Food – Shiro Sushi

Having a nice dinner is nice on ocassion. Today I was lucky enough to go to Shiro Sushi Bar for some fantastic foods. For a high end sushi place it looks a little on the casual side but boy does the food speak for its self.

Pros

• Amazing cuts of fish
• Fast
• Great Tea

Cons

• Super Super expensive
• Questionable Creativity
• No Reservations

Shiro Sushi has elevated Sushi on a new level. The best sushi I ever had was several years ago in japan at a fish market where I lined up for 1 hour. Shiro Sushi has done so in a slightly more north american, a la carte way. The green tea is also excellent, especially with the fantastic meats. There are no reservations.

I started my cullinary adventure with the Otoro and Yellowtail sashimi. The Otoro sashimi was delicious ofcourse, as the cut is such high quality, however what really stood out was the knife work. It was cut slightly ribbed which caused the wonderful flavour come in waves. The yellowtail sashimi was also above average. I especially liked how they cut the hamachi slightly thicker then I am normally served. This allowed a different texture then I am used to that was fairly pleasant.

We also ordered a squid appetizer and it has now made a new standard for squid for me. Every bite was as if biting into a marshmellow with the slight homey flavour of garlic and soy that really brought out the umami of the dish. Fantastic and a must try if you are in the area. When i closed my eyes and chewed on this squid, it felt as if i was lying on a lazyboy with a 25 degree ocean breeze sweeping over the body. The one slight flaw was the lemon. The acidity was nice but if it was yuzu instead with slightly milder acidity it would have been perfect.

What I had next has changed my life forever. I had a Negi Toro Temaki (Cone roll). It has, as the name says, Tuna belly mixed with green onion. I had never tried a Negi Toro roll before but my eyes are now open as probably
my best sushi experience was here. The green onion perfectly cuts through the fat of the Tuna. A new era has begun for my taste buds and my life will be in shambles if I never taste this dish again.

Unfortunately Shiro Sushi can’t deliver 100% The ingredients were tuna, salmon, yellow tail, mackerel, squid, octopus, masago, lettuce, radish sprouts and mayo. The dish in total was a hodge podge of ingredients that ended in a great failure I can sum up in three different areas. The first area is too much rice. It was overly filling and was unweildly. I found my sushi falling out of its seaweed often. The second area it was wrong in was a false understanding that putting a bunch of wonderful cuts of fish do not give you a good roll. It was sad to see such ingredients wasted like this. Texturally this created  a terible combination and i found myself struggling on the octopus which lead to the sushi breaking up. The last mistake they made is lettuce. This is the second time I have seen Lettuce ruin my Vancouver experience and its sad. Very sad.

The nigiri was up next in great anticipation. Even before I started having my Nigiri I knew it was good for 2 reasons. The first reason is they asked if we want wasabit inside the sushi. Too many sushi restaurants make the mistake of not putting wasabi inside sushi. Traditionally it was done to kill the bacteria, and it feel much more authentic when wasabi is in the sushi. The second reason why I knew it was going to be go
od was because of the red tint on the salmon nigiri. You know the salmon is going to be delicious when you have the glorious red tint on the salmon. And of all the salmon nigiri I ate, boy was it great. It was thick so I could enjoy a mouthful of the fat in the salmon but not too thick to overpower the balance with the rice. I could even taste the fishes feelings in the salmon for sure. The otoro nigiri was good ofcourse. The uni was very fresh, it felt as I did when I first came to vancouver, fresh air and a slight ocean breeze. My one quarrel with the uni was how the nori (seaweed) was a little bit tough to bite through and did detract from my experience. The unagi nigri was also a step up from the norm. The texture of the unagi felt similar to meat and had a very earthy taste to it. What really made it come together was the special “japanese seaweed” as the sushi chef called it. It was easier to bite through and added a nice underwater feel to the dish.

The funniest thing i found about this place is with the bill came a packet of Pocky.

Overall Shiro Sushi is a must visit in Vancouver if you have a thick wallet. The wonderful cuts of fish and mastery of the grilled squid has cast a spell on me forever, and I really do wish I can have food this captivating again.

Recomendation Level – Must go

9.5/10 Gengduck Rating