Shira Nui

I went to Shira Nui sometime in February, using my birthday as an excuse to spend some money on omakase, which I have had been waiting to try for a long long time. We had to take a 40 minute train ride to Glen Waverly to get to the restaurant. Basically, omakase means that you let the chef decide what to serve you. It also means that you have to be prepared to pay a lot. You get 2 pieces of sushi each serve, and each sushi is about $4.50. Up to about 9 courses in total, depending on the time.

There are 2 options for dining in Shira Nui. You either choose to sit at the counter, which means you’ll be having omakase, or you sit in the dining tables, where you can order a la carte.

Unfortunately, because this was a while ago, I have forgotten the names of all the sushi that I was served. I did keep a record of the names, but then lost the record when my phone had to be reformatted. Thus, all I have are pictures and some vague impressions of how the meal was like.

So the first course was this. Some form of white fish on sushi rice, with a sprinkle of sea salt and a dash of lemon juice. You will notice that I put there ‘no soy’. What this means is that the chef will decide whether we are supposed to add soy to the sushi or not. This course, being the starter, does not require soy.  To be honest, I think this sushi tasted rather bland to me, and would like to have put some soy onto it.

This is the seared salmon, which was totally awesome. I think it was a ‘no soy’ sushi, but I cannot be certain. Seared on the outside, rare in the middle. Really really good.

This might have been a ‘soy’ sushi. I loved the taste of mackerel, and it went very well with the sushi rice.

Seared wagyu beef. I did not think that this was very spectacular. The seared beef tasted like good seared beef, but it didn’t work for me on the sushi rice. No soy.

Soy. One of the more interesting selections of the night. Not sure what ark shell is, but this was quite good as well.

The star of the show. Seared maguro steak. As you can see, just like the salmon, seared on the outside, perfectly pink in on the inside. Delectable.

I liked this one as well, but can’t really remember much about it.

Oyster with mayonnaise. I loved the oyster, but remembered that the mayonnaise had a funny texture to it that I did not quite like.

The last course, and my absolute favourite. Also the most expensive as well I think ($9 per piece).

And a complimentary dessert. Fruit with fruit sorbet. A nice way to round off the meal.

Final thoughts: The food wasn’t the most spectacular I have had before (I think more than half of the sushi were excellent, however, I’d have hoped that everything was excellent), however, the experience was certainly worth it (especially having watched episodes of Anthony Bourdain having omakase in Japan and New York). Sitting at the bar and watching the chefs make sushi from scratch (not only ours, but for the a la carte tables as well) was an experience to savour. I would like to say that I’d love to go back again, but I don’t think I’m willing to pay that much for this meal again. I’d return for the a la carte, however.