My plan to get ourselves some fancy food on New Year's Eve in Tokyo is giving me big-time headaches. Restaurants are either closed or not entertaining kids under a certain age leaving me with very few options. Since we have yet to have sushi on this trip, I thought it's not a bad idea that I take the gang to the only sushi place on my short list - Nishiazabu Sushi Shin (西麻布 鮨真) for our New Year Eve celebration.
Hidden on the residential side of Nishiazabu (西麻布) next to Minami Aoyama, Sushi Shin has been on the Michelin radar for a while before capturing its first star in 2017. Since then, they have never looked back.
It's little nugget's second omakase experience and he's seriously looking forward to it. To add to the extraordinary experience was the fact that we were offered a small private dining room. I always enjoy some privacy once in a while.
[I must admit, I am not a Japanese food expert and unfortunately, Sushi Shin didn't have anybody who speaks good English so the following was a re-collection of what I thought we had. I hope I got most things right!!!]
We were started off with the catch of the day, which were flounder sashimi (right) and chu-toro (left).
As instructed, we had the flounder sashimi with the salt water but I didn't get much fun out of the slippery and chewy texture. The chu-toro was much much better.
The sashimi was followed by miso glazed sword fish which was very delicate and fatty.
Miso marinated squid legs were next. These were lightly torched to give us a bit of smoky flavors.
At this point, little one got into the act as well.
He got his favorite Japanese tiger prawns (車海老) and octopus sushi.
And before he finished off his sushi, a couple more arrived for him - smoked eel and the house special Egg (玉子焼き).
Fish Platter – Again we got some instructions from our server to go from left to right, starting off with the lightly torched flounder, followed by the red snapper with radish, yuzu and kombu. The tangy sauce was really rich in flavor working well with the super tender red snapper.
The third was Spanish mackerel glazed with soy and served with a touch of plum; and last but not least, a skewer of clams featuring different parts of a clam which was very fresh and sweet. Not a bad start!
Scallop roll – Very "ordinary" looking hand roll.
But there was no rice in there! Just fresh scallops marinated with sweet soy and rolled up with shiso leaf and seaweed.
Squid – Not bad but the vinegared rice a bit over the top.
Yellowtail – This was marinated with soy. Quite decent.
Razor clam – Very sweet taste with some lovely crunchy texture. But again, a little too much vinegar in the rice overpowering the sweetness of the razor clam a bit.
Mackerel – My least favorite sushi of this lunch. Wait, perhaps second least favorite.
Egg (玉子焼き) – The house specialty. Quite honestly, it felt like having a sponge cake. For a signature dish, I certainly expected more.
Amberjack – Marinated heavily in soy. I thought the texture was a bit thick and slippery. The strong mix of flavors from the soy and vinegar absolutely killing the mildly flavored amberjack.
Toro – Very nice melt-in-the-mouth texture though not the best toro we ever had.
Kohada / Gizzard Shad – The small sardine-sized fish was never my favorite fish to begin with.
Never really liked the texture of a sardine.
Japanese tiger prawn (車海老) and Botan shrimp – Yeah, I have been waiting for these for quite some time and wondering if we would get them this afternoon.
The Japanese tiger prawns were oh so good! Lovely bouncy texture (though the vinegared rice again having a negative effect on it) and fresh Botan shrimps perfectly matched with a small dab of shrimp paste; without a question, the best dish of the afternoon by a country mile.
Bafun sea urchin – Our last sushi was creamy Bafun sea urchin.
It was a long long lunch and a very expensive one too. For the hefty price tag I was paying, I would imagine that we would get a dessert but obviously, no freebie.
It's always nice to spend Christmas (and New Year) in Tokyo cuz of our familiarity with what the city has to offer. There are so much good food, shopping and attractions around for different age groups. Obviously, everyone was a little down about heading home tomorrow but it's going to be a short stay home cuz we already have our tickets to London punched in two weeks time.
Food Rating: 6/10
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: 4-18-20 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031, Japan
Closest Metro Station: N/A
Tel: +81 3-5485-0031
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:00pm (Wed - Sun), 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Tue - Sun)
