Shiro

Shiro is one of my favourite places in town to get quality, fresh sushi. It’s one of the few restaurants that I’ve been to multiple times. You’ll find them in a small plaza with Passion 8 and Vij’s closeby.

Sign outside promoting a few specials.

Hours.

Service is excellent; staff are super friendly, attentive and constantly refilling water and/or tea.

Menu is split into appetizers, BBQ, deep fried, sashimi, nigiri, sushi, rolls, tempura, noodles and donburi.

Click here to see the full menu (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). They also had a few drink and dessert options.

This is the latest menu (takeout only for the past several months).

The today’s special board (up on the wall) always has interesting items.

Trip #1
First visit we came on a Sunday evening and the place was packed. Luckily, we only had to wait a few minutes for a table.

Hiyashi waianae ($4.25)
Crunchy, delightful seaweed salad starter.

Butterfish sashimi ($13.95 for 5 pieces)
Buttery, silky, smooth. First time trying it.

Special scallop roll ($5.95)
Another staple we always get. Fresh and good quality.

Toro sashimi ($13.95 for 5 pieces)
Fresh and delicious.

Crunchy yuba & eggplant nibitashi ($4.95)
Interesting texture of soy bean curd. Lightly deep fried which balanced nicely with the marinated eggplant.

Assorted sushi ($14.75)
Tuna, salmon, ika, tako, saba, hokki clam, ebi and tuna rolls. Nice that they gave us two types. Everything was fresh. Seriously a good deal.

Trip #2
Second time, we dropped in on an early Wednesday evening (around 6:00pm).

Aburi battera ($9.95 for 6)
BBQ mackerel pressed sushi. Tightly packed rice. Good first bite to start our meal off.

2x Edamame ($3.95)
Slightly warmed up and seasoned.

Chef’s special sashimi ($19.95 for 10 pieces)
Two pieces each of blue-fin tuna, salmon, striped jack, butterfish and Spanish mackerel.

It’s a bit on the small side but beautifully presented and their sashimi is consistently good quality.

Blue-fin negitoro roll ($5.50), chopped scallop roll ($5.95), Philadelphia roll ($6.00)
The blue-fin negitoro roll was out of this world. So much flavour and the tuna just melted in my mouth. I ate three myself! The Philly roll was my least favourite but that’s because I don’t enjoy cream cheese in my sushi.

Chicken karaage ($7.20)
These come out piping hot but perfectly deep fried, crunchy and tender. Make sure you dip it in the sauce too.

Tuna sashimi ($17.00 for 9 pieces)
Fresh, great quality tuna.

This is P’s favourite thing to order so I was lucky to even snag a piece to try.

BC roll ($4.95) and yam tempura roll ($5.95)
BC roll was pretty standard.

Yam tempura was better.

Spicy tuna roll ($5.50) and crunch roll ($6.00)
The tuna is incredibly smooth, almost melt in your mouth.

Crunch roll was just as good but with an extra bit of texture.

Soft shell crab tempura ($9.95 for 6 pieces)
Again, perfectly deep fried and not greasy. Sauce was also sweet and tangy.

Trip #3
Third trip was on a Monday evening (around 7:30pm) and the place was packed. We wrote our names down and waited about 20 minutes for a table.

Salmon sashimi ($11.75 for 5)
Pieces are small and delicate but quality is good.

They use wild sockeye salmon.

Omakase 3 piece nigiri ($7.50)
This was one of their specials. They brought us a hotate, shima-aji and akima.

Each piece was excellent.

Salmon and avocado roll ($6.25), tempura roll ($6.75) and crunch roll ($6.25)
Salmon, avocado, mayo and sesame seeds. Avocado was fresh and creamy.

Prawn tempura, lettuce, avocado, radish sprouts, mayo and tobiko.

Tuna, tenkasu, tobiko, masago, mayo and cucumber. Again, that extra texture really makes this roll.

Ume shiso roll ($3.45) and negitoro roll ($5.25)
Japanese pickled plum paste, green perilla leaves and cucumber. One of my favourite go to vegetable rolls. This was perfectly balanced.

Chopped tuna belly and green onions. Quality.

Trip #4
They have a 20% happy hour deal (4:00pm to 5:00pm daily) so we took advantage for Friday date night.

Aburi battera ($9.95 for 6)
We wanted to try their aburi butterfish ($12.95) but they were out for the day.

Still solid.

Nigiri
We went with two saba ($2.85), hamachi ($3.25), amaebi ($4.25) and tamago ($2.50).

The tamago was fantastic; eggy, sweet and almost cream like.

Amaebi comes with a deep fried head.

Saba had green onion and ginger added on top.

Chef’s special sashimi ($19.95 for 10)
We were given wild sockeye salmon, tuna, saba, butterfish and hamachi.

Butterfish is still the best, most unique thing you can get from Shiro.

The saba was surprisingly delightful.

We don’t order too much saba sashimi but might have to.

Toro sashimi ($13.95 for 5)
Creamy, buttery, melt in your mouth goodness.

We savoured these slices.

Negitoro roll ($5.25), ume shiso roll ($3.45) and special scallop roll ($5.95)
Our usual makis that we order. Negitoro is consistently good.

Ume shisho roll is tart and tangy.

Scallop roll is always fresh. One of B’s favourites.

Trip #5
Can’t beat their 20% off happy hour deal. We grabbed takeout for early Saturday date night.

Nigiri
We ordered two akami ($3.50), two chu-toro ($3.85), two spot prawn ($3.95), toro ($3.65) and a tamago nigiri ($2.50).

The akami and chu toro were both fresh and

Chef’s special sashimi ($19.95 for 10)
We were given wild sockeye salmon, tuna, saba, butterfish and ika.

The ika had a strange, gummy aftertaste. The saba was fantastic as always; fatty, oily and with a great bite. The butterfish is always a winner.

Aburi butterfish box ($12.00 for 6)
This was soooo good. Melt in your mouth goodness. A must get!

Trip #6
Our last trip we grabbed takeout and brought it to the beach. Tried a few new items along with our usual staples.

Chicken with salty sauce
This was one of their dinner specials. Very tender and savoury.

Aburi saba sashimi ($7.80)
Another of their dinner specials; order it! Fantastic bite with an addictive, tasty sauce.

BBQ salmon belly ($5.50)
Salmon belly was a touch dry.

Roll combination ($15.75)
Negitoro roll, tempura roll and California roll. Negitoro is always a winner. The others were typical rolls.

Futomaki ($7.45) and 2x chopped scallop roll ($5.95)
First time trying one of their “bigger” rolls. Futomaki had egg, shitake, spinach, pink denbu and kampyo (aka. gourd). Chopped scallop fresh as always.

Ume shiso roll ($3.45) and negitoro roll ($5.25)
More of our usual. Love the tartness from the shiso.

Aburi butterfish box ($12.00 for 6)

Aburi battera ($9.95 for 6)

Chef’s special sashimi ($19.95 for 10)

Nigiri
We decided to be fancy and ordered two blue fin chu-toro ($3.85), two king salmon ($3.85), tamago ($2.50) and toro ($3.65). Delicious.

Great meals every time we come to Shiro! Order anything off their today’s special board. One of my top sushi spots in the city.

Shiro
https://www.shiro-japanese-sushi.com/
3096 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 874-0027