I’ve passed by Shibuya Izakaya several times and heard good things from friends so we decided to check it out for a late Sunday lunch/early dinner before we headed back home. It’s located right beside Bubblemania Cafe.
Party tray platters advertised right outside their front door. Only available for take out and delivery orders.
The inside is pretty spacious with a couple TV’s streaming baseball. We were seated in the booth areas to the side. Service is friendly and they checked up on us several times during our meal.
This was their specials menu. Will have to try it out next time.
The regular menu is massive and is one of those menus with pictures of everything. Bento box lunch specials sound promising (only available 11:00am – 3:00pm).
Soba and udon noodles. We’ll try one of them.
Ramen noodles. Sure, we’ll try one and see where it fits with the rest of Calgary’s ramen scene.
This is what you should be focusing on. Nigiri here is fresh and done well.
Sushi rolls and maki.
Hand cones which I never seem to order.
Wasabi and ginger
Your standard wasabi and ginger but I liked the presentation of the wasabi.
Seaweed salad ($4.50)
Boiled seaweed, lightly seasoned and served in a homemade black sesame dressing, topped with sesame seeds. The seaweed salad was fresh and had a great chewy texture. Perfect to whet our appetites.
Agedashi tofu ($5.75)
Tofu lightly dusted with potato starch and deep fried. The agedashi tofu was silky smooth. Another excellent starter.
Salmon isobe age ($8.50)
Tempura style seaweed rolls stuffed with salmon and green onions. These are on the smaller side but pack a light, crunchy bite. Nicely battered and fried, the sauce was slightly spicy to give it some heat. Good but a little overpriced for the size.
Baby octopus ($8.75)
Breaded and marinated pieces of octopus. These were great! Perfectly deep fried baby octopus but came with a sweet chili dipping sauce (odd). Felt they could have thrown in a couple more pieces.
Tonkotsu ramen ($12.50)
The ramen comes topped with BBQ pork, boiled egg, green onion, wakame seaweed and sesame. The pork bone broth was pretty weak and I didn’t get any complexity that you see from the main ramen players in town. Passable but I doubt I would get it again.
Negi hamachi maki and unagi maki ($4.50 each)
The negi hamachi consists of yellowtail and green onion while unagi is BBQ eel and cucumber rolled in sushi rice. Negi anything is usually good and these were satisfactory. Think I liked the unagi maki a bit more.
Tonkatsu pork cutlet udon ($13.50)
The broth is made from dashi and soya sauce and topped with wakame seaweed and green onions. The pork cutlet was nicely breaded and the noodles had a nice bite to them. The broth was much better than the tonkatsu; light, sweet and satisfying. Everyone preferred the udon over the ramen.
Sake sockeye ($8.25), hotategai ($6.75) and toro ($9.75)
Three pieces of nigiri each. The sake sockeye ($2.75 each), scallop ($2.25 each) and raw tuna belly ($3.25 each) were excellent. My favourite out of everything we ordered.
Closeup of the sake sockeye. Nice dark red colour to it.
Scallops were huge and totally worth the $2.25 price tag.
Saved the best for last. Toro is always a must and favourite of mine. Buttery, melt in your mouth.
Overall, we were pretty satisfied with our meal. Expect to pay a little more than normal as it’s an izakaya but lots of variety to choose from. Stick with the nigiri and fried foods.
Shibuya Izakaya
http://www.shibuyaizakayacalgary.com/
449 – 16 Avenue NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 277-8823
CHERRY BOB-OMBS 