Quite a while ago, it must have been around a year or so, Holly and I had one of our first collective sushi meals in Sumo. The Bergmannstraße in Kreuzberg was one of the first Berlin hot spots that I had discovered and I loved hanging out on this lively street where you can enjoy the sun on a summery day on one of its many terraces. A couple of weeks ago, we went back to the Bergmannstraße for some sushi. Holly was particularly craving a sashimi salad, which they serve at Sumo, so I allowed myself to be lured back into this pretty looking restaurant. Sumo calls itself an Asian fusion restaurant that offers authentic sushi.
Sumo sushi
Sumo has two floors and their tables consist of authentic-looking wooden Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
cube-shaped forms. The decoration and furniture gives off a nice Asian vibe and you feel like you are entering an up-scale sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, the quality of the meals have gone down hill in the last year or so. One of the saddest things is that they have eliminated most of the vegetarian sushi dishes and all of their vegetarian plates or combinations. Which I think is very unfortunate, considering many vegetarians enjoy eating sushi and I myself really like the extra healthy vegetarian variations to supplement my fishy sushi. A lack of veggie sushi on the menu is a big downside for me.
Nevertheless, I bravely continued my adventure by wading through the menu. I had already eaten a warm dish with rice here once in summer and that had not really impressed me. Also, I was really feeling the sushi vibe, so I definitely wanted to eat sushi. However, Sumo is also quite expensive. You need to pay at least around 6 to 8 euro’s for a normal inside-out maki set, which is very pricey if you compare it to sushi restaurants like Wasabi, Sushi number one and Le coq d’or. Eventually I decided to order two less expensive dishes, namely the spicey and healthy kim-chi salad and a wan-tan soup.
Good food at Sumo?
I adore a wan-tan soup, but sadly enough a lot of restaurants will serve you a tiny bowl with too few actual wan tans, filled dumplings, in them. Unfortunately enough, Sumo served a mini bowl with only two wan tans inside and a flavourless amount of water that was supposed to pass as a soup. I was very, very disappointed. Holly also did not receive all the ingedrients listed as being in her salad and when she remarked on it, they only brought a tiny sliver of the missing tamago egg. Without a real apology or a bit of extra food that one would normally expect in such a situation. All in all: not particularly cool.
What makes this restaurant fabulous?
- The deco and the atmosphere is cool and nicely located on the Bergmannstraße. In summer you can chill outside and they have a nice glass of wine.
What makes this restaurant less fabulous?
- The prices and the food, basically. Sushi and other dishes are ridiculously priced for the kind of ‘stuff’ you get for it. The service is also not exceptionally good or friendly to even attempt to compensate for the lack of quality food. But apparently, because of its popular location, they still have enough customers.
- I would recommend popping around the corner to Cube on the Zossener Straße, a small and cosy sushi restaurant that is cheaper and a lot better. Until maybe Sumo gets its act back together, reintroducing some good veggie stuff and lowers its prices.
Where to go?
[googleMap name="Sumo" width="400" height="400" mousewheel="false" typecontrol="false" directions_to="false"]Bergmannstraße 89 10961 Berlin[/googleMap]
Sumo
Bergmannstraße 89
10961 Berlin
+49-30-69004963
