Japanese Food in Rome, restaurant Hamasei

Hello Everybody,

This next episode of Cool Food Joints in Rome has come out a lot later then anticipated, as at the moment we are up to our hair in work.
Next to running the Caesar's Accommodations, which requires lots of reckless driving through Rome's traffic-frenzy in our Ford Fiesta or on my scooter between our accommodations , we are currently at the final stage of restructuring our reservations-portal www.hotelnetservice.com' which we have had online as a hobby-project for some 7 years.

Some 5 months ago we had finally decided we wanted to try and see if we could go virtual with our jobs, so we emptied our savingsaccount and went and had the portal restructured completly by award-winning software company Vianet and one of the worlds biggest SEO (search engine optimisation) companies. (whose name we wont reveal here, the competition doesn't sleep...).

The brand-new, high-tech, state of the Art portal is coming out on June 1st, so come by and click around on it if you can find a few minutes of your time.

Anyway....today we decided enough was enough, so we grabbed a cab and headed for the city-centre (nowadays you cannot enter the city centre anymore unless you have a special permit ,and we have not found out who to bribe yet....), destination Japanse Restaurant Hamasei.

Obviously after living in Rome for 8 years, we sometimes crave for something other then italian food, as well as a change of scenery, and today was such a day.

Of the 5 or 6 japanese restaurants we know in Rome, Hamasei is still by far the best, and not even the most expensive.
It's located an easy 5 minute walk away from one of the main tourist sites in Rome, the Spanish Steps, in Via delle Mercede.
When standing with your back towards the actual Spanish Steps , walk away from them to the left and eventually walk off the square, taking the right of two paralel streets off the square.
At the end turn right into Via delle Mercede, and Hamasei is situated some 50 meters down the street at the left side of the street.

You can't really fault the place; service is always highly attentive (staff knows us to be good tippers...), location is top and the sushi is always freshly made.
Last convincing argument to be made for them is that they feature one of our favourite italian white wines on the menu, Gavi di Gavi.

Hamasei is a well oiled machine, the first Japanese to open it's door in Rome some 30 years ago.

Go and check out their lunch-menu's; today we endulged ourselves in a combination Sushi & Sashimi Lunch and some Tempura (fried shrimps and various fried vegetables) plus the inevitabe bottle of Gavi, and in total spent around 50-plus euro.
You will spend that kind of money without any effort whatsoever in any random Osteria or Trattoria for a meal for 2 and risk an unpleasant encounter with the local roman variant of "Tourist-Menu" (which you must avoid at all costs !!!).

Of course Hamasei being a Japanese restaurant, it lack's the flair and melodrama of the average Roman establishment , but it guarantees for a high-quality meal with great service in a discrete and low-noise environment, which was exactly what our overworked brains and bodies were crying-out for today.

We came out feeling revitalised and re-energised, ready to once again face the madness of Roman traffic and burocracy.

Next episode we will dive head-first into a typical chaotic Roman trattoria in one of Rome's most authentic areas, to transmit a bit of the Mediterranean chaos and livelyness we enjoy in Rome every day.


Take care..see you all next time,

Alfred & Yvonne (Lawrence sat this one out at school ...)