Sushi Sho - If I could only eat at one restaurant for the rest of my life
Salmon (sāmon) nigiri
To normal people, Sushi Sho is an Edomae Sushi Bar in Stockholm. To me it would be the restaurant I would choose if I could only eat in one restaurant for the rest of my life!
Edomae is a way of preparing sushi, where the fish is first marinated in vinegar, salt or soy sauce, or quickly blanching it, historically this was to increase it’s shelf-life. But at Sushi Sho, the method has nothing to do with increasing shelf-life, it’s purely about increasing the flavour of the product.
This is my 2nd time here, the first one was pretty much exactly one year ago. I got a reservation for the late seating, 21:00, and arrived with my wife a couple of minutes early to be treated outside by a friendly staff member who offered us a drink. We kindly declined since we just came from some delicious Amaretto Sours. At 21:00 on the dot we where show inside to our places at the bar. Almost all (except four) seat are at the bar and you have a great view of the chef preparing the various dishes. Part of what makes Sushi Sho so great in my opinion is the atmosphere, the staff are all extremely nice and knowledgable about booth food and drinks and their Spotify playlist is otherworldly, at least if you like me grew up with 80’s music 😉 By the way, you can listen to Carl Ishizaki (the chef and owner) playlists here: https://open.spotify.com/user/itamae?si=N0vDMM3FToK69-aK3E53Ug
You don’t have to make any difficult decision concerning what to eat, there is only one option, and that is the Omakase + Otsumami menu. Omakase pretty much means; I'll leave it up to you, and Otsumami can be translated as “snacks and simple dishes eaten alongside alcohol”. Although you don’t have to make any decisions concerning your food, you do however have to choose what you want to drink, they do offer a sake pairing (which we had last year) but we went for a specific sake and some beer this time around.
Sushi Sho is a cozy place
Sake served and off we went on the culinary ride, first stop was a wonderful kingfish sashimi served with grate spring onions 💥 The fish was succulent and wonderfully fresh, it had been dipped briefly in soy sauce.
The first stop of the culinary journey 💥
Next up was a small daikon that had been cooked in dashi, topped with a nice Japanese mustard mayo and some chopped spring onions, an easy bite and full of umami flavour.
The tempo is fast, but not stressful, you have plenty of time between the dishes to catch your breath and talk to your companion(s) as well as enjoy the great sake selection they have on offer. The next dish is the only dish that you will always find on the menu, it’s a soy cured egg yolk, served with sashimi cubes (the fish varies, we had tuna this time and ocean trout last year) and puffed rice, ocra and spring onions. Mix these together, take a bite and the creamy umami taste will make your tastebuds jump with joy!
Now you will have to excuse my unprofessionalism (due to sake consumption and that fact that there is no menu) for not writing the dishes down and forgetting the exact ingredients for the next dishes, but all I can say is that they tasted amazing. The white fish had been dipped swiftly in dashi before being served on a bed of spring onions. We also got served a wonderful tuna tartare in a nori leaf, the nori leaf crisp and full of ocean flavour and the tuna so fresh and tasty, the perfect companions for each other.
Next we where on to the nigiri sushi. First of all the rice, THE RICE, this is for me one of the main reasons that sets Sushi Sho apart from many others. I don’t know how they make it exactly and what rice they use, but if I would take a wild guess I would say that they use more vinegar than what you normally get, this together with the fact that the rice is cooked to perfection with a little bit of a bite, really lifts it to another level in my mind.
In order of appearance below; Hamachi, Arctic Char, Salmon, Turbot and Tuna
In between these lovely nigiri we were served two small dishes, one was Salmon caviar and the other pickled cucumber. The menu was finished with a umami packed miso soup, or so you would think if you have never been to Sushi Sho before, but we knew better! And out comes the Otoro, sourced from sustainable tuna fishing in Spain.
At the end of the menu you can add-on some Otoro
You are shown a beautiful cut of tuna belly and asked if you would like to add-on to your menu, you can choose from having it served as sashimi, nigiri or tartare. Or you can do like us (pigs) and ask for all three versions. Trust me you will not regret the extra cost, it is spectacular; tastes amazing and just melts in your mouth 😍. As an added bonus, the tartare is served with a spoon of caviar on top.
After the amazing bonus round it was time to settle the bill, stand up and trying to exit with out taking to many side steps. Always a night to remember and always worth a visit. My wife asked me during dinner; “If you could only eat at one restaurant for the rest of your life, which one would it be?”. After giving it some thought I said; “Sushi Sho”. I’m not a bad cook but I could never make sushi like this!
Sushi Sho
https://www.sushisho.se/sushisho-english
Upplandsgatan 45
11328 Stockholm