There are an estimated 1.5 million people of Japanese descent in Sao Paulo and more than 380 Japanese restaurants. I provide you one restaurant to sample: Shintori.

Sao Paulo has the largest concentration of Japanese outside of Japan. Naturally, as I said in my previous article, that means a nice selection of restaurants to choose from.

I will admit right now that my recollection of my sushi meal in Sao Paulo is a little fuzzy. You see, I didn't bring my notepad and as I was on holiday, I decided just to enjoy the meal and not fuss about details. So, here goes.

Shintori was a sublime experience. While not located in the Japanese hub community of Liberdade, it more than makes up for ambience in décor and design. There is lots of Japanese food everywhere in the city.

Shintori is a massive square of a building, looking very much like a Shinto shrine on the outside. You enter and are greeted by polished staff. Most of the servers, who are not of Asian descent, are dressed in traditional female Japanese costume.

The middle of this shrine to sushi is an authentic Japanese garden. There is a lounge/dining area, then a bar/sushi/shabu shabu room, a teppanyaki dining room and several private traditional type eating rooms.

We chose the bar/sushi room as it had the most people and seemed less formal.

Much as I'd like to recall the menu for you, dear readers, I can't. I can only say, there is a wide variety of sushi available a la carte and in groupings.

MARVELOUS MISO SOUP

I selected the "Shintori Sushi" which has 15 pieces and a glass of Kir Royale. My partner was hankering for the Chef's Suggestion ($30): some sushi, chicken yakitori, gyoza, butter-fried enoki etc… He opted for some Kirin beer.

Looking at some notes I jotted down in my hotel room, post-dinner, there was also a selection of noodles (somen, yakisoba) for about $10 and giant sushi-for-two boats costing $70.

When we sipped our miso broth, we were immediately taken by the quality of the soup and knew Shintori would be worth it. You know, sometimes it is the simple stuff that matters – an indication of the attention paid to all aspects of a dining experience. This miso was divine. Just a great subtle inflection of flavours: fish meal, seaweed etc…

The Shintori wait staff were attentive but not hovering. Very professional. They laid out an appetizer selection for us: deep-fried tofu, crab pieces, mushrooms etc… Delish.

My sushi medley included several types of fish roe, some transparent crustacean, eel, tuna and the like. It was all superb.

I couldn't get enough of my partner's deep-fried calamari – again, a nice surprise in a sushi joint.

Quite sated, I still took a peek at the dessert menu: ginger brule, lichee jelly with tangerine and sake syrup and ginger flan with orange syrup as well as green tea and passion fruit ice cream.

I couldn't resist trying out the lichee jelly concoction. It came in a giant martini glass and though I winced at the sickly sweetness of the sake syrup, the combination of lichee jelly helped even out the tastes.

Everything came to about $100 (if memory serves me right).

Shintori, I salute you.

Shintori Restaurant, Alameda Campinas 600, Jardins district – Sao Paulo