Shuko (from start to finish)

Last updated on August 28, 2015

Opened just two months ago, Shuko is one of the hottest place in town, especially after having named one of the “best new restaurants” by New York Magazine, and raved by all big name critics in the city. We have been to Chef Nik Kim and Jimmy Lau’s Neta when they first opened in 2012, so our expectations were high coming to Shuko.

Behind an unmarked, warm lighted door, is the 20-seat bar orchestrated by the Masa vets. On the night we were there, both renowned chefs were occupied by VIP guests, we were sat in front of the third chef. We decided to go for the more pricy Sushi Kaiseki ($175) upon the promise from our waiter that all sushi pieces would be the same. The non-sushi portion of the meal was 7 courses, follow by 13 pieces of sushi. Here it is from start to finish.

House made mochi with shiso, miso and toasted pistachio
Miso sauce was too salty; pistachio was a bit strong for this mini bite size snack, suggest to crush the pistachio and sprinkle it on top.

West coast dungeness crab cucumber salad with chrysanthemum in tosazu sauce
The tosazu sauce tasted like a soba sauce with yuzu. We felt that there were a bit too much sauce, which overpowered the sweetness of dungeness crab, we think if cucumber were marinated in the sauce then drained it out before mixing it, would compliment the crab better.

Toro and caviar with toast
Toro and caviar were almost like the one from Masa. Top grade fatty toro tartare with caviar, the whole thing was just lavish. While the toast was perfectly crunchy, it was unnecessary. Toro and caviar was good by itself, we ended up eating the toast separately.

Tasmania sea trout and trout roe with yam— again sauce was too salty

Bake lobster, cauliflower, smoke bacon, mushroom with shaved truffle
Lobster was perfectly cooked. Absolutely love the cauliflower. But truffle was a waste. Perhaps not in season, truffle only add sense of fragrance but no taste. It is not necessary here. Just adding $$$.

Union sq vegetables Karage
Vegetables were stacked together, but it’s too thick and a bit too oily.

Matsutake mushroom in dashi soup

Seared squab with sunchoke
Great! Squab was perfect. Star of the night!

Then the second part of dinner starts. SUSHI!!!
There were 13 pieces. While the rice was perfectly cooked, the sweet and sourness of vinegar were missed. We thought the wasabi was very unique. We also spotted a little stove hid behind the huge butcher block counter, Chef Kim & Chef Lau were using it for toasting the seaweed to archive the crispness, but it was not very successful.

Blue fun toro

Sea trout sea salt and yuzu pepper
Sea trout was velvety, and yuzu pepper added a very nice kick.

Shima aji

Kinmedai with Lemon juice and zest
This was interesting, since at most places, Kinmedai was usually torched. Kinmedai tasted as if it was marinated, nice!

Kama toro
Kama toro is neck of tuna, this was lightly torched. Absolutely melty

Sea beam with plum n shiso with sea salt
Plum and shiso creates a refreshing taste profile, but sea salt was a little on the heavy side

Hokkaido Uni

Toro with pepper and scallion
Thai chile pepper garnish was very clever. Toro was torched which added a nice smokey taste, but seaweed could be crispier.

Shitaka mushroom
Spicy again, not sure from what but it was good

Sirako
It’s actually cod sperm, but it was deep fried, so basically just tasted like a deep fried batter…

Matsutake mushroom with spice and scallion

Tuna roll
I have to say, although it was actually the same thing, the Neta roll was somehow better.

Shiso leaf roll in Lotus root with ume sauce
This is also very similar to the one Masa offers. It is eye pleasing, but I can only taste the shiso, and nothing else.

After the full Omakase, we were less than satisfy, plus we saw some other parties have pieces we didn’t have (we were told both menus have the same pieces?!), we asked the chef for more. We were definitely missing any kind of shell fish, so when we saw other people have scallop and clams, we have to have it.

Scallop with yuzu & sea salt
Maybe it’s not in season, we felt we could get better scallop at $3/p establishment,… and this was $10 a pop. Sea salt again was on the heavy side.

Mirgkai (giant clam)– very very thin… 🙁

Needle fish with ginger garnish

As dinner coming to the end, we saw Chef Kim gave some VIPs “VIP” treatments. He added decent amount of uni on top of the lobster truffle dish. Also there were a trout skin with roes on top of it, we couldn’t tell what it was, but it sure was something we didn’t have, of course, we asked for it. We were told there were limited amount of certain things, and was sold out. But when a celebrity VIP came in, it magically have two more portion. Well, we are no celebrities… …
Disappointed, we were approached by Chef Lau, whom offered each of us a piece of Giant clam with giant clam liver. It was very interesting and exotic. Soft & crunchy, sweet, refreshing yet rich. I’d have to say that was the best piece of the night.

Giant clam with giant clam liver

Before moving onto dessert, I have to mention, I had failed to take pictures of 3 pieces included in the Omakase, which were: Sawana with matsumaezuke ginger, Aji with ginger garnish, and a piece of pickle. The Sawana was nice, and ginger garnish on top was crunchy enough.

Concord grape granite
It did remind my of Wlech’s grape juice, then I remember Neta had a granite too. It was plum granite with crispy duck skin. On granite, Shuko vs Neta, Neta won.

Apple pie with vanilla ice cream
Granted this baked in-house apple pie was very good but really? Serving apple pie at a refined Japanese sushi bar? Very un-traditional, i felt a bit disconnected, but it sure filled my half empty stomach.

Having been to Neta, it is very difficult not to compare. The two sure have similarity, and shadows of Masa can be easily spotted. Overall, it was good, but lavish. Was it worth the splurge?! Adam Platt gave it a total 4 stars (2 stars for sushi, and 2 stars for non-sushi); in my opinion, 2 +2 doesn’t = 4. (Jan, 2015)