Uma Temakeria

We've had Uma Temakeria on our radar for a while, ever since Chef Chris Jaeckle of all'onda opened the first location, mostly because of their hyped sushi burrito (they claim to have been the first in the city to make it), but also because we were intrigued by how they were inspired by the Brazilian temakeria (that is obviously related to our WorldEats interest). Last fall, they opened a second location at the (much closer to us) Gotham West Market, and we finally made it in to try the sushi burrito last weekend.

Since it was our first visit, I decided to go with the "uma-ritto," their namesake sushi burrito, which was $11. I figured that the chef-designed combination might taste better than throwing every possible item into the burrito. The uma-ritto had salmon, tuna, tobanjan mayo, cucumber, carrots, tempura crunch, and sesame seeds. I chose brown rice for the base, and since you could add in any of the free vegetables, I did choose to add in some seaweed salad, figuring that shouldn't detract from the original combo's flavors. While I appreciated that they made everything from scratch after you ordered, it did take over 10 minutes to get the burrito (which from all of our Chipotle experience would seem like a long time for a line assembly), so I'm not sure how that would go at a more peak time.

We liked the sushi burrito, but we don't know that it lived up to the insane amounts of hype that surrounded it when it first came out. It was a nice twist on temaki (hand rolls) and a bit more filling (although certainly not as huge as the person working there made it sound when someone said they wanted a light dinner), and the ingredients did taste good. Honestly though, it's really kind of just a reformatted hand roll, and a little expensive for the size, but tasty for what it is.