Tomodachi Marbella

Japanese robatayaki · Nueva Andalucía, Marbella

Charcoal, raw fish and a room that fills up on a Tuesday. Skewers off the robata, sushi cut at the counter, and a terrace under the trees for the six months a year Marbella allows it.

Tomodachi Marbella. Contemporary Japanese robatayaki

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A grill, a counter, and no ceremony

Tomodachi opened in Nueva Andalucía in 2021, off a side street rather than a boulevard. Japanese cooking with a South American accent, tiradito thinking applied to a robata grill, served in a room built for a second visit rather than a photograph.

  • Charcoal first

    The robata is the reason the kitchen is laid out the way it is. Chicken, beef, salmon, prawn, corn and avocado go over it two skewers at a time, and everything cold on the menu is built to sit next to something that came off it.

  • Cut where you can see it

    The counter is on the terrace, not hidden behind a pass. Toro, yellowtail, scallop and eel are cut in front of whoever booked the seat, which is the only real argument for a sushi bar existing at all.

  • Priced to come back

    Edamame is four fifty and the black cod is thirty-eight, and both are on the same page. The restaurant's stated aim when it opened was world-class food and service without breaking the bank, and the carte still reads like somebody meant it.

What the room orders

Eight dishes carry the kitchen. The rest of the carte, every skewer, roll and nigiri with prices, is on the menu page.

Cut at the counter
  • CRISPY RICEFried sushi rice squares, spicy mayonnaise, jalapeño€13
  • TORO TARTAREWasabi soy€24
  • POPCORN SHRIMPCreamy spicy sauce€21
  • BLACK COD MISOMarinated in sweet miso, then grilled€38
  • SOFTSHELL CRAB SLIDERCreamy spicy kimchi€21
  • BEEF TATAKIOrange ponzu€21
  • TOMODACHI ROLLThe one the house signs its name to€21
  • MATCHA TIRAMISUMatcha where the coffee usually goes€10
Eight pieces, off the deluxe list
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Tomodachi. Japanese for friend.

友 is the character the word starts with, and the name was not chosen to sound Japanese; it was chosen because it describes who the room is meant to fill up with. It is on the chopsticks, on the door, and on the cube in the logo.

The Robata

Two skewers at a time

A robata is a charcoal hearth with a grate over it and somebody standing at it all night. Nothing on this list is cooked any other way, nothing arrives in a sauce that hides it, and every one of them comes as a pair, because a skewer is something you order three of, not one.

Skewers from
€10
Every one
2 pcs

  • CHICKEN

    €14

  • BEEF

    €16

  • SALMON

    €14

  • SHRIMP

    €18

  • VEGETABLE

    €12

  • CORN

    €10

  • AVOCADOSesame dressing

    €12
The full menu
Book a table

Inside, and under the trees

Two rooms and they are not versions of each other. Inside is the quiet one: a low ceiling of paper lanterns, a run of tan banquettes, a koi mural along one wall. Outside is the loud one: sail canopies strung between old trees, the sushi counter and the bar, and most of Nueva Andalucía walking past.

Book a tableThe full menu

Book a table

Tables are held for fifteen minutes. For a party of more than sixteen, or to ask for the sushi counter on a Saturday, call the restaurant directly.

Book a table

Send the request and we confirm it by email.

Choose a time and a room

18:00–00:00

Dinner only, Tuesday to Sunday, from 18:00. The last table is 22:30; every time below can be requested and we confirm it by email.

Call the restaurant
+34 671 79 65 34
Hours
Tuesday to Sunday 18:00–00:00Closed Mondays
Calle Rosalía de Castro 3Nueva Andalucía · 29660 MarbellaOpen in Google Maps

The house

Sixteen years, then a room of his own

World class food and service, but not breaking the bank.
Tomodachi, 2021

Banti Gurung spent sixteen years in the kitchen of a world-renowned Japanese restaurant before opening this one in 2021. Tomodachi is what he took away from it: the same discipline over the fish and the grill, in a room small enough to walk out of and be recognised in the following week.

The short version

  • Opened2021
  • KitchenJapanese, South American accent
  • The grillCharcoal robata
  • RoomsInside and terrace
  • WhereNueva Andalucía
Read the menu

Everything above is from the restaurant's own account of itself.