Memorable Meals: Shiro's Sushi

Upon deciding to go to Seattle, we immediately made dinner reservations for Shiro's Sushi Restaurant in Bell Town.We may not have known where we were staying or how we were getting there, but we knew what we would be eating once we arrived. 

Shiro opened the first sushi bar in Seattle in 1970, and although Shiro is no longer there, his appreciation for the freshest ingredients and the abundance of the Pacific Northwest makes this restaurant a must for any sushi lover any where in the US. We've had our fair share of sushi all over the world, and we can say without reservation that this meal, at Shiro's, was the best sushi we've had stateside.

The doors open at 5pm and the line for the sushi bar starts around 4:30pm. Shiro's does not take reservations for the sushi bar, so we made regular reservations for when the doors open at 5pm and scored the last two seats at the bar. We selected the Chef's choice Omakase tasting menu and ate and ate until we were satisfied.

We requested no blue fin tuna or endangered tuna be served, but we were ok with local albacore tuna. Pictured is the belly and loin.

Flounder, Japanese Snapper and Seared Flounder Fin.

Local Baby Squid legs and tube.

Smoked Herring Roe - tasted like smoked jellied tobiko.

Live Sweet Shrimp.

Fried Shrimp Heads.

Santa Barbara Uni, elevated with the addition of truffle salt.

It seems everyone at the sushi bar was having omakase, so it was interesting to see what the other two sushi chefs were preparing for their diners. When we saw our neighbors receive a piece of king crab, we had to request a piece. Still warm from the steamer, it was sweet, succulent and a total homerun.

We have been waiting years to try Shiro's and it was completely worth the wait. Chef Shiro came to the Seattle looking for its unique availability of geoduck and seaweed, and brought with him his high standards of providing only the freshest ingredients he could find to his customers.That tradition and passion can definitely be seen today.

Shiro's Restaurant
2401 Second Avenue
Seattle, Washington
206.443.9844

I-5 High-5: Sly & Robbie's Seattle Show

Last weekend we hopped on the Portland to Seattle Bolt Bus and bolted on up to Seattle to see Jamaican music legends Sly & Robbie.  Even with the limited amount of time we had, we made the most of it by catching the first bus of the day and arriving in Seattle just in time to get in line for famous Salumi's, a specialty salami shop started by famous NYC chef Mario Batali's father Armandino Batali. Open only Tuesdays-Fridays 11am to 3pm, we were finally able to try Salumi's famous artisan salamis. We decided to start our day by splitting the meat and cheese platter ($18), a hunk of their shelf stable pancetta and a Salumi Muffo (their take on a muffaletta). It was truly worth the wait.

After a terrific breakfast/lunch we walked up a few blocks to the ID (International District) and did our usual Seattle to-dos with visits to Japanese $1.50 store Daiso, and had some yummy treats and a nice bowl of beef soba noodles at Uwajimaya's food court. After a few hours we were ready to drop off our bags at the terrific Hotel Max and head to Bell Town for a dinner reservation at a much anticipated sushi restaurant. The rest of the evening was a blurr of lots of walking, more eating and drinking, Pride weekend on Capital Hill, an amazing show at Neumos and a final 2am meal of Hot Mama's Pizza. Pretty good for the first 18 hours!

With Hotel Max's proximity to Pike Place Market, we made an obligatory visit. We had very particular items we needed to purchase. Going to Pike Place Market on a Saturday during any summer month is complete madness, so we bee-lined to Pike Place Chowder, grabbed a quick chowder and got out as fast as we could.



We ate a few more meals and headed back to Portland full, happy and still dancing.



Thank you Seattle - you were fun as ever and delicious as usual!

Kisaku Omakase - Seattle

We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary early with a omakase (chef's choice) dinner at Kisaku Japanese Restaurant in Seattle. It was delicious.

First Course: Local Oysters - there really isn't anything better than fresh local Pacific NW Oysters!

Second Course: Tuna Salad - unlike any tuna salad we've ever had; the slices of tuna was draped over a combination of avocado, crab and seaweed salad dressed in a citrus dressing. Insanely good.


Third Course: Kisaku Salad of micro greens, bonito and garnished with daikon & green onions.


Fourth Course: Trio of Whitefish - we requested nigiri (fish over rice) only and no salmon or tuna. What a great decision that was! We were rewarded with these delicate white fishes. From left to right: Flounder, Halibut and Striped Bass.


Fifth Course: Aji (Mackerel) and Kohada (Japanese Gizzard Shad). More pungent than the delicate white fish and completely delicious!


Sixth Course: Alaskan Uni (Sea Urchin) and Toro. The cold uni was creamy and not as sweet as Santa Barbara uni, and in our opinion much better.

Seventh Course: Getting full now, we told the chef we were winding down and of course ended on a sweet note of house made tamago. Mike wasn't quite ready to end his dinner so he added sardine and sweet shrimp (AmaEbi).

Kisaku's desserts were all house made and insanely inexpensive! So we had to try the Black Sesame Cream Cake. It tasted even better than the beautiful presentation. A black sesame panna cotta encased a light sponge cake. A wonderful end to our amazing dinner.

Kisaku is Japanese for easy going and the restaurant certainly lived up to its casual atmosphere. We sat at the sushi bar and listened to regular after regular chat with the head chef, asking him about his vacation (which we spent on the Oregon Coast) and why one regular wasn't finishing her usual meal with a piece of salmon - "next time". We certainly wished we had a Kisaku in our neighborhood, we'd definitely become regulars.

Kisaku
2101 N. 55th Street, #100
Seattle, Washington 98103
206.545.9050
www.kisaku.com

Seattle Eats

Much of our time in Seattle over the 4th of July weekend was spent eating. Here are some of our highlights. We didn't include a picture of the 4 different Caribbean sandwiches we got from Paseo or our amazing omakase dinner at Kisaku (separate post to follow), but we did document our adventures on our instagram.

We didn't eat out every meal, in fact one of our favorite meals was an impromptu charcuterie feast we picked up at the terrific Metropolitan Market.

One day we strategically snacked our way through the day on curry croquettes and cream puffs before hitting lunch at our favorite Thai Restaurant. We wanted some greens and ordered the Thai Salad and laughed so hard when the plate arrived. The peanut sauce was off the hook, so we didn't mind so much. Seriously the best pad thai noodles and larb ever!

We spent a glorious day at the beach and stuck around the west side of town for what was said to be the best fried chicken in the city at Ma'Ono.

Before heading home we decided to try a terrific Filipino Dim Sum (Flip Sum) at Isla Manila, plus it was all you can eat!

Seattle you were tasty as ever!

Seattle 4th of July Weekend

With the 4th of July being on a Thursday this year we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and headed up to Seattle to celebrate. We've spent lots of time in Seattle over the years, but wanted to still feel like we were on a mini-vacation, so we hit up all the best the city had to offer under the sun. I think we succeeded. Here is a short snap shot of our trip.

Golden Gardens Park for some sun, sand and cool ocean breezes. There were even some ducks thrown in.

We enjoyed the fireworks along a trail leading to Gas Works Park where we witnessed a terrible fire at the marina's dry docks. We later learned the fire destroyed 20 boats.

After an amazing Japanese dinner at Kisaku we walked down to Green Lake to enjoy the sunset.

The weather was absolutely amazing that weekend, so we headed out to Alki Beach for some more sun, sand, and beach time.

Of course we also ate, ate, ate, did a little bit of shopping at our favorite shops and spent lots of time with family.

All in all it was a great weekend, exactly the summer get away we were hoping for!