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Sushi Bistro Shun, a closer look
Aloha!
5/13/08 - We’ve always found a spot in the small parking lot, but it seems like our space is always the last one available! Destiny for the evening, I guess (think like that and it always makes the sushi taste better!). The spaces are all at a friendly angle when entering, making you think the lot will continue in the same direction, circuiting back on to S. King st. It doesn’t, however, necessitating an uncomfortable u-turn. When possible, I back into the space at the get-go so I don’t have to worry about turning around in the cramped lot after a couple of shots of sake.
It’s not all that bad, really. And it only gets better.
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Sushi Bistro Shun entrance. |
You see, Sushi Bistro Shun is one of those places that you just hope doesn’t get too popular – you don’t want the crowds to change the nature of the current experience there and all. Just leave us alone! The place has so many things going for it, however, that I don’t see how it can remain a secret for much longer. Chef Benkei-san is the Iron Chef behind the sushi counter who is quietly in control of his entire domain – from prompt wait help who jump at a single glance to a clean, bright atmosphere that strikes the perfect balance between comfortable and classy, and all the way down to the intricate, detail-oriented mindset necessary for the subtleties of sushi and Japanese dishes in general.
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Chef Benkei San's domain. Too bad he moves so fast. |
Wifey and I were sure ready for some subtleties and intricacies, let me tell you. After buttered popcorn, kakimochi, diet coke, and “Iron Man” at the Ward Theatres, something more “clean” was definitely in order.
Bistro Shun sported a boisterous crowd that night, with several large groups of Japanese nationals getting a bit animated, to say the least. It was all good, though – some people are get super-quiet drunks, some are “preachy drunks”, some are "Woe-is-me-and-wanna-cry drunks," and yet others, worst of all, are “Get-mad-and-wanna-fight drunks." Fortunately, the majority of young Japanese nationals are the best types of drunks – "Happy drunks.”
Meanwhile, with the attention shifting back to us, the evening specials were presented via note cards thumb-tacked onto a thick board. Waay cool. Without flinching, I ordered a large Kirin…
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Uummm... I'll take a Kirin! |
A few weeks ago, we were here with wifey’s dad who was in from Japan for just a few short days. He ordered something we would never have ordered on our own – a wafu (simply means Japanese-style) salad. It was so good, we ordered it again. The plate was very generously-sized, with a mix of various lettuces (no head lettuce!), cherry tomatoes, shredded daikon, grated daikon oroshi, minced garlic, nori, and a soy-based tangy vinaigrette – all of which made for an excellent salad!
Ya-hoo! Wa-fu salad was awesome!
Like tapas, izakaya houses feature dishes in small portions so you can experience more at one sitting. And that we did. After greens we ordered a diced steak, which our waitress explained was the rib cut, much to our glee. It was a perfectly-cooked rib steak, and the green onions, daikon oroshi, nori, and ponzu sauce all brought the whole dish to another level.
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Tender bites. |
Wifey often orders yama-imo, a kind of mountain yam, with its complement of raw quail egg, wasabi, nori, and shoyu. Not sure what her fascination is with all things slimy – yama-imo, natto, nameko, okra – they’re all supposed to be great for your stomach and digestion issues, but me, I find them barely tolerable, and in the case of natto – extremely hazardous!
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Wifey likes slimy. |
Next was the special tsukune, a kind of ground chicken meat mixed with a varying list of other ingredients. The raw egg it comes served with, when mixed with the green onion and ponzu sauce, combines for a fabulous dip that covers the tsukune pieces in a thick, luscious coating. Dare I say, slimy, even? Ok, wifey, I guess there are suuuum slimy things that I like, as well.
I guess I can go slimy once in a while, too!
After a few glasses of Kirin, we were ready to order something not-so-clean again, and opted for the cheese-potato. A very un-Japanese-ish choice, you may think, but you’d be surprised at how firmly this particular dish has taken hold in izakaya restaurants, both here and in Japan. Benkei-san’s version is julienned, mixed with bacon, and topped with cheddar cheese. Though a great-tasting dish, the potato was a little too crisp for me. I prefer thicker cuts or semi-mashed, where the potato is cooked thoroughly through and the natural “sweetness” is more apparent.
Shredded potato being shredded.
Actually, we didn’t eat much at all that night, probably because of the buttered popcorn. I never learn. We didn’t even have any sushi, which for us, I think would be a first! Benkei-san knows how to do sushi, so I’ll show you some pic’s we took when papa-in-law was over:
Ahi tataki, slightly torched to bring out some of the oils in the fish – dee-lish. By the way, you can go singles instead of doubles on the sushi, but prices are still around what you’d pay anywhere else.
Here is the very, very generous piece of unagi covering the sushi rice, glazed with unagi sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. At higher-end sushi restaurants, the rice is small in size so I often order a side of yaki-nigiri, a kind of musubi ball seasoned with shoyu and grilled. I took at least five or six pieces off this giant unagi and ate each one with a bite of the yaki-nigiri, and still had a big-enough serving of unagi to accompany the sushi rice underneath it!
“Wifey, where is the shrimp tail? What?!! I only went to the restroom!!!” Sorry, everyone, the sweet ebi sushi is unavailable at this moment for any kind of memorial. At least she left the head. All is not completely forgotten...
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Where's the tail? |
And here we go… Ta-daaaah!!! This moriawase sashimi platter was so beautiful I contemplated not eating it for about 0.01/tenths of a second. In all their raw glory was salmon, hamachi (yellow-tail), ahi, toro (especially fatty ahi), mirugai (geoduck clam), ika (squid) and some kind of white-fish, along with liberal doses of shiso leaf, radish sprouts, and grated daikon. Doesn’t get much better than this!
Splurging on sashimi.
Bistro Shun also has an all-you-can-eat rib-eye nabe that is a really great deal and priced so good you gotta go see for yourself. I'm sure he must lose out every time a guy like me puts in an order. I haven't been lucky enough to try it yet, but I hear it is the best!
This restaurant is simply a great place for dinner-and-drinks. As an izakaya place, it would be at or near the top of the list. As a sushi house, the same. But don’t go. You don’t want to go. No, no, no - and that’s not my car there in the parking lot….
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