Shira Nui Omakase

So here's the pics of dinner at Shira Nui that I promised.

Starting with a nice tall glass of Kirin Beer. Smooth and sweet-ish.

First Course - Cod. Slightly salty and crunchy, great texture. 4/5

Might I mention that they are really generous with the condiments (pickled ginger and wasabi), and requests were always answered promptly and politely. Their wasabi has a real kick to it, unlike that weak crap that you get from cheapo sushi joints. I suspect their ginger is pickled in-house, a little more on that later, but it was real sweet and did a good job of cleansing the palate.

Second Course - Grilled Salmon. Wonderfully done, cooked but not all the way through, well seasoned. 4.5/5

Third Course - Mackerel, with some sort of seaweed veil. Fishy (as expected of Mackerel) but not too overpowering, in a taste-of-the-sea kind of good. Personally I liked it, but Zitai didn't take well to it as "fishy" wasn't his cup of tea. 3.5/5

Fourth Course - Yakiniku Beef. Oh so so so good. Well marinated beef slices were so darned tender I couldn't believe it was beef actually. Raving good. 4.5/5

Zitai and his parents didn't eat beef, so they had an alternate dish for them: Unagi flambé. Looks really good, but I think the yakiniku beef was still a better choice.

Fifth Course - Arc clam. Crunchy, slightly briny, definitely a shellfish when I ate one (forgot to take a photo before digging in). Didn't come across as great to me, probably due to the high from the last dish. 3/5

Sixth Course - Tuna Steak. Now we're talking. Another one that scored high in our books. Tuna seared on the outside and tender on the inside. Only slightly more tender than the beef, so you know how good it is. 4.5/5

Seventh Course - Japanese Pike. What can I say? They know what people like most: pyrotechnics. Another fishy one, but not as bad as the mackerel. 3.5/5

Eighth Course - Marinated King Fish. How quaint! A local fish in a sushi place! The chef mentioned that he particularly liked using king fish amongst the other local species (ie. barramundi, flake), but he mentioned that the texture of king fish has been lacklustre lately. Still, it was nicely executed. 4/5

Ninth Course - Grilled Oysters in Japanese Mayo. The supposed "highlight" of the meal, it kinda fell short despite the hype surrounding it. It was drowned in too much mayo, resulting in me tasting nothing more than just the mayo itself. I could pick out the oyster swimming amidst the mayo, but I couldn't taste it at all. Not much to say taste-wise, but texture wise it was good, soft slippery oyster that wasn't overdone. 3.5/5

Dessert: Black Sesame Crème Brûlée. By recommendation of Zitai, I got this dessert. The crème brûlée was great, burnt sugar on the top didn't taste, well, burnt. The crème within was creamy and rich with black sesame flavour. The fruit salad with ice cream that accompanied it was not too shabby either. The melon ice cream (I think) was not too sweet and the fruits were fresh. 4/5

So that concludes my dinner outing at Shira Nui. If anyone's interested in the address of this place, you can contact me, or you could just Google it like everyone else.

(P.S. I can't help but think of that old Oz bloke that was sitting beside me, having omakase too. Throughout the dinner service, he was constantly nicking small lumps of wasabi with a chopstick and eating it, as though he were taking wasabi "hits".)