Scrumptious sushi at Obi, where ‘Papa San’ makes authentic food
Obi specialises in great-tasting, clean and superfresh sushi, ramen and tempura. By
Cape Town’s party central, Long Street, has certainly had its ups and downs. Once the most fashionable part of town, it has seen its fair share of quirky eateries, bookshops, vinyl stores, clubs, pubs and boutiques.
It also has backpackers’ accommodation, a mosque, a church and the Long Street Baths, which were supposed to have reopened in March after maintenance work but are still not there yet.
Some of these attractions have endured, some simply faded, whereas others have long since moved on, for better or worse.
Parts of the Long Street strip have seen better days. Certainly, the top end is probably safest (and more fun) during the daytime, before the party crowd hits the clubs. Closer to the V&A Waterfront, Long Street seems to attract a more “sober” and diverse mix of both businesses and clientele, and great security for extra peace of mind.
The last time I hit Long Street, it was at the “wrong” end and date night turned into an irritation of heavy traffic and being hassled. When we finally found parking and set off on foot, we were swatting away drug dealers every few metres. After that, we simply ignored the street, which is a pity because there are some gems in the City Bowl and they’re not all on Bree Street.
It’s at the business end where you’ll find Obi, a Japanese restaurant set up in 2016 at 14 Long Street. The name Obi refers to the decorative sash that binds a kimono or martial arts uniform.
Owned by Ben Bettendorf and sushi legend Hatsushiro Muraoka, or “Papa San”, Obi specialises in great-tasting, clean and superfresh sushi, ramen and tempura.
Muraoka is an “original” – he was one of the first chefs to open a Japanese restaurant in Cape Town and has owned three others: Tokyo, Minato and Takumi, where Bettendorf worked under him for two years.
Papa San and his protégé have certainly fashioned a destination restaurant in Obi: it’s intimate, airy and decorated with a mix of the quirky and traditional. There are cheeky “Where Douglas Green?” prints (from the successful advertising campaign for the winery) and kimono jackets on the walls, and a samurai figurine greets diners at the entrance. Large wall screens section off parts of the restaurant. It’s a fun yet intimate space that draws a devoted lunch and dinner crowd.
Heavenly food
For starters, the crispy prawn tempura is a hit (four large prawns coated in a perfectly crunchy tempura batter, served with a dipping sauce), but I’m a sucker for a simple miso soup (spring onions, tofu and green wakame seaweed).
One of the most popular starter options is the nasu miso – fried aubergine with toasted sesame seeds and sticky miso dressing – but be warned: it’s rich and you might want to share it with others at the table.
There’s a ramen of the day and a variety of other noodle dishes, although the biggest
focus is on sushi – nigiri, handrolls, maki, inside-out rolls, sashimi and specialities such as chirashizushi, a poke-style “scattered sushi”. The sushi is always prepared freshly and, even more important, served at the ideal temperature.
One of the biggest drawcards at lunchtime is the bento box. It’s good value, too – for R135 you get one salmon nigiri, one tuna nigiri, a salmon rose, a four-piece prawn California roll and four pieces of vegetable tempura, served with a tentsuyu dipping sauce and miso soup.
Dinnertime offers two specials: a kaiseki-style multicourse dinner for two (miso soup, salmon and tuna nigiri, salmon roses, prawn California roll and vegetable tempura, served with a tentsuyu dipping sauce), or the “Best 4×4 By Far”, which consists of a four-piece rainbow roll and a four-piece “sweet kiss” roll and a bottle of Franschhoek Cellars Sauvignon Blanc.
The portions are probably too generous, although the sushi fiend at my table simply couldn’t get enough.
Dessert isn’t a big focus – Obi only has two items on the menu: a daily selection of Mochi Mochi truffles (salted caramel, margarita and Turkish delight) and panna cotta, which is an odd inclusion since it’s a traditional Italian dessert.
Preventing no-shows
If you’re wondering where to find some of the city’s best sushi, look no further than Obi – but you can only book through the Dineplan reservation and payment system.
Apart from this strict booking policy, Obi also has a 10% service charge that is automatically charged to all tables (a practice that is becoming increasingly common in the industry). The restaurant had trialled a system that required a R100 deposit per diner to secure the reservation during season, but that’s now been scrapped.
You no longer have to pay a deposit or cancellation fee at Obi, unless you’re booking a large table, but deposits are becoming increasingly vital because you’ll sink if you don’t protect yourself as a restaurateur. When people with reservations don’t arrive as planned, the restaurant not only loses out on that booking, but also on seating another potential table. That’s a loss for the restaurant and the staff, who are heavily reliant on their tips.
Imagine if your 50-seat restaurant is dependent on foot traffic for half its business and on reservations for the other half. At an average spend of R400 (conservatively), if about 10% of reservations are no-shows, you could be down R2,000 daily. Taken over a five-day week, it adds up.
Cancellations and no-shows are damaging to a restaurant’s revenue, which has become even more critical in the post-covid years as the hospitality industry fights for survival. This is against a background of operating on thin margins, rolling blackouts, energy costs and inflation, which are all eating into the industry.
Bettendorf says implementing Dineplan, which has both an app and a website, has been a game-changer because the restaurant initially had problems with overbooking and lost sales. The new system is user-friendly and easy to use, giving restaurants complete control over table availability and time slots.
“At the beginning, no-shows were a big problem, especially with the bigger bookings, or if they showed up with far fewer people than expected. We’re a tiny restaurant and if we booked a table and it was a no-show, that meant it was unavailable for other guests for the whole evening, so we’d lose out on business.”
Dineplan works wonders for restaurants, Bettendorf says. “You’ve got complete control over how people can book and which time slots are available, and you can prevent overbooking. It’s quite limitless, actually.”