Review: SushiSamba Rio

2 stars (out of four)

Rating key:
4: Outstanding
3: Excellent
2: Very good
1: Good
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory

I'm in the bar area of SushiSamba Rio, accompanied by the Two Lauras, who are far too young and pretty to be hanging with the Oldest Guy at the Bar. But that's their hard luck.

We are hanging at the bar because, silly me, I assumed that we could just walk into this joint at 6:30 p.m. in the middle of the week and get a table. Not so. The restaurant is booked solid, the sushi bar (which is not reservable) is full and the polite man behind the host stand says he might be able to seat us in about 1 1/2 hours.

I should have known better. The buzz on SushiSamba Rio, which combines Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisines, started a year ago, when the New York-based concept announced it was coming to Chicago. A few postponements of the original opening date merely whetted the appetites of Chicago's trendinistas. And now, open just over a month, SushiSamba Rio is far and away the hottest restaurant in town.

And so the Two Lauras, who actually paid to be here (part of an inter-company United Way auction), are sipping their caipirinha and mojito cocktails and augmenting our people-watching with a few well-chosen zingers.

The woman in the strapless floral sundress and heels "looks like she stepped out of 'Tony & Tina's Wedding.'" |" The thick-muscled fellow in the buttoned-to-the-neck white polo shirt and Dockers slacks is "from an Iowa farm, or one in Ohio," the Two Lauras can't decide. I'm starting to feel a bit self-conscious about my ensemble; as though reading my mind, one Laura assures me, "Oh, you're fine."

Thus vetted, I wear substantially the same outfit on my follow-up visit, though this time I bring along my wife and a friend, neither one named Laura. But the Two Lauras would have loved this night's crowd, a roomful of dress-to-dazzle diners in "Sex and the City" configurations (groups of three to four well-dressed females, with nary a boyfriend in sight), including one woman whose totally backless blouse was turning every head in the room. The waiters must love working here.

If that's not enough eye candy for you, there's David Rockwell's wild, color-filled design. The bar, where customers can plan on spending at least a little time, fronts a wall covered in bright blue tile and clear acrylic display boxes backlit with yellow light.

The dining room begins with a huge oval sushi bar, in the center of which is a virtual army of chefs working feverishly. The far wall is a sea of red, in varying hues, on a multi-textured array of squares. Some of the dining spaces are raised, as though on stages; one large circular area is sunken, and surrounded by a floor-to-ceiling curtain of silver beads.

Amid this riot of color, sound and skin, SushiSamba's food struggles mightily to be noticed, though it's hard to overlook something like the sawagani, tiny Japanese river crabs that are flash-fried, salted and eaten whole. "Walking potato chips," was the bartender's pithy description of these nibbles, which in fact don't move at all but provide plenty of crunch along with a hint of crab flavor. Lobster ceviche is particularly pretty, the citrus-cured meat presented in a hollowed lobster shell, accompanied by a spicy balsamic-mango sorbet.

The appetizer list abounds with little bites. Anticuchos, or skewered meats, are offered in several varieties, including cubes of grilled beef with a mild red-chile paste, or teriyaki-seasoned chicken livers, served on a bed of Peruvian white-corn niblets. The Samba Pizza, a sharable starter, tops its thin, crispy crust with thinly sliced tuna, hearts of palm and a spicy tomato mayonnaise.

Sushi and sashimi dishes make good starters, and the menu offers plenty of both, including customized sushi rolls that are fun, if a bit gimmicky. The Chi-Town roll, consisting of spicy tuna and crispy salmon skin with a hazelnut ponzu sauce, is a tasty thing, and I liked the smoked-duck roll, in which the smoky meat is draped over a cucumber-mango-avocado roll. The Samba Rio roll, topped with bits of guava-glazed shortrib meat, is too bland; ditto the Inca roll, though it has the saving grace of being a vegetarian option.

Main courses, by contrast, are pretty straightforward. Not all of it sings; the tuna è and filet surf & turf is a bit of a snore, and the moqueca mista--a paella-like collection of nicely handled seafood with coconut milk and rice--is so jaw-droppingly bland, I assume that a couple of ingredients were somehow left out.

On the plus side, the red snapper is a keeper, deep-fried to a satisfying crunch and presented whole (though the middle is deboned) with rice and a spicy coconut-curry sauce. And the miso-marinated black cod is a beauty, its soft, delicate flesh contrasted with crispy skin and a just-sweet-enough glaze.

The don't-miss desserts are the Passionfruit Pudim, a tasty array of citrus presented ceviche-style, topped with a black-pepper granita; and the Tres Lietes, which is similar to Mexican tres leches and consists of a spongecake dome soaked in three-milk syrup, served with cachaca-flambeed mangoes topped with three-milk foam. And if you haven't had enough spice yet, there's the Samba brownie, a nut brownie spiked with a little cayenne.

The wine list groups its considerable offerings by weight, calling its light-bodied, soft whites Geishas, its heavy reds Sumos and its medium-bodied reds Rico Suaves. That silliness aside, it's an excellent list, with plenty to excite the savvy drinker and thoughtful range in the lower-priced bottles. The sake selection is dazzling--four pages of sakes in various grades, with plenty of Sake 101-level descriptions.

Though servers and hosts are as friendly as can be, on a couple of occasions I detected a little attitude, which SushiSamba would do well to avoid. I called to reconfirm one reservation at the apparently inconvenient hour of 6 p.m., and was informed "we ask our customers to call between noon and four." While waiting for our table, my wife asked a passing cocktail waitress if she could take a drink order.

"At the bar," the waitress replied, without breaking stride.

Apparently, if you luck into the few cushy sofa seats by the bar, a waitress will fetch you a drink and even appetizers; the rest, which can number more than a hundred, must deal with the two (!) bartenders. Given the number of drinks SushiSamba Rio hopes to serve, I suggest adding a couple of bartenders and expanding the cocktail waitress' duties.

Phil Vettel is the Tribune restaurant critic.

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