakaya with a Mediterranean pantry, which is a clumsy description for cooking this precise. A Gillardeau oyster under cabbage emulsion, yuzu and ikura. Scallop tempura crowned with caviar. A cod-collar “pizza” waving katsuobushi at you. Lobster tataki in white miso. A hand roll you assemble yourself around local red shrimp, which is the sort of thing that could be a gimmick and instead functions as an invitation. The serenity of the room is the other half of the appeal: Nii cooks in near silence, at close range, with the kind of economy that takes a decade to acquire. The bill is high and, we think, justified. Book weeks out, take the counter, and let a chef who spent eight years learning somebody else’s restaurant show you his own.
