Shiro's

I was looking through the pictures in my camera just now and boy, I'm so behind in blogging! No worries though! I shall knock those restaurants off my list one by one.

Last February was a dine out month. It was my turn to pick the restaurant and I decided that it was time for a break from Italian food. Japanese has always been one of my favorite cuisines and it wasn't very hard to know where to go if we were talking Japanese food in Seattle. Shiro's is a local restaurant that was voted one of the ten best restaurants in Seattle in 2009, according to the Seattle Magazine. It is also B's favorite Japanese restaurant as he keep going back there and has been telling me to try it since day one. It turns out that Master Chef Shiro has been nominated for a James Beard award twice and has been featured in several magazines and newspapers. He has been rated highly by Zagat and has apparently served famous figures such as Japanese prime ministers, artists and athletes.

Upon entering the restaurant, the first thing I heard was Chef Shiro yelling "Just eat, eat, eat!" to his customers. Right then, I knew that I was at the right place. Everyone should follow Shiro's motto and just eat because at Shiro's, there is a lot of good food to go around!

B and I already analyzed the menu beforehand so we were quick in ordering. We couldn't pass up the Black Cod Kasuzuke, which is supposedly Shiro's specialty and was featured in the New York Times. Though it was certainly delicious, I don't know whether I can say that it is a cut above the other black cods I've tasted. For half its price, I can get pretty good and definitely comparable cod at Maneki. I cannot say the same for the eggplant that came on the side though. I've never had eggplant so light and flavorful and not at all greasy before. Normally, eggplants absorb so much oil that they tend to make my throat feel scratchy after eating them.

I think one of B's favorites that night was the Dynamite. I find the name very fitting. After having a spoonful of the geoduck swimming in mayonnaise, onion sauce and masago, you can find yourself widening your eyes and breaking into a smile. The menu basically described it as baked geoduck, mayo, mushroom and onion sauce and the combination was delicious!!!

B wanted to try the Yellowtail Kama and since I really enjoyed the yellowtail sashimi I had in Nobu back in December, I agreed that we should get it. And it was a great addition to our meal. I would order it again. The fish came with a a lot of meat around its collar. It was very tasty and buttery. It was definitely a favorite!

Now, there is this one dish which I am not quite sure we ordered right. It is supposed to be the Smelt Umeshiso-Age which is described as lightly fried smelt, wrapped around salmon, shiso and plum sauce. The description seemed accurate except for the shiso and plum sauce part because I really did not taste the plum in there. It tasted like smelt wrapped around salmon. Don't get me wrong though. The dish was pretty original for a Japanese restaurant and incredibly delicious. It was deep fried, but again, not greasy. It was really easy to eat by just popping it into your mouth a piece at a time. Yum! The smelt was flaky but didn't crumble when I bit into it.

We also ordered everyone's traditional favorite - soft shell crab! The crab was definitely on the bigger side. I've had soft shell crab that hardly had any meat in it and tasted like deep fried shell. This was different. The meat to shell ratio was higher and to me, that was a huge bonus.

And finally, I can't ever go to a Japanese restaurant and not have raw fish. Sashimi is probably my favorite food in the world, but only if it were served fresh and not frozen, which is the case at Shiro's. B used to say that Shiro looks like a guy whom you would want to order sushi from and he was right. Shiro does indeed know how to handle his fish!

After all that, I think B was still hungry or at least not quite full. And he knew that I have a sweet tooth and dessert is my favorite part of a meal. So, we didn't leave without having dessert first. They didn't have a lot of options. Just ice cream - red bean, green tea and vanilla - and tempura ice cream. I was a bit hesitant to order tempura ice cream since I've had a lot of bad ones in the past. The batter would either be too thick, too bread-y or too thin that the ice cream inside melted quickly. I've also had a variation where the restaurant called ice cream with corn flakes on top tempura ice cream. Thankfully, Shiro's is as good with their desserts as they are with their seafood. The batter was just right and the ice cream remained perfectly frozen.

With that, I end this blog post with a note to myself to return to Shiro's and try eating at the sushi bar, get the Omakase option and have Shiro serve me whatever he wants. I trust his ability to make me deliriously happy with my food. :)

Shiro's
2401, 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA
206-443-9844